Glen Barrett - a biography

FULL NAME: Glen Frederick Barrett
BORN: 31 March 1979, at Harare
MAJOR TEAMS: CFX Academy (2001/02). Present club side: Old Georgians.
KNOWN AS: Glen Barrett. Nickname: GB.
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Medium Pace
OCCUPATION: Academy student

FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: 15-17 February 2002; CFX Academy v Manicaland, at Mutare Sports Club
TEST DEBUT: Still awaited
ODI DEBUT: Still awaited

BIOGRAPHY (March 2001)

Glen Barrett burst on the cricket scene in Zimbabwe when, just short of his 23rd birthday, he not only scored a century on his first-class debut, but did so off only 54 deliveries, hit 13 sixes in the match, and came within 20 runs of making it two centuries in the match. The feat was achieved for the CFX Academy against Manicaland at Mutare Sports Club, and few cricketers anywhere have made such an impact on debut.

Glen has no family background in cricket, but he comes from a sporting family, with his father a former national rugby player. He first derived his interest in cricket from his primary school days at St John's Preparatory School in Harare, and eventually decided to take up cricket as his career in preference to his other two main loves, rugby and athletics. He played for school teams from Grade 4 onwards as an all-rounder, bowling seamers; in Grade 5 he remembers scoring 81 and taking a hat-trick, and five wickets in an innings later for the school first team. He also represented Harare Schools in Grade 7, his final year.

In 1992 he went to Falcon College, making the A team but failing to gain selection for the Matabeleland Under-13 team at the trials. The following year he returned to St George's College in Harare, transferring in 1998 to St John's College, for whom his best innings was 103. "I finished my A-levels at St George's," he said, "and started a computer course at the beginning of 1998, but I was basically bored and went back to school to play some more sport and do a business course." His best figures as a bowler were six for 59, and he was the highest wicket-taker for St George's in 1997, when he received the trophy for the best all-rounder. He did not play any representative cricket until 1997, when he played for the national Under-19 team at the Coca-Cola Week in South Africa, followed by the Under-19 World Cup.

1998 was not a totally successful year for Glen, as he tore a disc in his back playing cricket. The injury has hampered him over the years, but he feels it now no longer affects him. At the end of 2000 he was to tear a muscle in his back while bowling, which required hospitalization, and took three months to heal. It was after this that he took up the decathlon in Cape Town.

After leaving school he went to the University of Cape Town to do a graduate diploma in marketing for three years. He had considered applying for the Academy then, but decided to get some qualifications behind him first, so that "if I failed in cricket I would have something to fall back on."

He continued with his cricket, rugby and athletics in Cape Town, playing cricket for, unbelievably, the university third team, although he says the three teams were of fairly similar standard. His highest score there was 95, but scored numerous fifties at an average of about 35. He also opened the bowling, playing two-day games, and at one stage took four wickets in an innings in four successive matches. He speaks highly of the standard of cricket there, and says that the bowling generally was more disciplined than he found on his first-class debut in Mutare.

In his final year at Cape Town his cricket was continuing successfully, so he applied to join the CFX Academy in 2002, remembering the encouragement he had received to do so from Dave Houghton and his father when he left school; both played for the same Saturday afternoon social cricket team for which Glen occasionally played. This was Old Hararians, at the age of 15, but after a year there Glen transferred to Old Georgians, where he preferred the company, and he has stayed at the club ever since when in Zimbabwe.

Glen largely learned the game for himself and finds it difficult to name coaches who had a particular impact on him along the way. He does mention Iain Butchart, who coached the Under-19 team and encouraged him just to continue to play his natural game. He also remembers the encouragement he received from Shane Cloete at St George's.

When he made his now famous debut in Mutare, he was not fully fit, unable to bowl because he injured his side in practice the day before the match began. His century was only his third in any kind of cricket, and his highest. "We were in a situation where we didn't have too many runs on the board," he said - the Academy were 140 for six when he went in. "I nicked the ball first up and was caught behind, so I started walking. The other batsman told me to get back in my crease and I thought the umpire hadn't given me out, so I carried on batting. But the keeper actually dropped the ball, which I hadn't seen.

"The bowling wasn't too bad and I love facing spin bowling. The spinners came on and their captain's orders were to throw it up and try to buy my wicket. Kingsley Went came on to bowl and I hit him for three sixes in a row." 28 runs came off that over, four sixes and then a four, dropped on the boundary.

As a batsman Glen feels that his main strength is in the drive and lashing the sort ball outside off stump. He enjoys going down the pitch even to seamers. As a bowler his stock delivery is the away-swinger but admits he has a tendency to bowl too short. "I bowled a lot in Cape Town but haven't been bowling much recently," he said. He likes to field at point or in the covers, and on the boundary.

"In one-day games I would like to bat at three, as I did in a couple of games in the Under-19 World Cup," he said. "Otherwise at six, and in the longer game, seven or eight, when the ball is old."

Cricket heroes: "It used to be Lance Klusener, until his attitude changed against Zimbabwe, in that match when he had words with Whittall. He has a very good mind on him under pressure, though, and I would like to be a Lance Klusener."

Toughest opponents: "Probably Mluleki Nkala so far, but I haven't really faced too many international bowlers."

Personal ambitions: "I'd love to score the quickest one-day hundred if I did play international cricket."

Proudest achievement so far: "In the Under-19 World Cup, we played against the West Indies, who were 234 for five. We beat them and I went in number three and got 67 off 32 balls."

Best friends in cricket: "Lance Malloch-Brown is probably my best friend on and off the field. Brad McCoun, who has just left for Australia - the three of us went through school together, as well as the Coca-Cola Week and the Under-19 World Cup, and we've been playing together at OGs ever since then."

Other qualifications: Graduate diploma in marketing.

Other sports: Rugby and athletics (decathlon).

Outside interests: None outside sport.

Views on cricket: "I think we should have something like the system we have in Cape Town, although it wouldn't really work here, as you have schoolboys playing in the league sides - a one-day tournament and a one-day declaration cricket tournament. I think the Logan Cup should consist of three-day games, with the fourth day a one-day game, if we want to get ourselves prepared for both forms of international cricket."