By John Ward

There were several notable performances in club cricket last weekend and we have interviewed two of the most successful players, Neil Ferreira and David Mutendera, for this issue. We have also caught up with Everton Matambanadzo who is in prime all-round form for Universals. Next week, in our last issue of the year, we hope to include interviews with Paul Strang, especially with regard to his experiences in India, and Gus Mackay, whose superb all-round form in club cricket last weekend preceded his selection, for the first time at the age of 33, for the tour of New Zealand.

So Zimbabwe's one-day series in India ended with one victory and four defeats. Without wanting to sound pessimistic, this was perhaps the best result we might reasonably have expected, given the strength of the Indian batting and their significant home advantage. It would have taken either a superb Zimbabwe performance or a poor Indian one to earn us anything better than that. [More]

INTERVIEWS

Neil Ferreira

There are perhaps more gifted players in Zimbabwe cricket than Neil Ferreira, but there cannot be any with a bigger heart. As a wicket-keeper/batsman he played a major role in Manicaland's spirited fight for the Logan Cup last season, scoring three determined centuries. They were not flamboyant affairs and they were scored against rather weak attacks, but they showed the grit and application of the man to the full. On the strength of his Logan Cup successes, Neil was selected for the Zimbabwe A tour of Sri Lanka but, apart from a fifty in the opening match, he enjoyed little success. He was only the second wicket-keeper on the tour, understudy to Don Campbell, so on the face of it he had a disappointing tour. Then he returned to the new season to find that he had lost his place in the team and was not selected for the Zimbabwe Board XI. [More]

Everton Matambanadzo - pushing for a recall

An outstanding all-round performance by Everton Matambanadzo in the recent crucial first-league club match against Alexandra Sports Club should have served as a reminder to the selectors that here is a fine bowler who seems to have been quietly forgotten by his country. Although fit and in form, Everton played in only one Test match and no one-day internationals, and missed out on all the major tours.

He takes his omissions philosophically, but clearly wants to be back. He seemed to lose the favour of the selectors during a period of two years when he was often unfit, suffering first mainly from shin soreness and then from a shoulder injury that allowed him to bowl but not throw in from the outfield. But he hopes now those are things of the past. [More]

David Mutendera - bowling better than ever
It is to be hoped that David Mutendera will not eventually be remembered for the controversy of his Test debut. Against New Zealand in Bulawayo at the start of the season, his last-minute inclusion caused a serious problem among the players and administrators that was seized upon by those seeking to make political capital out of racial issues.

"I had three slips and two gullies, and most of my wickets were caught behind or bowled. I was generating a good pace and getting bounce, and they couldn't play me on the on side or hit me over the top, so I had two gullies, three slips, a man in the covers, a mid-off, a fine leg and a square leg, nobody else on the on side. That was my game plan, bowling in the channel so they got caught behind or bowled out. But my main aim was to get them caught in the slips." [More]

Mutendera in top form
Club cricket report by Clive Ruffell

Universals fast bowler David Mutendera took 8/23 in an awesome spell of new-ball bowling to destroy Harare Sports Club as his side romped to a 132-run victory with 31.5 overs to spare in the Castle Lager National First League. Harare Sports Club were dismissed for 64 runs in just 18.1 overs with only Extras and Guy Croxford managing to reach double figures. Mutendera could have returned even better figures had he not conceded six no-balls and 2 wides. [More | Scorecards]

Matabeleland Cricket Report
by Derrick Townshend