Craig Wishart: the Board XI on tour

Craig Wishart, now aged 26, has for several years been recognized as one of Zimbabwe's most talented batsmen. But, growing up a little behind the players who quickly established themselves in the side on Zimbabwe's promotion to Test cricket in 1992, such as the Flower brothers, Alistair Campbell and Guy Whittall, he has never been given an extended run in the Test team.

He has shown that he has the talent to succeed at the top level. When Grant Flower was injured for the Indian visit of two years ago, he opened the batting in his stead, and a close Test match would probably not have been won were it not for Craig's innings of 21 and 63, in opening partnerships of 42 and 138 with Gavin Rennie. In the third one-day international he scored a superb match-winning century. But, when Grant returned, it was a case of back to the ranks, number seven or nothing for Craig, as the first six places in the batting order were all accounted for, now that Murray Goodwin and Neil Johnson had arrived.

According to his colleagues, Craig tends to be a nervous player who finds it hard to believe in his own ability, so on the odd occasions when he does get a decent crack of the whip he often finds it difficult to do himself justice. A knee injury also handicapped him last season and in the triangular tournament in England, when it put him out of the triangular tournament, Guy Whittall taking over his position as opening partner to Neil Johnson.

After Johnson's departure, together with that of Murray Goodwin, places were up for grabs and Craig had his chance along with several others. Before the First Test against New Zealand he believed he was in the Test team, only to be told just before the match that the side had been changed and he had been omitted for pace bowler David Mutendera. The Zimbabwe Cricket Union insisted that only the final twelve had been named, but the Zimbabwe players believed that outside interference had caused the change. Vice-captain Guy Whittall felt so strongly about that that he withdrew from the side, and Craig had his place in the team back. According to a source close to the team, he was so upset about the affair that he had to be persuaded to play, and was hardly likely to make a success of it under the circumstances. Scores of 17 and 1 at number six saw him give way again to Whittall for the Second Test.

He was given first shot at opening with Alistair Campbell in the first one-day international, but scored only 7. He was again dropped from the team for the second match, to be replaced by the cool Doug Marillier, who immediately impressed with 27 and 46. Craig failed again in the ICC Knockout Competition, under pressure of constantly having to play for his place from one match to another, and so missed the trip to India. Instead his representative cricket was to be for the Zimbabwe Board XI playing the B sides of South African provinces in the UCBSA Bowl Competition.

"Internationally I've struggled a bit, but in all the other cricket I've played this season I've been doing very well," Craig says. "I've got four hundreds so far." Pressed for details, he names them as being scored for the Zimbabwe Board XI against Northerns, and also in matches against the CFX Academy, twice, and Harare Sports Club.

He has been batting at number four or five this season. He originally turned to opening the innings as he felt this was the position most likely to be open to him in the national side, but he now says very definitely, "I do not like opening the batting and I do not think I'm an opening batsman either. I prefer the middle order. It gives me more time, the ball's a little older and that's where I prefer to bat."

With Zimbabwe's openers struggling this season, though, and Grant Flower blatantly out of form and confidence, it is possible that the selectors might return to Craig and ask him to open again for them. "Yes, sure, but on preference I'd rather not do it," he says. "I believe I'm a better middle-order player. I tend not to move my feet early on. When the ball's a little bit older you can get away with it, and then once I'm in I try and make it count."

I recalled his successes opening the batting against India two years ago. "That was great," he smiled. "I enjoyed that, but I always felt even at that stage I was put in there only because something else had happened: Grant was injured. I still think my niche is further down the order."

That may happen, but with numbers three to six apparently booked long-term by Carlisle, Campbell, Andy Flower and Whittall, the only option, barring injury to one of them, would appear to be number seven, where so many fringe players have been sent in for Zimbabwe, with limited success, especially in the one-day internationals.

So would he really prefer number seven to number two? He laughed. "Number seven? That's another dodgy one! I'd like to have a game, or a couple of games, in the middle order at number four or five. That's where I'd LIKE to go. But obviously the competition I'm up against, with guys like Andy [Flower], who's a fantastic cricketer, maybe I'll just have to wait for my turn. Simple - keep scoring runs, get hundreds, and then hopefully they might give me a game or two in the position where I score my runs."

