SA vs Zimbabwe

Good Day Team

Firstly well done to Smith & his team for a great come back and series win against England. This brings me on to the subject at hand. We the SA team has got alot of cricket still this year against the West Indies & Australia. Having said this why not give most of the current test & one day squad a break against Zimbabwe. As I am sure that you will all agree that they are not of the same quality as our boys. Playing such a weak team will only inflate the batting & bowling averages. Resting the players in a series like this in my opinion will bring them back rested and biting at the bit to play the better teams in world cricket. I have picked a team to play Zimbabwe which I feel meets everything required by the UCB.

The condition I used to pick this team was they had to be in their early 20's. Smith is still captain as he is still young enough and will gain experience playing more cricket.

de Villiers, Puttick, Rudolph, Smith, Duminy, de Lange, Morkel, Tsolokile, Steyn, Zondeki, Mbhalati 12th Man Khan

I look forward to reading your views
The Bird

This should be nice and competitive...my ass! This will be the easiest match that South Africa will have faced since Bangladesh in the ICC trophy last year. Let's see if we can have a few records broken?

Well with Kallis not playing in the One Dayers there goes any interest of any sort of watching that series, it will be a complete and total waste of time. The South Africans have shown Zimbabwe no respect what so ever by leaving their best player out and rightly so, Zimbabwe deserve no respect and should be expelled from the ICC. AB is set to be given another turn behind the stumps so Mark Boucher can take it easy for a while and Shaun Pollock is also set to be rested for most of the series. What a total waste of time, i hope somebody somewhere achieves something out of of this series because for the life of me i can't see what the point is! Let's at least hope that Smith and Gibbs may be able to set a few landmarks?

Yeah you may be more right there than most think. Mainly due i think to the fact that the way it will be judged in history will sort of be under false pre-tences. For example Matthew Hayden recently (or fairly recently anyway) scored a (then) World Record 380 against Zimbabwe in a Test Match at the WACA in perth. I think Zimbabwe still had a full team then and was before all the rpoblems (well this set of specific problems anyway) began. But will anybody remember that or will they just associate the record with this team just being a completely disintergrated mess? Though on the flip side of that New Zealand were once bowled out for 26 by New Zealand. Granted at the time New Zealand were just all over the place and were going through what is a still a record, 30 Test Match series without a win. Now even though it may have seemed at the time that that the record had no value fo England (the opponenets) because of the quality of the opponenets but now that New Zealand have become a much bigger and more successful part of World Cricket the record may be seen with some value (face value anyway). Even though those who have a great either recollection or knowledge of the history of the game will know that the 26 all out innings did come against a pretty young and inexperienced side most will think that it belonged to an England side that was the best in the world at the time and it was against a pretty "big cricketing nation" that has since and may at the present time (whenever that may be) be a very successful unit. I think it all depends on the future performance of that team to estimate and predict how history will judge the feat and i think there is absolutely no hope in hell of this Zimbabwe side going anywhere at all (ever, well not unless there is a regime change in Zimbabwe's political leadership and for a completely new, unprejudiced system of selection in cricket is formed) so maybe you're right that it is better off that the seeries is washed out?

Edited by JALRC

Yeah i agree. Now with the increasing number of nations participating in the game now and most of them starting at a level that is pretty minescule (i should stick to typing words i can spell) they have the tendancy to have a few records set against their name. I haevn't yet gotten to the stage that i look at who the records are against (well i don't go out of my way to check) but i'm sure that day will come soon where i just can't accept a record on face vaue. I think at the moment it is half way acceptable still (at least in Test cricket) with only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh the only real minows but in One Day cricket it is really bad with the UAE, Hong Kong, The United States, Scotland, Canada, Kenya and Namibia all having played full status Limited Overs International matches, with records going against their name. However its my belief that in the Test game things may get a lot worse if there are many nations given Test status all at the same time, but if it is given gradually (and to those who truly can compete) then the system may still be okay. However the One Day game will still continue to suffer unfortunately with ridiculous records being set that may never be bettered until an even lesser opposition comes along. Thankfully these nations don't have general series' against each other and better opposition on a consistant basis and only play into big tournaments (like the ICC trophy or the World Cup) if they manage to qualify (against other affiliate and partial status member nations) involving all nations until they get full status like Bangladesh have recently (they have it in both forms of the game) or else there would be absolute and total chaos! So long as it is a gradual proccess and there is no wholesale invitations to dozens of nations in a short period of time things may remain on the right side of stable...but only just.

Latest news: Four of the Zimbabwe 'rebels' (Heath Streak, Stuart Carlisle, Ray Price and Trevor Gripper) may be coming back into the fold, maybe even in time for the Zimbabwe A v Bangladesh A Test starting soon, indicating that they could well be considered for this series.

Andy Blignaut has definitely decided to make himself available for selection, but there are doubts surrounding his fitness so mightn't make it.

From a neutral point of view, this has to be good news for the series as it would bring back some much needed experience and talent to the team. South Africa will still run away with it though.

Edited by -JP-

I explained badly - it'll only be good for making the series a bit more competetive - apart from that there's little good in it.

I meant the Test between Zimbabwe A and Bangladesh A on Friday.

