Craig Evans - a short biography
MAJOR TEAMS: Zimbabwe (since 1990/91), Mashonaland Under-24 (1993/94), Mashonaland (since 1994/95)
John Ward
04-Nov-1999
FULL NAME: Craig Neil Evans
BORN: 29 November 1969, Salisbury (now Harare)
MAJOR TEAMS: Zimbabwe (since 1990/91), Mashonaland Under-24
(1993/94), Mashonaland (since 1994/95). Present club team: Old
Georgians (Harare).
KNOWN AS: Craig Evans. Nickname 'Moggy'
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Medium Pace
OCCUPATION: Tobacco auctioneer
FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Zimbabwe B v Pakistan B, at Harare South
Country Club, 3 October 1990
TEST DEBUT: First Test v Sri Lanka, at Colombo, 1996/97
ODI DEBUT: 25 October 1992, v India, at Harare
Biography (updated November 1999)
Craig Evans has been one of Zimbabwe's most frustrating
cricketers. Although abounding in natural talent, in the past he
often appeared not to take the game seriously enough and to waste
the opportunities he had. Craig himself admits that in the past
he lacked full commitment to the game, but in his late twenties
his priorities changed. He achieved his aim of a regular place
in the national one-day team, although his hopes of becoming an
established Test player look like remaining unfulfilled.
Craig, like so many of the country's other top cricketers,
attended Ruzawi School and Falcon College. The Ruzawi
headmaster, Bryan Curtis, was his first major formal influence,
but he also had much encouragement from his father on the family
farm near Harare. His first century, he thinks, was scored for
Ruzawi against St John's School in Harare when he was about ten
years of age. Representing the Districts in the primary schools
cricket week in his final year at Ruzawi, Craig opened the
batting and scored three centuries in five days. Unfortunately
for him, in those days there was no official national primary
schools team. He considers himself to have been mainly a
batsman, but as a pace bowler his peers found him frighteningly
fast. Tall and well-built, he was much quicker than any other
junior school player at that time, but he admits that he did not
always fully apply himself or try his hardest.
At Falcon College, he usually batted at Number 3 or 4 and opened
the bowling, and was selected for the first team at the age of
15. They went on a tour to Australia, which was Craig's first
experience of top-level cricket outside the local scene.
Throughout his school years he and Glen Bruk-Jackson played
together and shared many excellent batting partnerships; there
was a degree of rivalry between them, but Craig also felt Glen to
be an encouragement to him, one who helped to give him
confidence. Although in the national schools team, Craig felt
that Zimbabwe's comparative isolation in those days before the
granting of Test status and the reinstatement of South Africa was
a handicap to himself and his contemporaries, depriving them of a
vital part of their cricketing education and experience.
Craig was already playing in the Mashonaland Country Districts
Winter Cricket League, for Enterprise, under the captaincy of
Roger Staunton, who also gave him much help and encouragement.
Later on he moved to Ruwa, as his father moved farms, and played
for the Goromonzi team. Craig's highest score in any class of
cricket is 253, playing for Goromonzi now against Shamva in the
semi-final of the Lilthurbridge Cup competition in 1997. This
broke the league record of 245, set by Kevin Arnott. Craig still
plays winter cricket, liking to keep in touch all year round. In
1997 he scored five centuries, including his 253, and also 151
against Glendale in the victorious final.
On leaving high school and moving to Harare, Craig joined Old
Georgians Sports Club. The captain at that time, Kevin Murphy,
wanted him to concentrate on his batting, and Craig found his
bowling losing pace and rhythm. He has never again approached
the speed, comparatively speaking, at which he bowled during his
school years, but he began to work harder at his bowling again to
assist him in his efforts to cement his place in Zimbabwe's
one-day team.
During that Zimbabwean winter, he decided to get some experience
overseas in England, and played for the Lancashire club Widnes
for six months. He averaged 60 with the bat and took some good
wickets, enjoying the experience, but found the English pitches
much slower than those at home and took a while adjusting on his
return. He was temporarily dropped to the second team at Old
Georgians, but responded with an innings of 175 not out, which
regained him his place. His job in the tobacco industry has
since prevented him from returning to English cricket.
He felt that the 1996/97 season was an above average season for
him; he kept his place in the one-day team almost throughout and
enjoyed a good triangular series in South Africa. The highlights
were innings of 40 and 43, both against India, the latter being
scored in a vital partnership with Paul Strang and leading
eventually to a thrilling Zimbabwean victory. He opted out of
the visit to Sharjah, staying at home for the birth of his son.
He felt that he matured further as a cricketer during the season
and finished as a better player. He was now thinking more like a
cricketer and playing straighter.
He did play one Test match, on the tour to Sri Lanka, but without
success. His aim was to earn a Test place batting at number 6 or
7, as a batsman who can also bowl, but realised that there was
more work to be done first. He names Chaminda Vaas, an
impressive 'thinking bowler', and Heath Streak as the best
bowlers he has faced during his career.
