By John Ward

The first round of the Logan Cup competition was badly affected by rain, as was predictable. The match in Mutare was abandoned without a ball being bowled, amid some controversy, as is outlined so well by Nigel Fleming in his Manicaland report. The match between Mashonaland A and Matabeleland at the usually well-drained Alexandra Sports Club did not get very fair either. [More]

INTERVIEW

Eddo Brandes: ambling round Australia

Eddo Brandes, Zimbabwe cricketer since 1985, has been awarded a benefit this year by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. As part of it, he took a small party to watch Zimbabwe play in Australia. He talks to John Ward on his return.[More]

Doug Marillier: birth of a legend

Well, perhaps the title is an exaggeration. But few cricketers have given their names to any aspect of the game even for a short while. Maybe the most famous example is the 'Bosie', as the googly is sometimes known in Australia, named after the Englishman Bernard Bosanquet who is credited with inventing it and brought it to fame against the Australians. I can also think of the 'Carmody field', an ultra-attacking field setting named after the Australian Services captain who used to pack his slips to an unusual degree for his pace bowlers, but that I think is now an obsolete term. Perhaps readers can remember some more. [More]

BIOGRAPHY

Hamilton Masakadza
Hamilton Masakadza, still a schoolboy at Churchill High School in Harare, achieved a notable landmark on 16 February 2000 when he became the first black Zimbabwean to score a century if first-class cricket. [More]

Wisdom Siziba
Wisdom Siziba, one of the products of the township development scheme in Zimbabwe, shares in a rare record in first-class cricket. He is only the tenth player in the entire history of the first-class game to carry his bat, as an opening batsman, through a complete innings on his debut. [More]

Terrence Duffin
Terry Duffin achieved the unusual distinction of captaining a team on his first-class debut, at the age of 18, when he appeared for the CFX Academy in the first match of the 2000/01 Logan Cup programme. This followed his captaincy of the national Under-19 team, so he was perhaps a natural choice to lead the young, inexperienced Academy team in their first match. [More]

Mathew Townshend
Mathew Townshend enjoys all the advantages that come from being a member of a strong cricketing family. All his family have played the game, and both his father Derrick and uncle Trevor played for Rhodesia, as it then was. "I was encouraged at a young age and was brought up to love the game and succeed as best I can," he says. [More]

Reply: I presume a few of the younger and lesser known players may be going to the UK, but with so much international cricket at home during the winter all those with any chance of selection will be staying at home. A lot of cricketing families have had their farms designated, but to the best of my knowledge none of them have actually been removed yet.

by Derrick Townshend

Matabeleland's Logan Cup season commenced over the weekend at Alexandra Sports Club in Harare and was severely curtailed by the weather, with only 53.3 overs possible in the three-day match.

Matabeleland, batting first, were in trouble after only three overs when Coventry was out not having settled and misjudging the pace of Watambwa. The wicket despite the wet weather was hard, but the bounce slow and, with a fair amount of lateral movement, aggressive strokeplay became difficult. Mark Vermeulen and Mluleki Nkala played positively and well and were beginning to push the scoring rate along when Vermeulen was bowled by a superb ball from Watambwa and Nkala out to a brilliant catch by the diminutive Tatenda Taibu, attempting to cut Viljoen. [More]

Manicaland Logan Cup report
by Nigel Fleming
The rain forecast in this column last week regrettably destroyed any chance of this being a match report. Midlands completed their 480-kilometre trip to watch the rain fall for most of the three scheduled days of Logan Cup cricket at Mutare Sports Club. The bulk of their team come from Kwekwe and surrounding districts, although like all teams they have their quota of Academy players to bring them up to first-class strength.

The unfortunate thing was that the damage had been done in the days leading up to the match, which could have been avoided if adequate protection was available. The rain was not hard enough during match days to have precluded play of some description. Manicaland only have one piece of plastic sheet 15x30 metres in size, which is good enough for the pitch but not the complete square. For a ground hosting first-class fixtures it is an embarrassment. India are due to play here in June and one can only be thankful that rain is not normally expected in winter. [More]

Zimbabwe U19 Report
By Win Justin-Smith
During the December holidays, the national Under-19 team toured South Africa to play three three-day matches against South African age-group teams and to participate in the Coca-Cola Week. The results of the three-day matches were: Won 1, Drawn 1, Lost 1.

The first match against Northerns was played at the CFX Academy ground in Harare from 1 to 3 December. Northerns won the toss and elected to bat. The first day was affected by rain, and when play was finally abandoned for the day the game was evenly poised with their score on 162 for five after 55 overs. Northerns were eventually all out for 257. [More]

STATISTICS

Alistair Campbell ODI record [More]
Alistair Campbell Test record [More]

INDEX TO MAGAZINE ISSUES 21 - 24 [More]

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