Letters to Zimbabwe Cricket Online

Just writing to congratulate you guys on the excellent website. I think the layout is very professional and user-friendly. I have a couple of suggestions, though:

1} Perhaps you could include more multimedia on the site: For example, in the biographies section, you might include pictures of the players from games.

2} Also, a counter wouldn't be a bad idea - i.e., so that users can track how many hits the page has had each day.

Aside from that, I think it's a great site and I encourage you to keep up the good work.

Zim Cricket fan (wwwaccount@excite.com)

Reply: Thanks very much. It is not CricInfo policy to use counters, though, but we have discussed your idea of photography and we hope to incorporate more in the future.

I have just found your weekly newsletter through CricInfo. Congratulations on this initiative. It's nice to see a relatively small cricketing nation doing things like this that the bigger ones do not. Many of us have a considerable regard for what Zimbabwe has done in Test cricket since its entry into the international scene and wish you well (although hopefully not against England this winter!). It's an excellent web page and very nicely done.

Mark Kidger (Instituto dde Astrofisica de Canarias)

What an excellent idea. Do you have any plans automatically to forward the weekly to subscribers, like the cricket 365 site? If so, how do we subscribe? Please advise.

Mike Mitchell (CEC Tech)

Reply: John and I have discussed this and it's something we can look at further down the track. If there is a sponsor in the wings then we could make an approach to 365 Corp to run it for us. - Rick Eyre (Cricket 365)

Just a short note to commend you on the superb Zimbabwe on-line magazine. If it is produced weekly and maintains its size and standard it will be comfortably the best cricket magazine on the Web. Is Wednesday going to be its regular publication date?

Last year's Zimbabwe Yearbook was outstanding - when is this year's due to be published?

Any news on Brian Murphy? In December it will be five years since he left school and went to University in South Africa. Is he returning? Is there any reason why he wouldn't want to return? Not for cricket reasons as he has not played any first-class cricket in South Africa. There is a vacancy in the Zimbabwe test team for a spinner - especially one who can bat!

Robin Mence (England)

Reply: Thanks for your kind comments. We plan actually to publish every Friday if possible, but may have to amend it on occasions to fit in better with international matches.

We have had a couple of long-term problems to work through with the Yearbook, but these have now been resolved and if all goes well it will be out by the end of the year. I will give more details nearer the date.

Quite right about Brian Murphy, but I'm afraid it looks like another one we have lost. According to his father, Brian Murphy senior, he has another three years there to study for his accountancy degree and has settled in well with the cricket and new friends down there, and it looks like he may decide to stay on when he graduates. His twin brother David is in the same position. - John Ward

Just read the first copy of the magazine on the web in England and it was excellent, just what I've been looking for for a long time.

I have a few questions that you may be able to answer:

1. When does the Logan Cup start this year, is there a fixture list available and how many teams are taking part?

2. Can I get hold of scorecards for games played in the National Leagues and if so from where?

3. Any chance of the UCBSA Board games scorecards being on the Internet? I agree with you as to why Zimbabwe are struggling in Test cricket. It seems ridiculous that at least some rounds of the Logan Cup were not played before Australia arrived. Players have to be playing 3/4 day cricket to keep in form.

Matthew Thorne (England)

Reply: The Logan Cup is due to start in January or February while the national players are in South Africa; I have received no fixture list yet, but will try to get more details for next week's issue. Five teams are to participate: Mashonaland, Matabeleland, Manicaland, Midlands and the CFX Academy.

Unfortunately scorecards for the national league are not easily available, but if you have a fax machine ZCU may be willing to fax you copies of the scoresheets sent in. Their fax number is 263-4-704617. I think a donation would be in order to cover their work and expenses, though.

Yes, we would like to see UCBSA Board games on the internet, but that is really the province of the South Africans. For matches played in Zimbabwe Fiona Butchart does a good job in sending in scores for CricInfo.

Hullo! Congratulations for your wonderful website from an ardent fan of Zimbabwe cricket.

- Any news about Danie Erasmus ?

- Could you please include more pictures of players, club teams and report more about school cricket matches, minor provinces like Midlands and Manicaland?

All the best for your website and of course very good luck to the Zimbabwe cricket team.

Patrick Sepulveda (France).

Reply: Thanks for your kind comments. Danie Erasmus is now a chartered accountant and sadly no longer plays cricket.

We hope to be able to include pictures in the future. We would like to extend our schools coverage but we do not have time to go around the schools ourselves and so far it has proved difficult to get contributions from the masters in charge. In this issue we have a report from Manicaland, but despite several attempts have been unable to obtain anything from the other minor provinces. We are trying hard to establish contacts but at the moment most of it has been one way! - John Ward