Mpumelelo Mbangwa - a short biography

FULL NAME: Mpumelelo Mbangwa

BORN: 26 June 1976, Plumtree

MAJOR TEAMS: Zimbabwe (1996/97- ), Matabeleland (1995/96 to date). Present club team: Queens Sports Club (Bulawayo)

KNOWN AS: `Pom' or 'Pommie' Mbangwa

BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat

BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Fast Medium

OCCUPATION: Professional cricketer

FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Matabeleland v Mashonaland, at Harare Sports Club, 15 September 1995

TEST DEBUT: Second Test v Pakistan, at Faisalabad, 1996/97

ODI DEBUT: 1 November 1996, v Pakistan, at Lahore

BIOGRAPHY (updated October 1999)

Mpumelelo Mbangwa is known simply as `Pommie', a shortened form of his first name and not due to the fact that he did at one time attend an English school. He is one of Zimbabwe's promising young pace bowlers, and his rise to prominence is all the more remarkable as he has no family background in cricket, although his parents support him today.

Pommie was first introduced to the game at the age of about ten, at the Rhodes Estate Preparatory School. A keen sportsman, he played all sports available from choice, but soon found he had a great aptitude for cricket. He won a place in the school team at the age of 11, and has been playing competitively since then. Although he has yet to make many runs at first-class level, he was also a useful batsman at school, and always tried to bowl quick. He was selected for the Matabeleland primary schools team in his final year at junior school, and played in the primary schools week.

Moving on to Milton High School, he concentrated primarily on cricket throughout, in preference to rugby or any other sport. His housemaster there, Mr Ian Kemp, took a special interest in him, helped to groom his bowling action, and has been his mentor to the present day. Pommie even opened the batting on occasions, and played an innings of 113 in an inter-school match at the age of 14; this remains his highest score in any class of cricket, and gives hope that he may develop into more of an all-rounder. In adult cricket so far, he has concentrated on his strongest area, his pace bowling.

He was selected for the Fawns, the national Under-15 team, and also went on tour to Namibia with them, and in his two sixth-form years played for the Matabeleland Schools team, although not the national schools side. During this season the English school team Dean Close, from Cheltenham, was touring Zimbabwe, and Pommie did well in the match against them, taking four wickets in their total of 72. After the presentations at the end of the match, their master spoke to Mr Kemp and offered Pommie a place at their school, mainly to play cricket -- in fact, as a type of cricket scholarship.

Pommie was eager to seize the opportunity, and so spent the 1995 English season playing for Dean Close. He was appointed captain and enjoyed a good all-round performance: he scored 446 runs at an average of 31.85, with a highest score of 72 not out, and took 36 wickets at an average of 16.00. He studied physical education at A-level while there and found it an enjoyable and invaluable experience. He returned in time for the start of the next Zimbabwean season, and this time he was selected for the national schools team which played in the cricket week in South Africa.

He soon made an impression in that 1995/96 season, although it was rarely reflected in his actual results. He was a natural selection for the Matabeleland Logan Cup team, immediately after his return from England, strengthening an already powerful pace attack of Heath Streak, Henry Olonga and John Rennie. He also played for the Zimbabwe Board XI in the UCBSA competition, and for various select sides against the Tasmanian and Yorkshire visiting teams. This made a total of ten matches, quite remarkable for a local player without any international appearances. He took a total of only 18 wickets in those matches, averaging over 37, but his potential made a big impression. In March 1996 he went to Madras for coaching by Dennis Lillee; on his return he was offered a place in the Plascon Academy in South Africa, which he attended from April to September 1996, and had intensive coaching from such fine former players as Clive Rice and Hylton Ackerman.

He was surprised to be chosen for the Zimbabwe tour of Pakistan, coming in due to the injury to Heath Streak and unavailability of Eddo Brandes. He found Pakistan a very different country; "it was quite an experience and it was quite hard," he says. "I was very nervous on the tour but I hoped to do well." With Henry Olonga also breaking down, Pommie found himself thrust into the forefront of the Zimbabwean attack, along with Everton Matambanadzo. Although nerves prevented him from bowling with the control he would have wished, he took the vital wickets of Ijaz Ahmed and Wasim Akram. He felt much happier about his bowling in the second innings, when Pakistan were trying to knock off the 67 runs they needed for victory in as quick a time as they could. Although he failed to take a wicket, Pommie forced both Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail to play and miss, and he bowled seven fine overs for just 14 runs.

