FULL NAME: David Travolta Mutendera
BORN: 25 January 1979, at Highfield (Harare)
MAJOR TEAMS: Mashonaland. Present club team: Universals
KNOWN AS: David Mutendera. Nicknames: Diva; Curtley (as in
Ambrose, from his height); Courteney (from his admiration for
Courteney Walsh)
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Fast Medium
OCCUPATION: Student at Zimbabwe Cricket Academy
FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Zimbabwe Cricket Academy v Australian Cricket
Academy, 27 March 1999
TEST DEBUT: Still awaited to date
ODI DEBUT: Zimbabwe v Kenya, at Nairobi, 25 September 1999
BIOGRAPHY (October 1999)
For twenty years now the Zimbabwe Cricket Union has been
promoting cricket in the black townships of Harare. Certain
critics, ignorant of how long it takes to develop quality
cricketers with no home or cultural background in the sport, have
for a long time made cynical comments about the motives of those
responsible for it.
Now at last the first development cricketer has broken through to
the Zimbabwe national side, paving the way, it is hoped, for many
more to follow in years to come. The man in question is pace
bowler David Mutendera, who made his international debut in the
recent one-day series in Kenya.
David was born in 1979, the year before independence, in the
Harare high-density suburb of Highfield, although he grew up in
neighbouring Glen Norah, one of the first high-density areas
earmarked by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union for development. He went
to Shiriyedenga Primary School and followed his elder brother
into the game there in Grade 6, when his coach was Richard
Munjoma. He began as a wicket-keeper, a natural follow-up for
one who was a goal-keeper in soccer, but gradually switched over
to bowling in his second year. All his early cricket was played
on the concrete pitches built to give an early start to the game
in areas where cricket had never ventured before.
David's talent soon became evident. He did well in local matches
against other schools also in the development scheme and was
selected after only one year of cricket as a member of the Harare
South team to play in the national primary schools cricket week;
in his next year he captained the side. He was by now primarily
a fast bowler, quick for his age, who could also bat usefully.
It was his good fortune that his parents sacrificed a great deal
to send him to Prince Edward High School, always a stronghold of
cricket, again following his brother, who regrettably gave up the
game after Form Four. By the time he reached the Sixth Form,
though, the Zimbabwe Cricket Union had taken such an interest in
him that they awarded him a scholarship for his last two years at
high school. He lived 15 kilometres from the school and had to
commute there each day.
He won a place in the national Under-15 team and went on his
first tour with that side, to the South African Under-15 cricket
week in Bloemfontein. He missed the Under-18 side the following
year, but was a member the following two seasons. For much of
his time at Prince Edward he played as an all-rounder, batting in
the middle order with a highest score of 92 not out against St
John's. He also scored 52 against Western Province at
Grahamstown in his final Under-18 Week. Later, however, he
decided to concentrate more on his bowling. In his final year he
captained the side. His best bowling performance was a
seven-wicket haul, including a hat-trick, against the strong St
George's College team.
The next steps were the national Under-19 team to South Africa
for their cricket week, and then to England in 1997. In England
he played in two of the three unofficial Tests against the home
country's Under-19 side, which included such players as Andy
Flintoff, Chris Read, Graeme Swann and Paul Franks. He has fond
memories of Canterbury, where in the final match of the series he
took for wickets for 51 in the first innings.
The following home season he played in the Under-19 World Cup
tournament held in South Africa, and took five cheap wickets
against Papua-New Guinea in an overwhelming Zimbabwean victory.
However, he rated much more highly his spell of 10 overs for 13
runs without taking a wicket against Sri Lanka, when he bowled as
quickly and accurately as he has ever done.
While still at Prince Edward he began playing club cricket, at
first for the school's Old Boys association, Old Hararians.
Living so far from the school, though, he found transport
difficult, and the following season he was happy to switch to
Universals, as he had friends able to help him with transport to
that club, which is much closer to Glen Norah. He has played for
Universals ever since then.
David names Richard Munjoma and 'Bunny' Brereton, his Under-15
coach at Prince Edward, as important influences in his early
career, but believes that it was his time with Dennis Lillee at
the MRF Pace Bowling Foundation in Madras that really transformed
his career. His bowling action used to be very much a slinging
one, but Lillee made him get his arm high and worked on his
run-up and follow-through; even more important, though, was the
encouragement he received to believe in himself and realise his
own potential. He returned home a changed bowler, he states.
He finished the 1997/98 season in the Zimbabwe Board team which
played against the B sides of South African provinces. He then
went on a scholarship to the Plascon Academy in South Africa, but
unfortunately a season with a heavy workload had taken its toll
of his back. The ligaments in his lower back became inflamed,
and he had to return home from Plascon after three weeks. This
injury cost him ten months' cricket and put him out of most of
the 1998/99 season just as people were beginning to look at him
as a future international player.
He came back gradually and was offered a place in the first
intake of the new Zimbabwe Cricket Academy. He was still unable
to bowl at full pace, but was selected for the Academy's first
match, against the visiting Australian Cricket Academy team. The
local team was overwhelmed, but David was able to take three
wickets in the match. This to date has been his only first-class
match.
In 1999 he had another and much more successful spell for four
months at the Plascon Academy. He began slowly, aware of his
recent injury, but then improved. He gained particular benefit
from the physical fitness side which helped to strengthen his
body.
After two impressive club games at the start of the 1999/2000
season, the Zimbabwean selectors pounced on their man, selecting
him for the quadrangular tournament in Kenya. He admits he had
not done much to be selected for the tour itself, but had
doubtless been selected mainly for his past performances and
potential, as well as the good report he had received at Plascon.
David enjoyed the tour, where he was made to feel very much at
home by his team-mates, who are still mostly white. He opened
the bowling in the first match against Kenya, when he remembers
the great support and encouragement he had from his opening
partner Neil Johnson in particular and indeed the whole team. He
soon learned, though, that in inter-national cricket there is a
very small margin for error, which was brought home to him in the
match against South Africa, where Lance Klusener devastated the
Zimbabwean attack for a dynamic century on a flat batting pitch.
He found Klusener was able to punish even his good balls, and
conceded 26 runs in his four-over opening spell, as did Johnson,
despite winning credit for using the new ball well.
Despite his failure to take a wicket, David was pleased with his
tour, and clearly others were too, as he was selected in the
twelve for the Test match against the Australians. The
expectation was, though, that should all players remain fit he
would be twelfth man, which would nevertheless be an invaluable
experience for one who can hope for a long and successful
international career in the future.
David is six foot four inches tall and his main asset is the lift
he can extract from a good length off the pitch, using his height
well. His stock delivery is the off-cutter, although he can also
bowl the ball that moves the other way. He realises, though,
that it can be fatal to experiment in one-day cricket, and with
50-over club matches predominant in Zimbabwe he does not have
much freedom to try out new developments in the middle. His
one-day philosophy, quickly learned, is to let the batsman make
the mistakes by bowling a tight line and length and maintaining
the pressure; he names Adam Dale of Australia as a bowler who is
an example worth copying in one-day cricket. His batting ability
is still evident, and the likelihood is that he will, given time
and experience, develop into a very useful all-round player.