HUYSMAN_PROFILE_31OCT1995

IT`S A BIRD, IT`S A PLANE, IT`S MARCUS HUYSMAN Don Joshua on the prodigy from Barrie, Ontario

Would you believe someone who rides bulls for a living, cracked his skull playing linebacker for the Cleveland Thunderbolts indoor football team, lay in a near-death coma for eighteen days, picked up a cricket bat for the first time in his life that season and, batting both leftand right-handed, averaged 273.5 in mid-season? Well, believe it...

Marcus "Bull" Huysman, born of Dutch and English parents in Toronto, is a cricket prodigy. In July, Marcus saw cricket on T.V. and responded to an ad in the local newspaper to learn cricket at Simcoe C.C., Barrie. Applying his baseball skills (he practises against 130 m.p.h. pitches), Marcus hit the bowlers all over the field, as if to the manner born.

In a 60-over inter-squad match between the English and West Indian members of Simcoe, his first cricket match, Marcus blasted his way to 222 runs. In his second inter-squad match, he cracked 91. Simcoe promptly included Marcus in the team to play the Tringo C.C. (Scarborough) on Saturday, August 7. In his first competitive match after three practice sessions, he went in at number nine, with the score at 58 for 9 chasing 137 runs, and hit 75 runs with 8 sixes off 7 overs as Simcoe barely lost the match by 5 runs.

In his next match on August 14, Marcus played for Simcoe against Sunshine C.C. in Brampton. Sunshine batted first and scored 195 runs all out. Marcus came in to bat with the score at 160 for 9. He scored 38 runs off 8 balls with 5 sixes and 2 fours, and won the match for Simcoe.

Ravi, a Sunshine C.C. member, says `In all the 15 years of cricket that I have watched and played in the West Indies and Canada, I have never seen anyone hit the ball as hard". One ball went almost 500 feet. Another "took off into the cages and it was gone"Qlost ball. The only ball Marcus missed in the 8 balls he faced bounced off the pitch and hit him on the leg. No fielder, not even the wicket-keeper, got a hand to the ball in those few minutes.

The innings he relishes most is his 121 scored off just 5 overs, mostly off his teammate, paceman Roy, who hurls thunderbolts at 85 m.p.h. In Roy`s two overs, Marcus hit 6,6,6,6,6,4 and 2,6,6,6,6,6Q66 runs of 12 balls and 84 off 3 overs. The paceman refused to speak to him afterwards but Marcus` joy was complete as he hit 18 sixes in all before falling "lbw", a law which is as mysterious to him as it is to the most of us.

Marcus comes like a gust of wind to cricket in Canada. Not a breath of wind exactly, since Marcus is 6 ft. 3 in. and weighs 256 lbs. He played baseball as a child and professional football for the C.F.L. and N.F.L. He has never heard of Bradman or Sobers or Lara, but, if he continues to score as prodigiously against world-class bowlers, there will be many who will have heard of him.

Marcus relies on two things: his abounding confidence and his excellent hand-eye coordination. Toronto C.C. Australian professional Chris Holding who put Marcus Huysman through the paces in the nets said "his natural strength is off his legs and, with the right coaching, he can go far".

Marcus will get a custom-built, long-handle bat to compensate for his height. And he will be watching cricket on video to learn the basics of batting.

At 23, he is a pleasant soft-spoken enigma, with a lot of potential. He is a captain`s dream and a bowler`s nightmare.

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