He kept up his reputation as a one-day specialist into the
1997/98 season, but did little with the bat in nine matches,
until he played a valuable innings of 48 not out in the second
final against Kenya. He took some useful wickets at times,
especially against New Zealand at home, but then lost his rhythm,
and realised that his place was in danger unless he could perform
with more consistency.
He did not find that consistency immediately, playing just one
good innings in the rest of the season, 46 off 34 balls against
India in Baroda as Zimbabwe chased a target of 275 bravely but in
vain. His bowling improved against Pakistan and helped to keep
his place in the side, and he feels he bowled better than he
batted in India. He now had a reputation, though, as a batsman
who might fail nine times out of ten but was liable to play a
devastating innings the tenth time round. Unfortunately the
following season was to see the absence of that tenth innings.
He felt he was finding his best batting form again against India
at home, with one-day innings of 34, 17 and 31 at an
ever-increasing strike rate. He also played another Test match,
but only because several first-choice players were injured, and
was sadly the only player in the team who failed to make a
significant contribution to the victory over India. It seems
unlikely he will play Test cricket again.
In Sharjah he took three wickets for 11 runs, a remarkable
one-day return, against Sri Lanka, but failed with the bat.
After a few further failures with the bat in Sharjah and Pakistan
the selectors decided to look elsewhere. To his disappointment
Craig was left out of the Bangladesh tournament and also the
World Cup.
He was rather puzzled by his own failures as he felt confident
going out to bat, yet failed to produce the goods. He admitted
that his bowling too was not as consistent as it should have been
and realised that once again he would have to work harder at his
game to fight his way back. He was given another chance in
Singapore at the start of the 1999/2000 season, his selection
owing a lot to the fact that the matches would be played on a
small ground where his ability to hit sixes would be of extra
value. But, with scores of 2 and 0, he failed to reach the
boundary at all and was again omitted when he returned.
Golf has been the main rival for Craig's affections, and he has
been rated as the best amateur golfer in the country, playing off
scratch. "You need to practise to stay in the golf camp," says
Craig, "and you can't really play cricket when you're playing
golf, and you can't play golf when you're playing cricket. There
are two different styles of play: golf using the right hand and
cricket using the left hand. When I was playing a lot of golf, I
wasn't totally committed to cricket. The golf took up a lot of
my time when I should have been concentrating on cricket, so my
cricket fell behind quite a long way. But during these last two
years [said in 1997] I've started to catch up now, virtually
starting all over again. If I had concentrated more on cricket
and left my golf for a while, I would have been all right." It
is, in fact, the greatest regret of his career that he did not
concentrate exclusively on cricket from the start, as his
development has been retarded as a result.
As a big hitter and a bowler who can turn his arm over usefully
for a few overs, Craig fits the image more of a one-day cricketer
rather than a Test player. He is a very powerful hitter, and
against the visiting county Northamptonshire in 1994/95 hit a
ball at Harare Sports Club over the swimming pool and full on to
the roof of the squash courts, a remarkable carry. In a Vigne
Cup (Mashonaland league) semi-final in 1998/99 he scored a
remarkable 159 not out against an admittedly weak Alexandra
Sports Club bowling attack. He reached his century off 87 balls,
and took only another 12 deliveries to reach 150, hitting
altogether 11 fours and 9 sixes off 105 balls. A gigantic six
off Sean Davies not only went out of the ground, but also cleared
the tall trees on the edge of the ground and a private house on
the far side.
He is essentially a straight hitter who plays down the line and
is not afraid to hit over the top. Because of his experience
opening the innings, he has at times been asked to do so in
one-day internationals, but with little success. "My technique
and defence against the quicker bowlers is not really up to
scratch," he admits, which is part of the reason also why he has
rarely been considered for Tests. "But I have been working on it
over the last couple of years, and it's a little better. But
it's got to be a hell of a lot better when you're playing in this
kind of league! My foot movement is not great, and I'm looking
to improve that over the next couple of years. Facing the likes
of Heath Streak, Henry Olonga and Eddo Brandes in the nets, you
can't help but get better!"
Craig names Grant Flower, his colleague at Old Georgians, as the
man who has helped him the most in his cricket, through both good
and lean times, "but I try to do things myself, my own way, which
is very wrong." Craig's honest analysis of his own faults and
his determination to overcome them helped him to secure a place
in the national one-day side for more than two years.
He maintains his enthusiasm for club cricket and continues to
make good scores and hit big sixes with regularity, but he faces
a difficult task if he is to regain his place in the national
side, even for one-day cricket. Close to his thirtieth birthday,
he realises that younger players will have preference, but he is
still eager to play international cricket again. It remains to
be seen whether his determination is sufficient.