Craig's injured knee, he is confident, is now quite mended and he is also `bowling my filthy little seamers here and there'. He picked up four wickets against Harare Sports Club but only a couple of overs in the one-dayers on tour. "It's nice to do a bit of both because if you don't score you can bowl, and vice-versa."

Craig, wanting his Zimbabwe place back, was naturally highly motivated to succeed on the recent Board XI tour to South Africa, which comprised three-day and one-day matches against both Northerns B and Gauteng B. "You've got to get hundreds to get picked in the national side," he says, "and I set myself the goal of getting two hundreds. I got one, but the second pitch we played on was a little dodgy - bowler-friendly to say the least."

The first match was the three-day affair as Northerns, played at the L.C. de Villiers Oval in Pretoria. On a fairly flat pitch, Northerns scored 361 and 224 for six declared, and the Board XI 322 for seven declared in a drawn game. Craig (129) went in with his team struggling, until Greg Lamb joined him and they turned the tables. "He played very well for his 70," Craig says, "and when we bowled Dirk Viljoen got six wickets, bowling really well; he just stuck to his discipline.

"In the second innings the wicket got fairly bad, to be honest. There was a lot of uneven bounce and they set us a target to chase. We ended up 104 for seven, but the guys played really well and the match was drawn. It was good pitch to start with and a good side we were up against. We counted seven or eight first-team players, so it was a very strong Northerns B side."

He rated their bowling attack highly: "They had Bryson, Ferreira, Joubert, de Vos and Still - all those guys have played in the first team regularly. It was probably one of the strongest B teams we've played against." But it was a good pitch and none of them gave Craig any particular trouble. "You just had to concentrate and stick to your limitations and the way you play, and you scored runs."

Of the Zimbabwe bowlers, Craig again mentions Dirk Viljoen, with his six wickets. "Pom Mbangwa bowled well; he just stuck to his normal line and length and got a couple of wickets."

The one-day match was exciting, with Northerns kicking off with 221 for six. "Craig Evans bowled really well, taking two for 57, and when we batted the run chase was on. Gregory Lamb got 58; he played really well first half and then seemed to struggle a little bit second half. I got 45, and we all just chipped in; Craig and Dirk got 37 and 27 apiece, and we won the game off the last ball. Quite a cracker, actually. Another good batting pitch, though; good deck."

Then came the matches against Gauteng. "The three-day game was a bowler's dream," Craig recalls. "It was very, very green and it was wet. I think the preparation was poor." This match was played at the Rand Afrikaans University. "We batted first and scored 120, and of that Dirk Viljoen got 20-odd, I got 20, and some of the other guys chipped in here and there.

"When we bowled, they were all out for 108; Craig Evans got a hat-trick, and Dougie Hondo bowled very, very well. He's got good potential, Douglas Hondo. In the second innings we made a bit of a botch of it, to be honest. We played too many bad shots and were 140 ahead, and they knocked it off with four down. Dean Laing played very well for Gauteng; he got 60-odd not out, very positive and hit the bad balls. We didn't bowl well enough, simple; we didn't get enough balls in the right area second time round."

The match was over in two days, so the one-day match, scheduled for the Sunday, was brought forward to Saturday and played at the Wanderers Stadium. "The wicket again was under-prepared and very green, for a one-day game, anyway. We won the game off Duckworth-Lewis; we were 130 for four chasing 207." Rain delayed the start and then caused a further interruption towards the end.

"We were seven runs ahead on Duckworth-Lewis," Craig recalls. "Mark Vermeulen made 59. Donald Campbell played very well; he went in as a pinch-hitter and got 40 off hardly any balls at all." It was 34 balls, actually. "And it was good to win."

Dirk Viljoen was captaining the side, taking over from Gavin Rennie who was on tour in India. When Craig was asked about younger players who impressed on tour, he immediately mentioned Greg Lamb. "As I've always said, I think Gregory Lamb has very good potential. Douglas Hondo as a bowler did very well. He ran in and just did the basics, moved the ball off the seam all the time. Those two stand out in my mind.

"We need to play more cricket like that, every weekend," is Craig's opinion. "If we're to improve as a nation, we've got to play more regularly against opposition like that. It was a good tour. We have another game starting on Thursday against Easterns, so I hope we can do well then."