Ryan King - a short biography

FULL NAME: Ryan Jason King

BORN: At Kwekwe, 6 March 1979

MAJOR TEAMS: Matabeleland (1998/99), CFX Academy (1999/2000)

KNOWN AS: Ryan King. Nickname: Jumbo (inherited from his father).

BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat

BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Off Breaks

OCCUPATION: CFX Academy student

FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Matabeleland v Mashonaland A, at Bulawayo Athletic Club, 19-21 January 1999

TEST DEBUT: Still awaited

ODI DEBUT: Still awaited

BIOGRAPHY (March 2000)

Ryan King is one of the few Academy students to have had first-class experience before the start of the 1999/2000 season, having opened the innings for Matabeleland in a Logan Cup match the previous season. He is also the team vice-captain, and led the side in their victorious Logan Cup match against Midlands in the absence of the injured Paul Strang.

Ryan's father John played cricket for Plumtree and the Matabeleland Under-19 team. He first introduced Ryan to the game at home. "My dad was a real big influence in my cricket," Ryan says, describing how they used to play on the family tennis court.

The family lived in Kwekwe until moving to Bulawayo when Ryan was aged nine, when he was already in the small Goldridge school first team. He still remembers the 'close unit' they had at the school, when all ages were friends together and used to practise together in their spare time.

In Bulawayo Ryan first attended Whitestone Primary School, where he captained the school team in his final year. He played for the Matabeleland team in the national primary schools cricket week for two years, and in the second was selected for the national side. His best school performance was a century opening the batting against Petra School, with a couple of eighties. He also bowled at times, mostly off-spin with a few leg-breaks.

He moved to Falcon College for high school, a contemporary of Neil Ferreira, and the two opened the batting together throughout their school careers from the primary schools week onward. They also opened the batting together in the national schools sides at Under-13, Under-15 and Under-18 levels. "We really know each other's batting, and running between the wickets as an opening partnership is very important, running the singles, and we enjoy batting together," he says. They travelled to Bloemfontein for the Under-13 and Under-15 sides and Benoni at Under-18 level for the South African schools weeks. His most successful tour was at Under-13 level, when his record included 67 against Natal.

At Falcon, Ryan's highest score was 114 against Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo, closely followed by 108 against Plumtree. That year his average was 42.2, and he was one of the few to score 1000 runs for the school, alongside such school heroes of the past as Dave Curtis and Glen Bruk-Jackson. He captained the side during his final year, but says, "I didn't perform as well as I did before because of the pressure of being captain and thinking of the team. But I really enjoyed the challenge of captaincy overall." In a match against St John's he also took five wickets for 42 runs with leg-spin.

After leaving school at the end of 1998 Neil Ferreira joined the Academy, but Ryan went to Australia for a year, playing in two cricket seasons there. His uncles live in Australia, so he stayed with them on the Gold Coast near Brisbane, where they run a golf course. They arranged for Ryan to play in a club there while he repaid them by working for them at various jobs - "construction to labour to barman to cleaning toilets - pretty much anything!" Ryan played for the local club Palm Beach and also for Dolphins which play in the Brisbane competition, captained by Andrew Symonds and also containing Queensland players Scott Muller and Matthew Mott. The club president at the time was Craig McDermott.

Ryan played first-grade cricket for Palm Beach and second-grade for Dolphins. "It's very competitive," he says, and thinks first-grade cricket there and Logan Cup cricket in Zimbabwe are similar in standard of play. His best score was an eighty in the second grade.

Ryan returned to Zimbabwe for Christmas 1998 and was quickly selected for the Matabeleland Logan Cup side. He scored 41 in the first innings and impressed national coach Dave Houghton enough to be encouraged to apply for the Academy. While still at school he played club cricket at times for Bulawayo Athletic Club, scoring a few fifties for them, but joined Queens on his return to the country. Just before moving up to the Academy in Harare he scored his first club century, 108 against MacDonald Club.

"I think the Academy has been very well organised and if you're a hard worker you can really get some valuable points out of being here," he says. "We've had Bob Woolmer and Carl Rackemann come and talk to us, and if you just listen and take in the information you can improve your game. I felt it was an honour to captain the Academy side against Midlands, and we won, which I was very happy about."

Ryan feels his main strength is his front-foot driving, while he also likes to hook and cut. He is working at present to improve his back-foot play. "I love the challenge of opening, getting the shine off the new ball, working ones and twos, getting a nice base on the scoreboard and then we can play our shots," he says. He generally fields in the cover or midwicket area and is working very hard on this area of the game.

Naming the coaches who have helped him the most over his career, Ryan names his father first of all, along with Bill Flower, who coached him at Under-13 level and still gives him regular advice. He also names Noel Peck, former national pace bowler and groundsman at Queens. "Every lunchtime he would come and bowl to me, or get a bowling machine, and tell me what to do," Ryan says. Also providing valuable advice were Graham Mackie, the Dolphins coach in Australia, and he had a session with Jimmy Cook once.

For the coming English season Ryan has signed a contract with West Derby in Liverpool, which will be his first experience of playing in that country.

Cricket heroes: "Grant Flower. I really admire the way he works out his game and how hard he trains, how much he puts into preparing for a game. He's a really hard worker, and we're both opening batsmen. Also Steve Waugh for mental toughness; I think he's brilliant. Sometimes he never looks like getting anything, but he'll end up getting a hundred. And Sir Donald Bradman."

Toughest opponents: "Bryan Strang I find very hard to read; he disguises his balls very well. I've played a lot against Adam Huckle; he turns the ball a lot and he's a very good bowler."

Immediate ambitions: "My main ambition is to play for the national side. I managed to get into the squad for the development side playing in the ICC tournament here, and by the end of the year my ambition is to represent either the Zimbabwe A side or the Board team."

Proudest achievement: "Whenever I contribute with my batting to a good team score, when I get an eighty or 100 and I know I've done my job and the team has won because of it. I can name one when I got an 80 against Peterhouse at school, when everyone was going out and I had to stay there and try to save the game. I batted with our last batsman (Ian Coulson, I think) and I rotated the strike; I was on 30 when he came in, and we ended up winning, getting 145."

Best friends in cricket: "Neil Ferreira - we've been together for so long that we know each other, and when one of us is going through a hard time we can help each other out. I'd like to get back and start opening the batting with him again."

Other qualifications: "I did a sporting fitness course in Australia which got me a certificate. When I came back I did a lot of marketing with my father in his business, which is raw materials, and I did a few courses while I did that."

Other sports: "I've represented the Zimbabwe Under-15 and Under-19 sides at hockey; I've played rugby in my junior years; I've played polocrosse for Zimbabwe Under-13; and I was captain of first-team tennis at Falcon."

Other interests and hobbies: "I love reading about sportsmen. I've just read a book about Michael Johnson and found it very interesting: his goals, how he did it, what he's achieved, how he goes about training, what he does to focus. I enjoy being social with friends, going out for a drink and getting away from the pressures."