Dave Houghton's view: the Academy players

Dave Houghton, former national team coach, is now coaching at the CFX Academy and is in the best position to assess this year's intake of Zimbabwe's most promising young players. Here is his `report'.

Last week we asked him to give his views on our international players and also promising youngsters, and he would like to add two players he left out.

DION EBRAHIM is probably the most promising young batsman we have - and he scores hundreds. He's not a very good starter, but once he gets in he makes big scores, so I would think he must be high on the list as the next possible to get into the national side in the batting department. He has scored two hundreds in his last three games for the B side, and is probably the best fielder in the country as well.

TATENDA TAIBU `Taibs' still has one more year at school, and I can't speak highly enough about him. I haven't seen a batsman with that ability since Graeme Hick; he's a very, very high quality batsman. We played a two-day game here last Monday and Tuesday, Under-19s versus the Academy; he made 110 and I had to retire him as he was dominating so much. He played yesterday in the Joe Partridge Memorial at Old Hararians, on a wet pitch, and he made 48 where other players on both sides could hardly hold a bat on it. He never looked in any trouble at any stage. He's a class above everyone else we've got. His keeping has come on in leaps and bounds as well, and he could walk into the national side tomorrow.

Quite rightly he has decided that he won't play any cricket outside this country for another year, until he has finished his A-levels. I think that's absolutely right as he must get his education behind him first. But from the day he leaves school I think he will be in the national side until the day he stops playing cricket. He's a lovely kid and I can't wait for him to get out of school and play in the national side.

Now for the Academy students:

COLIN DELPORT `Delps' is our main wicket-keeper at the Academy; quite good behind the stumps with good hands, and he's doing quite well with the bat as well. How far he goes I'm not too sure. At the moment he's a good solid player who should probably play some first-class cricket as well. I've got a bit of time for him; he plays straight and hits the ball hard, but at the end of the day only eleven players can play for the national side. At the moment as a keeper-batsman he's not going to displace Andy Flower or the up-and-coming one, Taibu. It's going to be quite hard for him, so my suggestion to him would be really to concentrate on his batting.

TRAVIS FRIEND is one of the guys who has really come on during the year at the Academy. I think one of the values of the Academy playing against international sides is that he had the chance to be exposed at that level, which resulted in his being picked. Last year Travis as a schoolboy was in between bowling leg-spin and bowling seam. And he batted well; he was really more of a batsman than a bowler. This year he's come on and he's probably the quickest bowler in the country by some distance now. He's got one or two niggling little injuries that are a worry for a youngster, but he's also a top-quality batsman. When he does play in the national side they are putting him down at number ten, and this kid can comfortably hold his own at five or six. So I think he's got a big future for us. As I say, in terms of consistent speed I don't think I've seen anyone that quick since James Carse. He's aggressive when he feels confident in a match and I think, just the couple of times I've seen him play international cricket he's been a little timid at the moment. But he'll grow into it. If you watch him in league he's aggressive because he feels he dominates that area, so he's comfortable and confident within himself. He lacks a bit of confidence, but it'll come as he plays a bit more and gets a bit of success under his belt.

DOUGLAS HONDO is a second-year student who has come on in leaps and bounds. He has made his way into the Board XI now as an opening bowling. He has some good pace when he wants it; he can reverse-swing the ball which is always good, especially in one-day cricket at the end, and his batting has developed as well. I play club cricket with him in Kwekwe and he bats at eight for us there, and he's made contributions in every game I've played - thirties and forties. He has good all-round ability and his career is just starting now. From all the reports I've had from Trevor Penney he's been very impressive. So again, one for the future.

RYAN KING. I don't know a lot about Ryan. He spent the season playing grade cricket in Australia before he came here. He opens the batting - purely a batsman who doesn't bowl and a decent fielder. He's a hard worker and a great trier, but I'm not sure how far he's going to go in the game. He hasn't really dominated any of the league attacks as yet. I think he's the sort of guy who if he does progress in the game it will be in the longer version. He's not a swashbuckling opening batsman; he occupies the crease, and has a couple of fifties and sixties in league but has a long way to go still. He's a little laid-back, but it's better to be laid-back than suicidal!