With the return of Streak, Brandes and Olonga, Pommie never had the chance to play an international during the England tour, although he was always in the frame. His main ambition was to establish himself in the team, a difficult task when there was so much competition, and to become a professional cricketer. The one reservation many people have about his bowling is that it is a little short of the top pace, but Pommie sees himself primarily as a line-and-length bowler, a master of seam and swing, with the away-swinger his stock ball. He has also now developed the inswinger, which he uses occasionally.

He felt that the 1996/97 season went satisfactorily for him, but that there was still room for improvement. During the off season he again went to England, and played for Bourton Vale in the Cotswolds. The training he underwent there, he felt, assisted his progress in the following season. He received no international opportunities against New Zealand, though, despite the injuries to several other pace bowlers, although he was bowling well, and this is a result of the new depth in talent in Zimbabwe cricket. He did go to Kenya, but the pitches were unsuitable for him and he only played in two matches, dismissing both Kenyan openers in the second match.

He was selected for the tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand, but was still unable to hold down a regular place. In Sri Lanka he did not find the pitches really suitable for his bowling, although he played in one Test match, taking three wickets, and one one-day international, where he was expensive and unsuccessful, as was his experience in the only one-day international he played in out of five in New Zealand. He did play in both Tests, though, and impressed with his consistent accuracy, taking four wickets, all in the top four.

Returning to Zimbabwe, he played both Tests against Pakistan, and performed admirably. So accurate was his bowling that the Pakistanis were quite unable to get him away, and in the Bulawayo Test he bowled 45 overs for only 54 runs and three wickets. Another three followed in Harare, when he again conceded fewer than two runs per over. He was less successful in the one-day matches, though, actually conceding 72 runs in his 10 overs in the second. With his comparative lack of pace and predictability, he was reckoned to be more of a Test than a one-day bowler. He went on to play in three of the four one-day internationals in the triangular tournament in India, also involving Australia, though, with fair results.

He worked very hard at his game during the 1998 off-season, continuing to learn all the time and getting assistance and advice from others. This was to bring him great reward. Despite a comparative lack of success in the one-day series at home against India, he played in the one-off Test which was to result in Zimbabwe's second victory in Test cricket. Although overshadowed by the pace bowling of Heath Streak and Henry Olonga, he played a crucial part in the win, which probably could not have been achieved without him. His accuracy in the second innings prevented the Indians from recovering when the strike bowlers rested, and his three wickets for 41 runs were the best of the innings.

He lost his one-day place, apart from occasional appearances, but performed a similar role in Zimbabwe's Test victory in Pakistan, Again Streak and Olonga took the headlines, but Pommie gave them superb backing, with three cheap wickets in both innings, turning in the best match bowling figures for Zimbabwe with six for 63. Although he took no wickets in the Second Test, he was now high in the world Test bowling rankings, with 24 wickets at an average of less than 25.

Pommie, who had not been happy with his bowling before that First Test, found the seamers' pitches of Pakistan helpful to his bowling and soon found his rhythm. He was particularly pleased to bowl out Moin Khan with his rare off-cutter in the second innings: the batsman played for the away-swinger and got an inside edge on to his stumps.

That was the end of Zimbabwe's Test cricket for some time, and Pommie worked hard to improve his one-day bowling, concentrating simply on keeping the runs down. He had little success in the triangular tournament in Bangladesh which also included Kenya, but on his return to Zimbabwe was the most impressive bowler in a hastily arranged threematch series against the Australian Cricket Academy.

Selected for the World Cup, he also bowled very well in the warm-up matches, but was perhaps overcome by nerves in the opening match against Kenya, when he did not bowl well. He was immediately dropped without a chance to recover, and only had two further matches: he bowled quite well to take two wickets against England but was not successful against Pakistan. This loss of form continued into the 1999/2000 Zimbabwean season, when he was dropped from the test team and did not play any international matches against the touring Australians.

Pommie's ambition is to keep improving and to come closer to a regular Test place. He has been working more on his batting recently, concentrating on watching the ball more carefully and gaining in confidence -- but without any real evidence to prove it yet! The best batsmen he has bowled against in his brief career so far have been the Pakistanis Shahid Afridi, with his unorthodox hitting, and Saeed Anwar.

In his efforts to improve, he has found all his Zimbabwean team-mates positive and helpful, with Dave Houghton particularly encouraging. He has had a great deal of discussion with and advice from the senior bowlers, Streak, Brandes and Olonga. He finds them willing to share their knowledge and what they are trying to achieve, instead of leaving him to work things out for himself.

They in turn speak well of Pommie's positive personality and his dedication, although the general feeling is that he is just a little too slow to make the best possible use of his ability. In such an atmosphere and with his willingness to work hard at his game, he should have a fine future.