Detective RDS, my actual name is Brendan. I am a student. I have got a great amount of interest in cricket and music. I support South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, England and of course Zimbabwe, worth to metion.
I used to watch cricket mathes in the television from my very childhood and from then I started to love the game very much. It has become my passion right now. From my boyhood, I started to like Zimbabwean team also. Zimbabwe was a much competitive side then. I was impressed with the players and liked the red Zimbabwean outfits very much then. A Zimbabwean bird was placed in the middle in it and ' ZIMBABWE ' was written over that.
If I recall correctly when I first watched a Zimbabwean cricket match (In the late 90's/Early 2000's), the side probably looked like this: N Johnson, A Campbell (C), M Goodwin, A Flower (WK), G Flower, S Carlisle, G Whittal, H Streak, P Strang, H Olonga, E Brandes.
I became a strong Zimbabwean cricket fan when I watched Zimbabwe playing in the VB Series in Aus back in 2004. Captain Heath Streak and then coach Geoff Marsh was setting the things right again after the loss of players like Campbell, Johnson, A Flower, Goodwin, Whittal, Strang, Murphy etc. I think, Zim was well upto the mark. I guess, Zimbabwe played 3 close matches in that series but unfortunately lost all of them. The 100+ partnership between Sean Ervine and Stuart Carlisle is still fresh in my mind. Zimbabwe eventually lost the match against India by just 3 runs. Streak, Blignaut, Price and all other players played well in that series. It was the series where Mark Vermeulen was stuck in the head by Irfan Pathan in Brisbane.
Zimbabwe was looking competitive again. After the end of Bangladesh series in 2004, the unexpected rebel strike came. 15 white Zimbabwean players quit and I think only Vermeulen and Ebrahim made themselves available for selection at that point of time. I became interested about the fact. I watched the 1st ODI match vs SL which Zimbabwe played just after the strike. I can remember, Brendan Taylor came with a good reputation even then also at the age of 18. But was cheaply bold by Chaminda Vaas in his ODI debute. Taibu played a good innings and showed some skills as a captain despite he didn't get much success. I can clearly remember that.
I really didn't like the idea of keeping the main players out of the national side. In 2005 in the 1st match of the Videocon Tri Series vs NZ, I didn't know that some of the players were back again. I was very happy to see Carlisle-Wishart opening, Streak and Blignaut in the team despite they both returned before it in the Sou series. I can remember, Coventry's blasted hitting in the tri series. I rated him highly then and knew this player is something. I wasn't wrong really after the world record ( :D )
But after the India series in 2005, all the players quit again. Carlisle, Wishart, Streak, Blignaut and even Coventry disappeared after that. Rogers was also out after the Sou series. I didn't find Ferreira also after he made his test debute vs NZ. Even Taibu quit some days after that. Panyangara suffered injury while playing against Sou and wasn't seen after that. Add Ebrahim and Ewing also in the list.
I completely lost my interest for Zimbabwean cricket after that. Even although Brent returned and Taylor, Duffin, Ireland, Williams were around for a while. I didn't support Zimbabwe in 2006, 2007 and early 2008. In between this time, Ireland quit after WC 2007, Tayor, Duffin and Brent also quit in early 2008. Williams quit and returned also. Taibu returned in late 2007, I think.
One day while reading newspaper, I found that Raymond Price played agaisnt West Indies ! I was very shocked+happy to see that. I again gained interest in Zimbabwean cricket. I knew that Price was a world class bowler, aggressive in attitude and very successful in tests against stronger sides also.
I watched the ODI series of Zimbabwe against SL last year where Zim struggled lately to win though they were competitive enough with the presence of Price, Williams, Taibu etc. I searched in CricInfo about some former players, where they have gone, what they are doing, how they can be completely disappeared from the scene, aren't they playing any cricket at all ?
CricInfo wasn't able to give me enough current information about them. I searched about Barney Rogers in the net and found ZCF. I went through some of the threads and realized that this is the place where I should search and should be. I registered and joined here and now I am proud member here. I started to write about former players and they should be brought back for the betterment of cricket, cut out politics from cricket, forget black-white descrimination it's modern world of 21st century and above all they are all human beings like this. And finally my wishes have come true.
I am very happy now. Even some of my classmates also agreed that the Zimbabwean side which played recently against Bangladesh was much stronger and looked like the old Zimbabwean side.
Anyways wrote a lot...
My favourite Zimbabwean players are:
Raymond Price, Barney Rogers, Andy Blignaut, Mark Vermeulen, Brendan Taylor, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower, Heath Streak, Tatenda Taibu.
My favourite international players:
Kevin Pietersen (ENG), Brendon McCullam (NZ), Shane Bond (NZ), Graeme Smith (SOU), Abraham De Villiers (SOU), Dale Steyn (SOU), Marcus Trescothick (ENG),
Adam Gilchirst (AUS), Mathew Hayden (AUS), Shane Warne (AUS), Brett Lee (AUS),
Shane Watson (AUS), Justin Kemp (SOU), Ross Taylor (NZ), Johan Botha (SOU),
Chritopher Gayle (WI), Geraint Jones (ENG), Mathew Hoggard (ENG),
Simon Jones (ENG), Shakib-al-hasan (BAN), Shahriar Nafees (BAN), Tamim Iqbal (BAN)
MY ALL TIME BEST PLAYER: SHAUN MACLEAN POLLOCK (SOU).