GREG LAMB, I think,is probably our best student. This is his second year; he was only a youngster of 17 in his first year so we kept him back. He's turned himself into an off-spinner; used to be a little right-arm seamer, but is probably the best off-spinner in the country at the moment. He has a nice loop, turns the ball a long way, and a spinner's attitude: he's prepared to be hit in order to take wickets. He couples that with some really good batting in the middle order, and it won't be long now before we see him on the international scene, especially as our national team doesn't have a spinner who turns the ball that way. He's done well in the B side, so I don't think it will be too long before we see him having a crack in the main side. He's a good fielder and he's got a good attitude. I think he'll go a long way.

CLEMENT MAHACHI came here basically as a left-arm seamer with not much of a reputation as a batsman. His seam bowling is still handy - nice variation, not quick, but swings balls into the left-handers and a bit away, so he has nice attributes with the bowling. But what really has been impressive is just how much he has improved as a batsman, and I would think now he could comfortably bat at number four or five in any side. He's got a really sound technique. When I first saw him he had no power at all and could hardly hit the ball off the square, but he has developed that in the last two to three months and can play some really good shots. Again I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in Logan Cup if he's given the opportunity to bat. He's playing for Mac Club in Bulawayo in the league, which is quite a weak side, and he's ending up 15 or 20 not out, so we haven't really seen the best of him with the bat. He has really developed and I'm quite impressed with him.

ALESTER MAREGWEDE is a pretty handy keeper and top-order batsman, one of the guys who has come through the full scholarship scheme and development scheme from twelve years old. He has lots of ability and a good batsman; I wouldn't have said his keeping was his strong point, although he keeps adequately. He plays his first-league cricket for Universals this year and is one of the few who has scored a century for us at the Academy this year. I think he's got a decent future, and of course it's nice to see some batsmen of colour coming through, something we haven't really produced at international level as yet. But in the next year or two there are a couple coming through who can hold the bat really well. Alester is one of them.

MLULEKI NKALA `Syke' has spent probably two weeks in the Academy this year. We knew a lot about him as a youngster and have been checking his progress since he was 14 or 15. He has played very well for the Under-19s since the age of 16. He was here at the Academy for two weeks this year before he was sent to the West Indies and he's been with the national side ever since. Really I know as much about him as anybody else who has been watching the television.

I think he's been finding life a bit tough in the Test arena and could probably have done with spending more time here before he actually played. When he started off it was all relatively simple; he was getting a few runs and a few wickets, and since then he's been finding life very tough. But he's got lots of ability, and once he gets through this and understands international cricket a lot better he'll go on to be a good player. That's sometimes the danger when you stick somebody in too young, but the one thing you get when you stick them in too young is they have no fear, because they've been dominating school cricket and they think it's much the same when they go on the international scene. It's only after they've played for a short while that things start to catch up with them. As I say, he's finding it tough at the moment but this is a good learning curve for him. While it's tough like this he'll learn, and two or three years down the road he will know how to deal with these situations.

RICHARD SIMS started here as a little off-spin bowler from school and a half-decent batsman; a tad overweight, he wasn't fit, but over this year I think he's worked the hardest. He's a big strong lad now, fit, with no fat on him at all. His off-spinning has come on really well, and he's learned a lot from these last two or three months in particular. He's still not batting as well as he could do; I think he's tight, holds the bat hard and wants to smack the ball hard. If he just relaxed with the bat and let his natural ability flow through he would succeed in that area as well. But at the moment I'm not really sure how far he will go; he could be a decent first-class player and hopefully one day get into one of the international sides, but his off-spinning at the moment is a better department than his batting. A tremendous fielder, with great hands in the slips; a tremendous arm. I would say he has more chance of making it as a spinner who can bat a bit rather than a bowler who can bat a bit.

