We were in wrong cricketing nations... (Part-1)

When we talk about numbers in cricket, we tend to forget so many parameters to judge a player. Only for 50% of the players their ability and number coincides, for the rest, it doesn’t. Here is an interesting bunch of players who have decent numbers and we consider them as one of the good cricketer around. But had they been given some more exposure, they would have become one of the greats of the game. Unfortunately, they born in (rather, played for) the wrong cricketing nation!

In this edition we will be focusing on such cricketers who proudly represented Zimbabwe but failed to have their complete career and become one of the legends of the game.

1.Neil Johnson (1998-2000)

A familiar name in the presentation ceremonies during the ICC World Cup-1999 held at England, winning three man of the match awards. He was a huge asset to the Zimbabwean team with both bat and ball. Neil was one of the rare breed of cricketers who opened both as a batsman and a bowler. Being a left handed batsman, he had done what Gary Kirsten, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sourav Ganguly did during the first 15 overs when field restrictions was on.

The good thing about his batting was his cool head to play long innings. With which he went on to score 4 centuries and 11 fifties in his ODI career lasting for just 48 matches, scoring 1679 runs at an average of 36.50. When it comes to bowling, he was an aggressive seamer, providing vital support to his seniors like Heath Streak and Eddo Brandes. He had some internal disputes with the ZCU made him migrate to South Africa from where his parents had come.

Later he played majority of his cricket in South Africa and in England County playing 161 first class matches, scoring 7569 runs with 230 wickets to his tally. With his 11 first class centuries he had taken 218 catches. These numbers clearly suggest that, we indeed missed a true competitor for Jacques Kallis’ to rule the territory of Champions in all three duties of the game.

2.Murray Goodwin (1998-2000)

One of the most elegant cricketers you will ever see, Murray Goodwin had the nerves of steel with the ability to shift gears at ease. His unfortunate exit from Zimbabwe made his spot vacant forever. He could bat at any position in top four, during the time when his team had the arguably strongest batting line-up in the world with Neil Johnson, Alister Campbell, Craig Evans, Stuart Carlisle, Andy Flower and Grant Flower. Before he settled in Western Australia, Goodwin had appeared in 19 test and 71 ODIs for Zimbabwe scoring 3 and 2 centuries respectively. Later on, he signed for the Sussex in England and Western Australia, played 320 first class matches scoring 23,723 runs with 71 centuries and 344* being his best.

He had improved his skills as a limited over batsman; Goodwin scored 11477 runs in his 383 List-A matches. He is one of the top run getters in T20 cricket with 2526 runs including 2 centuries out of 120 matches. He also a short career with Ahmadabad Rockets team in Indian Cricket League during 2007-08 season.

Considering these facts the International cricket surely missed a batting legend, to compare with likes of Pontings, Mahelas and Sangakkaras, had if he played close to 300 One Day Internationals and 100 tests.

3.Tatenda Taibu (2001-2012)

Labelled as the able successor of the Wicketkeeping legend Andy Flower, Taibu was always a fighter as both batsman and a keeper, rarely as a bowler too! He was in Zimbabwe squad for an England tour when he was just 16. At that point of time, Taibu was yet to make a first class debut.

Due to some injury issues to their prime gloveman Andy, Taibu was a regular member of the squad since 2000-2001. With the performance he showed with the bat made him the vice captain of the side in the year 2003. The very next year Tatenda Taibu was handed over the responsibility of captaining the side, due to the early retirement of Heath Streak.

Becoming the World’s youngest and shortest (in height) ODI and Test captain, Taibu had to deal with some political issue in sacking all the rebel players from the team and making Zimbabwe team a brand new unit which had to be rebuilt again.

Later he gave up captaincy in 2005 and went on announce his retirement from international cricket. Taibu made a surprising re-entry to the side in 2007, and continued playing for his nation till 2012 before retiring.

He represented Zimbabwe in 150 ODIs and 28 tests scoring 3393 and 1546 runs respectively. And also has 3 international centuries with 209 dismissals. Having scored 6804 at average of 38.22 runs in 114 first class matches, Taibu has 12 centuries and 175* as the best score. To justify his overall talent, Taibu also has 22 first class wickets which include the most important one of Sanath Jayasuriya in a test match. You might surprise to look at his best first class figure of 8/43 which is as good as anyone. He has always a good batsman than his numbers speak. Had he played around 250-300 ODIs and close to 100 tests, he would’ve been one of the most decorated wicketkeepers in the world.

4.Brendan Taylor (2004-2015)

Yet another class wicketkeeper-batsman from Zimbabwe, Brendan Taylor entered into the side during the transition period of the Zimbabwean team, where the team had to be reconstructed being ruined due to various reasons. Throughout his career spanning 11 years, he was very consistent with his bat.

In his initial 10 innings, Taylor had scored 5 half centuries and later he drove his team home in a tight encounter against Bangladesh. When 6 needed off the last ball, believe it or not, Taylor hit a six over long-on and became the first man to do so in an ODI (Javed Miandad did the same when 4 needed off the last ball). In the T20 World Cup-2007, his 60* helped his team pull off a great win over the mighty Australians.

His captaincy made Zimbabwe came back to the tests. He had shown the class with 4 centuries in first 7 matches as captain, and also became the first Zimbabwean to score tons in both the innings of a test match. Playing his second world cup down-under, Taylor was at the peak of his career scoring 433 runs at an 72.16 with two back to back centuries in his last two innings for Zimbabwe, after he announced his retirement from international cricket. He has the plan to move to England and sign for Nottinghamshire as a Kolpak player.

Brendan Taylor had played 167 ODIs scoring 5258 runs with 8 centuries and 32 fifties at an average of 34.82 with 108 dismissals. In spite of his team’s several ups and downs, Taylor managed to play 23 tests with 1493 runs at an average of 34.72 including 4 centuries and 7 half centuries.

The cricket experts had announced that Taylor was the best ever player for Zimbabwe considering the fact that he played with the most inexperienced squad ever. His ability to read the game and play the merit of the ball made him really a special player. Still a lot of cricket left in him and we hope soon we will be watching it in England soil.