Vermeulen Banned for 10 Years!

[greg]

I take it that some of you will have seen the incident on the news over the last 24 hours after somebody had recorded the incident,well what i want to know is if the bloke who tripped vermeulen up and punched him twice in the face is going to be prosecuted?

What Vermeulen did was totally out of order but so was what the fat guy did in taking the law into his own hands.

I am glad the ban has been reduced on appeal as 10 years was sheer lunacy.

[Teatime FatCat]

The report I read intimated that the fat gut was actually a member of Vermeulen's own club, supposedly 'restraining' him. It gave the impression that Vermeulen had to be brought down to earth before he threw a few more (wickedly spiked) objects into the crowd.

Personally I think that Vermuelen was way, ay out of order, and the fat guy exerted a little more than necessary force. However, I'm sure the incident could have been avoided if someone had sent the fat guy into the crowd to ask the original drunken hecklers to leave!

[butchering lee]

He's now targeting a zim recall, and i can honestly say i hope he gets it.

[Teatime FatCat]

Why? Is he any better than the batsmen playing now? I thought that he and Ebrahim had pretty average career figures?

Or are you teasing me and being ironic?

[butchering lee]

Originally Posted by Teatime FatCat

Why? Is he any better than the batsmen playing now? I thought that he and Ebrahim had pretty average career figures?

Or are you teasing me and being ironic?

i wouldn't tease you fatcat ebrahim started out average and got worse...he eventually, by pure selection persistence, looked a little more comfortable and even played a good innings or two.

around the time of the OZ/WI matches when zim were playing well with ervine, taibu, price... i thought vermeulan would be our best batsmen.

but, and i'm not placing blame, he was not picked as often as he should have been, imo, (despite topping averages domestically - according to the article above) and he showed glimmers of real batsmanship (in the close home series against the WI - i have vivid memories of some very good batting; strokeplay and shot selection - even temperament). i think he's as good as anyone in the side (but with experience of closer competitions against top teams) and if they show him the kind of selection trust they showed for example sibanda, matsikenyeri, ebrahim or even duffin and rinke (so far) i think he'll be every bit as good as anyone in the team. the few times i've seen him for zimbabwe i liked him.

but yeah, looking at his figures they're not good - so clearly there were times i didn't seem him that he was pants!

[Mr Hutt]

So lemme get this straight... all i have to do to get KP banned for 10 yrs is to sit in the crowd and provoke him to toss something at me??? MUHAHHAHA runs his hands in glee and calls his travel agent!!

[Teatime FatCat]

Just thought I'd re-awake this thread with the news on the BBC Sport website that Mark Vermuelen has been arrested in connection with the burning down of the Zimbabwe academy and also the attempted burning down of Zim Cricket's offices.

This is nuts! If it is him, he must have truly lost the plot! Can any of our Zim members shed any light on this story?

[Zainub]

Can we have a link to the story please, Teatime? I'd like to have read.

[Teatime FatCat]

Sorry - I don't know how to do that! But the story is on the Zimbabwe country page of Cricinfo.

[Zainub]

I got to it with your "guidance" eventually, its here. Whoever is responsible for the burning real shame the academy has gone down that fate, I never knew Zimbabwe Academy had an academy this good.

Originally Posted by Cricinfo

The Academy, which was opened in 1999, was built entirely with money raised by Gwynn Jones and Dave Houghton. It was praised by many visiting sides, and Brian Lara said it was one of the best facilities he had seen, describing it as simple but very effective.