ANDREW STONE is a good player; still only 17 and very young for the Academy. He's leaving next year to further his education in Australia ` and will hopefully be back here in a couple of years' time. Technically he's probably the best batsman we've got here, but again, impatience gets him out more than anything else; lovely thirties and out. He bowls some quite tidy little seam stuff at a Nathan-Astle sort of pace with the keeper standing up, but batting is really his forte. It will be interesting to see how he develops. I see he's in the Zimbabwe Under-19 side again and he's got a decent future as a batsman. It will be interesting to see what happens when he gets back from Australia.

ALEX TAYLOR is the grandfather of this Academy! He's the oldest by two or three years, so he's seen a bit of life before he's come here. For the first half of the year he struggled to adapt to the almost back-to-school type of regimen. He came here as a fast bowler - pretty quick but all over the shop, with no real rhyme or reason to his bowling, just get it down there as quick as you can. He had a stress fracture in the back as a result of that, and when I got here in October that's how I saw him. He had no sort of batting ability of any type. What we've done is remoulded his bowling action, we've got him bowling again off a shorter run now as he is recovering from his stress fracture. Beautiful outswingers with the seam upright, and we haven't yet seen the best of him off his long run because of this stress fracture; it's going to take him two or three months to get over that fully. But he's learnt, and with the change we've put into his action, if he adds that to his longer run and the pace that he can deliver he could be a useful fast bowler. Of course while he's had this stress fracture he's been working on his batting and become quite consistent. He hits the ball a country mile; I wouldn't say he'll be a top-order batsman, but somebody coming in at eight or nine at the back end of an innings, with the ability to smash the ball like he can, second innings going to be good value. So I'm interested to see how he'll develop in the next year or so.

JOHN VAUGHAN-DAVIES is a good all-rounder; a left-handed batsman who gives the ball a good smack around the ground, and bowls nice right-arm medium-pace and swings the ball around; no great pace, but a useful contributor. He struggles with patience; he likes to smack the ball all the time and he likes to bowl bouncers, slower balls and everything. Once he learns patience, he has all the attributes that will make him a good cricketer. He just has to learn a little more discipline on the field in terms of his own performance. I think he's the sort of guy you would look to as a one-day specialist for the future.

KINGSLEY WENT, from Mutare, is an off-spinner and a late-order batsman, but hasn't really dominated in any area. He's a nice kid, tries hard, lots of energy, good fielder, but still bowls one bad ball an over. On the battings side he looks quite good, with quite a nice technique, but gets out for 15 and 20. So I haven't really seen him get in and dominate an innings yet, or dominate with the ball at any stage. I'm not sure how far he's going. You know, when I look at a guy like Kingsley Went, when you pick 15 or 16 to come to the Academy, you obviously don't think they are all going to end up Test players, but we still want to produce better quality league players and better quality first-class players - and good coaches if they want to get into that side of the game. But while they're young enough to play they must obviously play because it will strengthen our league as well as the Logan Cup. Somebody like Kingsley at the moment is still learning. Hopefully he'll go away with some of the stuff he has learned from here and succeed a little bit in league cricket, and maybe go on to play first-class. Especially in Manicaland at the moment they need players of his standard.

JASON YOUNG is also a second-year student who was quite young last year. He's also come on nicely. A tremendous fielder who bowls lively medium-pace and hits the ball nice and clean. He's a little bit like John Vaughan-Davies in terms of patience. He wants to see the ball racing into the picket fence all the time; he comes on to bowl and instead of the discipline likes to bowl bouncers and slower balls - a bit impatient, but I think he's got a half-decent future. If he just learns a little bit of discipline on the field, within himself and his own game, he'll go a long way as well. I would suggest he's more likely to feature in the one-dayers rather than the longer stuff. He did play a couple of long innings in the Logan Cup last season, which was good for us and showed that he'd learnt a little bit. He doesn't really get a good enough chance in our league, coming in at number six or seven with ten overs to go, and that doesn't help when you're trying to teach people to play long innings at the crease. So I'm looking forward to see him playing in the Logan Cup again, to see if he is really continued in that learning vein.