Craig Wishart

Craig Wishart is a capable top-order batsman and an attacking strokeplayer who took a while to do justice to his talent: it wasn't until his 18th Test, against Bangladesh at Chittagong, that he hit a century. He wasn't helped by the selectors, who tended to mess him around by moving him up and down the order and regularly leaving him out of the side. For a time this clearly affected his self-belief. Used more in the one-day internationals, he played in every game of the 2003 World Cup and started off with a bang, belting 172 not out against Namibia, but then faded as Zimbabwe petered out of the competition. Wishart is yet another product of Falcon College, where he excelled as a schoolboy. His father played for Rhodesia B and died in a car crash shortly after the Zimbabwe squad landed in Australia for the 2003-04 tour, which Wishart was part of. He was one of the 15 players involved in the dispute which followed the sacking of Heath Streak in April 2004, and like the other rebels, that seemed to mark the end of a promising international career. He did return to the side in 2005, but again fell out with the board after refusing to sign a new and controversial contract. This time he had had enough and retired, another in a long line of useful players forced out by the politics of the game in Zimbabwe.
Geoffrey Dean