'Being out of the game made us even more hungry'

When Hamilton Masakadza was 18, there was something more important to him than playing cricket. That was perhaps understandable because by then he had already made history on the pitch. Earlier that year, 2001, he had become the first black Zimbabwean to score a first-class century, a feat he achieved in just his second match. He popped onto the international scene five months later in similar style, with a match-saving Test century on debut against West Indies. He was, at the time, the youngest player to score a hundred on Test debut.

Once he finished school it was not the thought of playing more cricket that beckoned, but the idea of studying further. "I decided that it would be easier for me to study before starting a career as a national sportsman," Masakadza told ESPNCricinfo. "It seemed to me as though if there was a time when it would make sense to go and [study], it would be then."

The search for a suitable tertiary education institution at first pointed to the popular University of Cape Town, but cricket conspired to send Masakadza to a lesser known campus in Bloemfontein. He had previously played in the City of Roses at the South African national Under-19 Cricket Week, in which Zimbabwe were invited to participate, in 2000. His 113 against a strong Western Province attack caught the eye of Ewie Cronje, Hansie's father, who was the director of sport at the University of the Free State at the time.

When South Africa toured Zimbabwe the following year, Cronje asked Johann de Jager, a journalist who was covering the tour for the Afrikaans papers, to get to know Masakadza's family and find out his future plans. Once de Jager had made the necessary contact, Cronje went to Zimbabwe to meet with Hamilton's father, Kingston. "I offered him a cricket bursary and we arranged it so that Zimbabwe Cricket [ZC] would also cover some portion of the costs and he would play for the university club," Cronje said.

Masakadza moved from what was known as a "high density" township in Harare - a euphemism for impoverished and overpopulated, mostly black residential areas - to the largely Afrikaans and conservative town of Bloemfontein to study marketing. "It was a completely new environment for him," Cronje said. "But he fitted in so well. He was a fine young gentleman and a great asset to our club."

Masakadza did not perform exceptionally well with the bat, which Cronje put down to the big lifestyle adjustment he had to make, but he did "manage to make a few runs for us".

He shared student accommodation with Colin Ingram and played with Ryan McLaren, who remembers him as a focused but laidback individual, who the rest of the club's members marvelled at. "He came with such high credential and pedigree, everyone knew about him and wanted to meet him," McLaren said. "He was such a good guy to have in the team, he was very relaxed but he was also very driven."

While he studied Masakadza was still available to play for Zimbabwe but the country's cricket board agreed to wait for him to complete his degree. He was recalled once to the national team over the next three years, to play against Pakistan in November 2002, but was largely left alone to finish his studies. As soon as he returned, Masakadza was rushed into an ODI series against England, in the aftermath of the player walkout at the end of 2004.

It was too early for him to show the skills he had learnt playing seam bowling in South Africa and the improvements he had made in his off-side game, but it was a way of becoming re-entrenched in the national set-up. He was greeted with a different side to the one he had left behind three years earlier. It consisted mostly of young, inexperienced players who had been fast-tracked onto the international scene because of the ZC's aggressive transformation programme and the subsequent drain of players.

Masakadza was seen as one of the stalwarts of that earlier era. People remembered his groundbreaking debut century and held it up as a victory for transformation. He was held up as a symbol that the path ZC was on would lead to success. Alistair Campbell remembered that Test hundred as a victory for Zimbabwe's development programme, but also mentioned how a local newspaper viewed it from a more political angle. "Masakadza proves racists wrong" read the paper's headline, a summation of the intricate problems that plagued Zimbabwe cricket at the time, and which eventually led to the team's withdrawal from Test cricket a year and eight Test matches after Masakadza's return.

"It was very sad and difficult," Masakadza said, remembering the struggles that came with losing series after series and being frozen out of the premier format of the game, albeit by the board's choice. "The only thing that kept us going was looking forward to the day things would change, and preparing for that day as well as we could."

Masakadza was able to withstand the tough times better than most because of his inherent patience and his ability to look on the bright side. "We had a lot of time to develop, and being out of the game made us even more hungry when we did get the chance," he said.

Zimbabwe had almost six years out of the longest format, during which they revamped their domestic structure and introduced a more professional franchise system, recruited Alan Butcher as their coach, and integrated former players back into the structures.

Their comeback, against Bangladesh this August, saw them win the one-off Test - in which Masakadza came full circle, as it were, scoring his second Test century - and the ODI series, but were rudely jolted back to earth a month later after losing every match of their series against Pakistan.

Masakadza still hails the comeback as a success. "The win against Bangladesh was special and even against Pakistan we competed well except for the batting collapse on day four [of the Test]," he said. "We still have to develop a bit of confidence as we go on."

He believes Zimbabwe's strength, as they prepare to take on New Zealand home and away in coming months, is going to be what was once their weakness: that the players who battled in previous years are still around and have more to contribute. "We know and understand each other really well, and while other teams are trying to get a mix of youth and experience, we don't have to do that because we already have it," he said. The experience comes from Masakadza, Brendan Taylor, Tatenda Taibu, Vusi Sibanda, Prosper Utseya and Chris Mpofu, who were all playing international cricket before 2005 but are still young enough to have years in the game ahead of them. The youth is streaming in through Tino Mawoyo, Brian Vitori, Kyle Jarvis, Craig Ervine and Forster Mutizwa. "Tino and Craig especially like to ask questions, and we know that there is no substitute for experience, so the rest of us can pass that on."

Masakadza himself is eager to develop his skills, and believes exposure to more top-level teams will help with that. "In the series against Pakistan, I was chatting to Younis Khan and he was telling me things he has learnt from Rahul Dravid about building an innings and being patient," he said. It's that sort of approach that Masakadza wants to cement in his technique in order to become the anchor for Zimbabwe's batting line-up.

"I know my limitations and I don't try too many things. For example, I'm not very adventurous in the air," he said. "I like to plan my innings a lot and I have a visual image of how I will play each guy in the opposition.

"One thing I have to work on is the trouble I have against spinners who get the ball to go the other way, like Saeed Ajmal."

Masakadza is eyeing a leadership role, being one of the few veteran players who has not captained Zimbabwe. "It's something I do aspire to," he said. He's also looking to "get my averages up in all three forms of the game, because having them below 30 is not enough".

Be that as it may, he is one of the few who realises there is life outside and after cricket. He has his degree to fall back on when his playing days are over, but knows there are few others like him. In his typically planned style, he would like to encourage them to think about their futures as well. "It's very easy for people to go that way [and not study]," he said. "When you start playing sport at the highest level and you are young, you can forget about everything else. I would like it if it was possible for structures to be put in place to help young sportsmen get degrees."