Shaun Pollock will indeed be rested for the first match in the One Day series and if Smith is to be rested later through the series then it will be Nicky Boje who takes the reigns of the captaincy, another spectacularly disasterous decision undertaken by the South African selectors. I mean of everyone else in the side (Boucher, Gibbs, Pollock, Kallis etc etc) they choose Boje! Why? Okay maybe i can understand not wanting to be seen to be taking a step backwards so that may rule out Pollock but all of the other 3 would be a much better choice, they have more experience, they have been a part of this team for many years now and crucially all 3 of them would make it into the first team on merit of their quality as batsmen unlike Boje who may not neccessarily always make it into the side as the leading spin bowler. Surely South Africa aren't now going to go down the route of having a player in the team just for captaincy or vice-captaincy sake are they?

Edited by JALRC

Originally posted by Inducker Interesting viewpoint about the SA captaincy JALRC , but there really isn't any other choice! Boje just captained The Eagles to win the D/N series here this week. In a game where they required 257 off 45 overs they won comfortably by 7 wickets.

Fair enough but getting it done at the domestic level hardly warrants him being promoted to Vice Captain. But okay fair enough i see what you mean in the sense that he is the only other active captain around so yeah okay i can see your point of view.

Originally posted by Inducker Looking at the other candidates you can forget Gibbs and Kallis as both have publically said they've no interest whatsoever in doing the job. In fact Gibbs fell about laughing on a local TV show here when the question was put to him !

No i don't mean take over the job full time (even though they would both i'm sure do a better jonb than Smith) but just take in the deputies reigns and possibly fill in for Smith say if he were to be rested, with the insentive that they themselves could miss a match or two for luxury sake, like Kallis has been granted for this entire series. I did know that he had refused to take the captaincy (i know he doesn't even like to bowl these days) but i didn't know about Gibbs.

Originally posted by Inducker  Pollock was unceremoniously dumped after the 2003 world cup - taking the fall for what was a shambolic performance by the team and the coaching staff (remember the Sri Lanka D/L debacle?).

Who doesn't? Shaun was made the skapegoat and lost his job as captain but was retained in the side and Lance Kluesner was dropped from the side. That was of course thanks to the "constructive force within the team that won't destroy it", Graeme Smith. The whole thing was a farce and the way they treated Pollock after that kind of makes me glad to see the way they have falled apart since and completely lost their way, it really does make me quite happy.

Originally posted by Inducker  Maybe he's been approached by the board about taking over , even temporarily , but knowing the South African pysche I'd think not.

Who? Boje? I doubt it, he can barely manage to make it in the team as the premier spinner, i mean for god's sake graeme Smith thinks that he's South Africa's biggest turner of the ball! I don't know hey but these guys sure do have problems!

Originally posted by Inducker In truth , Boje is no dynamic , refreshing thinker on the game , but he probably is the best man for the job when Smith's absent.

Yeah you mean the sort of person who's not really spectacular or has any unique qualities but just gets on and manages to do the job, though as of yet we don't know how well. Well you'd know more about that than me having seen him captain at state level. Though i do think that there would be better choices, Boucher for example. For starters i don't think that Smith should be captain at all but let's not go into all of that or we'll be here whole day! 

South Africa made 301/7 from their 50 overs - fifties from Smith, Bacher, and Rudolph then some big hitting at the end from Boucher (49), Prince (24) and Morkel (16). They'll be disappointed with that, as they looked set for a bigger score.

In other news Heath Streak has confirmed he'll be back playing for Zimbabwe in the not too distant future.

So a predictable thumping in the end. I can't really be bothered to actually talk about what happened in the match, it was pretty pathetic all round to be frank.

Edited by JALRC

Smith is also out for the third ODI with his ankle injury. Heath Streak I think may come back and play for Zimbabwe in that one.

Originally posted by JALRC Another easy victory for South Africa, Graeme Smith has hit his third One Day century in the space of a month and included 4 sixes. Justin Kemp managed 5 in his innings of 51 with South Africa posting 330, Gibbs also scoring with 75 to his name. No Pollock or Ntini but Zimbabwe didn't really get anywhere when they took the bat. It was interesting to see but maybe Zimbabwe did accept the fact that they weren't going to chase 330 down before they started their innings and it did seem as if they had set a target of their own and they wanted to bat through the 50 overs and see if they could make that target if they were still there at the end. Usually most people wouldn't condone this sort of behaviour but what the hell else can Zimbabwe do? Pollock will definately miss the rest of the One Day series, possibly even the Tests now. Makaya Ntini is set to return for the Test Series but its debatable whether Jaques Kallis will play in both Tests.

Pollock and Kallis are certainties for both tests matey !!

     I'll be taking a look over the weekend - if it lasts that long!!

35-5 !!!!!!!!!!! Blimey!!! Zim win the toss again and this time they elect to bat.......they obviously want an early night tonight!! Heath Streak into bat for the 1st time in a year.....maybe a Flintoff type knock lads !!!

Bit of a recovery from Zimbabwe with Streak and Rogers putting on 65. Still pathetic though. Have a great time in PNG, JALRC!!