Interviews
Rik - Mashonaland
Rik haha cool, people like me!
Slats4ever: This weeks interview will reveal his thoughts and hopes on how he
will make this team stronger and move his favourite team into WCC glory!
Welcome Rik I suppose a question many of us want to know is how hard is it to
manage a Zimbabwean side, they are the minnows in world cricket and with the
state of cricket development in the country it must be hard sometimes playing
against richer clubs?
Rik
I'm lucky in that I have some very talented youngsters, although I have
recruited quite heavily from England. When you don't have much money you can
only go with who you can get, and luckily I seem to be able to pick up not
only talented players, but also players who play for the team. Like the
Zimbabwe side of old, there arn't many stars but my team gets the runs on the
board and takes the wickets and are always up there.
Slats4ever: In saying that, is that attitude of mental team strenght
something you've tried to instill in your team, or is it someting that you
found they bought with them?
Rik Well certainly some of the English players have bonded well with
the Zimbabwean players, there is a
real kinship between them. I feel I've managed to build a team full of players
who cover different areas, but
also back up each other. There is a very good team spirit and all the players
get along, they all know
their places and their jobs and support each other through bad times. I'm
proud of my players, and what
I've put together, but you can't make players get on with each other, so I'm
grateful that they have made my job so much easier in that respect.
Slats4ever: Whilst team harmony might be at the highest level at the
moment, the teams performances, whilst gradually improving, are not quite
there yet. If you made it to division 4 in either form do you think you'd be
able to compete?
Rik I feel I will be able to compete, but some of the more experianced
players need to show they can still
do the buisness. Last year I was unlucky and my inexperianced team very nearly
got promoted in 4D, but I
invested heavily in experiance this season, and players with good records in
both forms. I feel vindicated for
this decision since we are now in position for promotion in both forms when we
were, to put it mildly, a dreadful OD side last year. Of course we are missing
Tim Petal this season but we have some quality players like Saqlain and Gus
Mackay who do the buisness day in day out. Barney Rogers isn't having a bad
season, but he's not doing as well as he did last year, and Dinesh Mongia
hasn't produced the number of runs we expected from him. But luckily we still
have team players like Ryan Cunningham who keep working hard and taking
wickets. My rookie, Hugh Bradley is an exciting player and we are looking for
more runs from Tim's brother Andy. Certainly if my team learn to value their
wickets more and they perform to their potential, we should be fine.
Slats4ever: Young Sami showed us in his one outing that he was a very
capable player yet you have only played him once.. How important are career
statistics compared to form when choosing a side
Rik Hugh Bradley needed a break and "Sammy" Sami was doing well in OD
so I gave him a run out. He's one for the future, like Hugh, but Hugh had not
done much wrong on previous outings so he got his place back. We have a pretty
settled team, with Hugh, Gus Mackay, Saqlain and Ryan Cunningham making up the
attack, but if "Sammy" keeps taking wickets in the OD game he'll get his
chance. The bowling has been the least of my worries this season mind, it's
the batting I'm more worried about.
Slats4ever: Looking at your teams performances in the batting dept it looks
like they are capable of getting starts but not going onto make big scores
with Mongia's 109 being the highest score. Is this lack of being able to go on
with it something you're looking at?
Rik Yeah, Dinesh's 109 being the only 100 this season if I remember
correctly? Certainly proven class players like Chris Adams, Jason Gallian, Ian
Ward and Andy Symonds can hang their heads in shame at this
statistic. Last season the batsmen went on and made big scores, this year
they've all had starts but not gone on. It's good to have a good team spirit
around the place but I'm going to be reminding certain players their main job
is to perform for the team. I certainly think if the batting had performed
more this year, added to the quality of the bowling, we would be well on our
way to promotion, but it doesn't look like it's going to be that easy...
Slats4ever: Looking around WCC, what is one thing you'd like to see taken
out've the game? Also one thing you'd like put in
Rik I'd like to see forfits back, since teams who have not submitted
have affected my season a lot more than most other teams. What would I want
in? Hmmmmm, a more consistant Sim?
Slats4ever Now onto Rik as a person... If There were three words that you
would describe yourself as being what would they be?
Rik Tall, Scruffy and I can't pronounce the 3rd, although it begins
with "G"
Slats4ever That's great... where can i usually find you on a Saturday
night?
Rik Saturday Night? Well I've usually just finished 2 days of band
practise so I'm home catching up on the CSI and XFiles episodes I missed. Wow
I must sound sad!
Slats4ever You sound really into your music? If you could listen to one
more song before you die what would it be?
Rik Can I have 2? I would listen to Take 5 by the David Brubeck Trio or
The Planets - Mars by Holst. It's amusing, I didn't really get into music till
I was 18, when I bought a bass guitar. Before then I listened to Green Day at
a Scout Camp when I was about 15-16 and started messing around with a guitar
until I was 18 and realised I was rubbish! So I bought a bass as it's easier
Slats4ever The Planets hey? I take it your a Jupiter man and when
Mashonaland finally get up on stage to take Division 5 out will it be Jupiter
playing or maybe another planet?
Rik Ahhhh Jupiter indeed, Da De Da De Da Deee Deeee Deee
Slats4ever ok unfortunately Rik's started singing so that's it as far as
this weeks interviews go... look forward to next week with Eyes_only (finally)