Letters

Editorial address: jward@cricinfo.com

DOMESTIC FIXTURES

It's great to see the newsletter back and running, and I'm looking forward to a season when maybe, just maybe, we can have the best, injury-free Zimbabwe XI take the field at least once! What I would like to suggest to you if I may is to introduce to your site an easy-to-read 'Domestic Season Fixture Guide' to as many of the games that will take place in Zimbabwe, at club and provincial level, as possible. This in my mind would serve to promote the attendance of such matches, and could perhaps include information like how to get to the game, etc, plus an overview of the outline of the competition - points, tables etc - just how it all works. These are things that even those of us who are not new to cricket in Zimbabwe are fairly in the dark about - the newspapers being sketchy at best here. It's obviously a big undertaking, but to start with a simple fixture guide would be great. Here is to a better performance this weekend against the South Africans!

Graham Cochrane (Zimbabwe)

Reply: Good idea! We therefore include an overall fixture guide for the season in this issue, and included Vigne Cup fixtures and international tours. I hope to include the national first league club fixtures next week. Logan Cup fixtures have not yet been issued.

WELCOME BACK It's great to have your newsletter back again. Good luck for the year ahead and for the World Cup preparations. I'm a great fan of Geoff Marsh and I'm sure he'll do well. I expect Paul Strang and Stuart Carlisle to improve further under his guidance. I hope he can also help to make Alistair Campbell more consistent.

Michael Gorey (Australia)

Reply: Thanks very much. Nobody else has yet succeeded in making Alistair Campbell more consistent, but we live in hope!

HELLO FROM AN AUSSIE FAN

My name is Stephen Vagg, a 28-year-old cricket fan from Sydney, Australia. I just wanted you to know I really love the coverage of Zimbabwe cricket. One of the best things about the internet (as well as pay TV - not that I have that) is it enables Australian cricket fans to find out all about competitions in other countries when previously we had to wait for Wisden. I really enjoy your stuff on Zimbabwe cricket. I know your country's having a tough time of it lately - I can't even begin to imagine what it's like - but I am sure locals derive comfort and enjoyment from your reports.

Stephen Vagg (Australia)

ZIMBABWE ONE-DAY TEAM

I think we are selecting the Zimbabwe one-day cricket team wrongly. We need one aggressive opener who can start creating runs from the start, someone like Guy Whittall. Look at all the other one-day sides: SA's Gibbs, Australia's Gilchrist, West Indies' Gayle, India's Tendulkar, etc.) We need another attacking batsman at number four in the mould of Andy Flower or Craig Wishart (Australia's Steve Waugh, WI's Brian Lara, India's Dravid, etc), and then Andy Blignaut to maintain the run rate at six or seven. At the moment we have two openers Dion Ebrahim and Alistair Campbell who have a slow run rate, followed by Hamilton Masakadza who also has a slow run rate, then Stuart Carlisle who also has a slow run rate. By the time Andy comes in we have lost a lot of balls with no runs on the board. Our bowling attack is also appalling, both at one-dayers and in Tests. How can we fail to take at least eleven wickets in three innings? We are concentrating too much on having all-rounders instead of having guys who concentrate on their proper jobs. A bowler should not compensate with the bat, he should go out there and take as many wickets and limit runs.

My one-day team would be

1. Alistair Campbell/Dion Ebrahim
2. Guy Whittall/Craig Wishart
3. Hamilton Masakadza/Stuart Carlisle
4. Andy Flower
5. Grant Flower/Craig Wishart
6. Andy Blignaut
7. Paul Strang
8. Heath Streak (opening bowler)
9. Travis Friend/Mluleki Nkala/Doug Marillier
10. Bryan Strang/Brighton Watambwa/Henry Olonga
11. Bryan Strang/Brighton Watambwa/Henry Olonga (opening bowler)

Gilchrist T Magezah (Zimbabwe)

Reply: This is always a good topic for discussion and argument. What do other readers think?