Mathew Townshend: updated biography

Mathew Townshend enjoys all the advantages that come from being a member of a strong cricketing family. All his family have played the game, and both his father Derrick and uncle Trevor played for Rhodesia, as it then was. "I was encouraged at a young age and was brought up to love the game and succeed as best I can," he says.

"My dad has always been there for me since I was young," Mathew says, "pushing me quite a but, and as I've been growing up I've been playing more and more. When I was about two or three, he cut one of his bats in half and bowled to me, so I just picked up and carried on from there." While Derrick was an off-spinner and determined batsman who could open the innings, and Trevor a dashing middle-order bat, Mathew is primarily a pace bowler who is a powerful hitter in the lower order.

Mathew attended St Thomas Aquinas School in Bulawayo and played his first match for the school colts team in Grade 3, with and against boys who were mostly two years older than he. He spent three years in the colts team and two in the first team, captaining the side as well. In the colts team he once took all ten wickets in an innings in a match against Reps (Rhodes Estate Preparatory School). Like most schoolboys he bowled as fast as he could in those days. By the time he progressed to the first team he was also a top-order batsman who picked up a couple of fifties and sixties. He captained Matabeleland Schools in the national primary schools cricket week and was selected for the national primary schools team.

He attended CBC (Christian Brothers College) in Bulawayo, representing all his age-group teams, generally as captain, until the end of Form Three, when he progressed to the first team. He played three years in that team, captaining them in the last two. He took a couple of six-wicket hauls against Plumtree and a `five-fer' against Falcon College as his best bowling performances. With the bat he hit a couple of eighties and 96 against Plumtree, and averaged about 70 in his final season, helped by a few not-out innings.

At representative level, he played for the national Under-14 team, Matabeleland Under-16 and Under-19, and took part in the Zimbabwe Development tour to Kenya in 2000. This latter tour was a very successful one for him with the new ball, as he took nine wickets in three one-day matches. He feels that injuries hindered him in his bid for the national age-group teams over the last couple of years; he kept pulling a hamstring, and then a specialist discovered that his spine was not quite straight, a problem he has been working to rectify recently.

Mathew joined Bulawayo Athletic Club at the beginning of his third-form year, earning promotion to the first team in Form Four. He played for them until he joined the CFX Academy in 2000, when he switched to Alexandra Sports Club in Harare. His best club performances are a couple of thirties and forties with the bat, and a bowling haul of six for 25 against Old Hararians.

He played first-class cricket for Matabeleland while still at high school. He has been bowling well in club cricket and "with the national players away there was a big opening for seamers, so I was given the opportunity." In three matches he took six wickets at 31 and played a couple of lusty innings in the lower order to average 22 with the bat.

He played a couple of winter cricket matches for Bulawayo Athletic Club (combined with Esigodeni in the winter) but spent most of his time during those months on the rugby field while at school, and he also played rugby for Matabeleland. Now he is at the Academy, he accepts that his rugby career is over.

As a batsman he likes to hit the ball hard, the drive and the pull being his favourite shots, and also believes in using his feet. He would like to develop his batting skill enough to go in at seven or eight, `so if I don't succeed with the ball I can always do it with the bat. I think I do have the ability to get up there, but just need to keep on working on it. Often loss of concentration brings about my downfall."

As a bowler he tends to move the ball into the batsman, and is also developing the art of moving it away. He is working on an effective bouncer, bowled at two speeds `just to keep the batsman in two minds'. He enjoys fielding in the slips, the challenge of being close to the bat, but at first-class level does not get much opportunity and when bowling often finds himself of the boundary.

He pays tribute to Dave Houghton, who coaches the Under-19 team and the Academy, as the coach who has had the biggest influence on him, with his experience and encouragement. He also mentions with gratitude Win Justin-Smith, his first-team coach at CBC.

Cricket heroes: "Allan Donald is the person I have looked up to the most. Ever since I was little I watched him since he first came through, and everything he does is a big influence on me. He's one of my biggest heroes, and I also look up to Mark Waugh quite a lot."

Toughest opponents: "Andy Flower - trying to bowl to him is very difficult because he has so much time. In Kenya bowling to Steve Tikolo was quite difficult: he hits the ball hard and is very quick off the back foot. As a batsman, Streaky has given me problems now and then. John Rennie I struggle with his in-swing, and that chap from the Australian Academy who played the game Brett Lee sat out in [Ashley Noffke] was quite sharp."

Immediate ambitions: "My biggest ambition at the moment is playing cricket for Zimbabwe."

Proudest achievement so far: "Playing for Zimbabwe Schools, touring Kenya, and making the Academy is quite an achievement."

Best friends in cricket: "It's hard to say as I've met so many different people, but at the moment I think people like Campbell McMillan and others at the Academy."

Other qualifications: "Not really - I was never much of an academic at school! I just played sport!"

Other sports: Rugby for Matabeleland; also hockey at school. Now enjoys a round of golf, a game of squash, touch rugby.

Outside interests: "I enjoy collecting money; I have a note collection at home."