Where's Travis Friend?

[butchering lee]

Originally Posted by stone bird

travis friend .. showed greater ability than what streaky showed at 18...

hehehe i remember facing streak in a school match at about 16 and i feared him..we did have pretty poor equipment though and your theory may be proved by the fact that he opened the bowling in tandem with wishart...who we feared even more. btw - we had olonga in our team but it was victor though he could hurl a cricket ball pretty swiftly. we also had two guys gumede and gumbo who made zim school sides and were REALLY good bowlers but as so often at a certain point chose education above sport (what you gona do??)

Originally Posted by stone bird

A friend was telling me cremer is showing some real improvements since the south african tour.
.

i think he´s another who matured in the space of a few sessions of test cricket after being taken to the cleaners by kallis he got a few wkts.

Originally Posted by stone bird

Sean Ervine has a much better cricketing brain than blignaut...and a much better temperament than blignaut. However Sean Ervines role in the zimbabwean team would have been nothing more than a stock bowler, and a lower order batsmen.

Blignaut had amazing pace 140km+ and could move the ball. He was erratic but improving immensley! Blignaut was forming a great combination with streak...Blignaut was taking 5 fors as well, whcih were not common in zimbabwean cricket. His batting was awesome when it wanted to be...a couple of 90's against the windies and some massive domestic innings to go with.
I am not saying that Ervine is not a great player, but blignaut is a 1/100 talent!

I don't know if you ever saw the zimbabwe vs india test at harare in which zimbabwe won. India were well on top of zimbabwe and looked as though they were going to have a lead of 100 or so and in the space of 10 overs blignaut changed the entire momentum of the game...And then coming in the 2nd innings and taking 5 for...it was an amazing performance by him...

well, i think i´ve talked about this in another thread tonight - blignaut did have a good strike rate, if not the best, and 2/3 5fers could have gone further . As i said he´d make my best zim 11 but i did spend a lot of time "hoping this over is gona get a wkt rather than go for 17 runs"

[stone bird]

Originally Posted by butchering lee

btw - we had olonga in our team but it was victor though he could hurl a cricket ball pretty swiftly.

henry olonga used to hurl a cricket ball pretty well! until he got pulled up

[Paoli]

Back in the day, around circa 1998-1999, I remember facing Brendan Taylor at primary school. He's an offspinner these days, but back then he was a ferocious 100 kmh bowler; at about 12 years old! He used to skittle oppositions out, and the only Primary school that ever came close to us was Godfrey Huggins, who I believe had a few players in the Partridges (Zimbabwe Primary School team) outfit. I think Taylor went on to make it, and at about 9 years old, I was told I was too young to make the team! After that, I went home and cried!!! That year was 1999, which in August I left Zimbabwe. Give it another three years, I would've been in the Partridges team!!!

Victor was until recently captain of the rugby team I believe, and Friend was an awesome second rower at St. George's I hear. Friend had raw pace, and although the CFX Academy had potential, it never matured and these days I believe is now defunct.

[stone bird]

politics are now involved in the selection for partridges. even when i was there i had a felling most of the team was picked before the actual try-outs

Brendan was very young when he made the zim u/13s. maybe 9 or 10

[butchering lee]

freind got a 20/20 game today but didn´t bowl - conclusion = recovering!!¿¿

[Paoli]

Yes, Taylor was very young, in fact he was 10. In my first year in Zimbabwe I remember he got selected and may have even been captain at about 12 or 13. Prosper Utseya, Panyangara and Eddie Rainsford are others who also made it that I know of. I wouldn't have known at my young age that politics were involved in Partridges selection, but it's definitely pretty sad that they're politicising twelve year old kids.

[Paoli]

http://aus.cricinfo.com/db/NEW/LIVE/...09JUL2005.html

Travis Friend on 17 not out, playing his first Totesport game for Derbys.