Douglas Hondo - a short biography

FULL NAME: Douglas Tafadzwa Hondo

BORN: 7 July 1979, at Bulawayo

MAJOR TEAMS: Zimbabwe Cricket Academy. Present club side: Universals

KNOWN AS: Douglas/Doug Hondo

BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat

BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Fast Medium

OCCUPATION: Student at CFX Academy

FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Still awaited

TEST DEBUT: Still awaited

ODI DEBUT: Still awaited

BIOGRAPHY (March 2000)

Although at the time of writing Douglas Hondo has yet to make his first-class debut, largely due to injuries, he is regarded as one of Zimbabwe's most promising young cricketers. He has recently returned from a three-week course at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, India, where he has learned from Dennis Lillee, and is in his second year at the CFX Academy in Harare.

Like most of Zimbabwe's young black players, Douglas had no parental guidance in the game - which was not their fault - but he does have an older brother who first introduced him to the game. His brother attended Queensdale Primary School where the late Peter Sharples built a strong cricket team from boys like the Hondos with no family background in the sport, and this was Douglas' first connection with the game. Unfortunately his brother gave up cricket at high school when he began to play the bagpipes in Churchill's famous band. He has a younger brother Daniel who is now 17 and has played for the national Under-13 and U17 teams.

In Grade 2 Douglas himself joined Mr Sharples' cricket group, encouraged by the enthusiasm and fun that were always part of the coaching sessions. He played for the school colts team from Grades 3 to 5, and then the school first team in Grades 6 and 7, when he was captain both years. He played as an all-rounder, opening both batting and bowling. In a match against Courteney Selous School he took nine wickets for 4 runs as they were bowled out for 8, and his highest score was 68 not out against Nettleton School. He thinks he averaged about 40 with the bat in junior school. He represented Harare East in the national primary schools cricket week in his Grade 7 year but did not produce any outstanding performances.

From Queensdale Douglas followed his brother to Churchill Boys High School where he was immediately given a place in the school Under-15 team; he captained them the following year and in Form 3 he progressed to the first team, still as an all-rounder. In that year he took seven wickets for 10 runs against Gateway High School in the Prince Edward festival. He scored several fifties for the school team, and also an innings of 121 against Hillcrest. Peter Sharples was again his coach, having moved to Churchill School, partly perhaps at least to keep up his work with the boys he had coached so well.

In representative cricket Doug played for Mashonaland at Under-13 level, without making the national side, but in 1994 he was a member of the national Under-15 team to go to the South African Week in Bloemfontein. The following season he played in a warm-up match against England Under-19s and in the Zone 6 tournament in South Africa, which was won by Zimbabwe.

Unfortunately a back injury put him out of contention for a year, which meant that he missed the Zimbabwe Under-19 tour of England in 1997. During this time he kept himself going by bowling spin! He returned to cricket the following year without great success, but he applied for a place in the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy. He was put on the waiting list and eventually offered a place in January 1999.

Injury hampered him a great deal during his first term, pulling an intercostal muscle during a warm-up in wet conditions which put him out of the Academy match against England A. He kept fit with some cross-country runs, but then missed the match against Denmark when he lost a toenail.

He spent the off-season in England, enjoying a successful season playing for Lydney in Gloucestershire. He opened the bowling and batted at number six; he averaged 38 with the bat and took 38 wickets at an average of 19 in the league. His highest score was 127 against King's School Staff, his highest score in any kind of cricket, 81 not out and six wickets for 61 against Froster, the top team in the league (Lydney still lost), and 85 against a strong Cheltenham team. CFX Academy director Gwynne Jones says that the club reported that he was the best overseas player they ever had - past signings had included Sri Lankan Test players. He worked well there with the youngsters and they are keen for him to return in 2000.

The main benefit he obtained from playing in England, he feels, was that he learned to bowl much more accurately, length in particular. The slow pitches there turned short balls into long hops, while he found he was driven if he overpitched. He also experimented with inswing, with some success, and feels that playing cricket so much, in addition to gym training, developed his strength.

Douglas did not enjoy much success on his return to Zimbabwe, but he was offered a second year at the Academy. Early in 2000 he went to India for coaching with Dennis Lillee, along with David Mutendera, and learned a great deal about all aspects of bowling which he is working to apply to his game. Lillee straightened up his entire action, improving his balance, helping him to conserve his energy without losing pace, and improving his fitness and suppleness. He can move the ball both ways off the pitch and claims to have three slower balls! He has also been working hard to develop his leg-cutter and his inswinger is improving all the time.

Douglas is also keen to improve his batting, but he still goes in at number eleven in club cricket, frequently not getting a bat at all and giving him little opportunity to display his progress. His school and English performances prove that he has much more batting ability than he is generally credited with, and he feels he is able to bat either defensively or aggressively according to the situation.

Douglas started playing club cricket when in Form 4, for the Churchill-based club Winstonians. The following year he was injured, but on his return he moved to Sunrise Sports Club for a higher standard of cricket. He returned from England to find cricket at that club also stagnating, so he moved to Universals so as to be able to keep playing in the first league. He finds all the players there most helpful, especially David Mutendera, Everton Matambanadzo and Ali Shah, who are all bowlers who can help him technically and also on the mental side of the game.

As a pace bowler Doug usually fields on the boundary, but he prefers the covers or slips. He takes a pride in his speed in the field, diving a lot, catching very safely and saving many singles.

He finds Andy Flower as the batsman who has caused him the most trouble so far in his career. "It seems like you're never going to get him out," he says. He remembers on the various occasions he has bowled to Andy he had him dropped perhaps three times, but has yet actually to take his wicket.

The next step, Douglas feels, is for him to force his way into the Zimbabwe Board team. He is very keen to gain the most he can from his Academy experiences and is looking forward to playing at a higher level in the Logan Cup. He is hoping to return to Lydney for the 2000 season, but is so far finding it difficult to obtain a work permit.

Gwynne Jones praises Douglas highly, as a genuinely nice guy with a good temperament, keen to do well, and one who could go all the way to Test cricket if he develops.

Douglas used to play rugby as a fly-half at school, and played for Mashonaland Schools for two years and in his final year for the Zimbabwe Under-19 B team. He also played first-team basketball at Churchill, but no longer plays any sports other than cricket.

Douglas, who passed his A-levels, is hoping to take a computer course in the near future to give him some qualifications outside cricket, and he has a keen interest in computers.