It is as certain as anything in cricket can be that Tatenda Taibu will soon take over as Zimbabwe's wicket-keeper. But at present he has chosen to cool his heels studying for his A-levels at Churchill High School in Harare, a year after touring West Indies and England with the national side. He talks to CricInfo about his progress.

I enjoyed West Indies, especially Jamaica, since the people there are very friendly. You can talk to them anytime, and they will come up to you and just start talking. The first few days I had trouble catching their accent, which was quite tricky. There are a lot of races there: the Chinese, the French, black and white, every race, and I found that very unusual.

I enjoyed England too. It's a very nice place and it was my first time there. I didn't expect to see so many statues there! I enjoyed the statues of Sir Winston Churchill [after whom Tatenda's school is named}.

In West Indies I played in only one match, against the President's XI. I scored 11 not out before the rain came. In the first match in England I scored 36 before getting out lbw. I didn't bat well against Yorkshire, even though I went in number four. That was Andy's idea so I could get some experience and exposure. I was disappointed I didn't play well there.

My experiences on tour helped me quite a lot. The older players are always there to give you information and ideas, and you can always see what is best for yourself. I learned how to have a look at the pitch, how to change my game in certain situations and how to pick myself up when things are not going well, to mention a few things I learned.

Then I came home and it was back to school. Obviously I had to play well in school and I had to score runs. One of the things I did was to keep calm and bat as usual, and I got a hundred against St John's. Unfortunately I got a few fifties that I didn't turn into hundreds. I wanted to get hundreds and make big scores, and hopefully I will be able to do that in future. I wouldn't like to say if players from other schools were scared of me after I went on tour with Zimbabwe, but I just say to myself, "I'm still the same old Tatenda, no difference." I don't usually think about that.

I'm captain of our school side, and Stuey Matsikenyeri is the vice-captain. Hamilton Masakadza is also in our team. We work together, the three of us, and we have a strong batting side, with my brother in the team as well. He is quite a good player, but he doesn't like practising a lot. There is anther young guy coming along too, by the name of Elton Chikumbura who made the Under-14 tour to South Africa, and we have a couple of other young guys who can play. Sometimes when we play against teams like Hillcrest, Stuey, Hamilton and I don't bat in the top order so as to give the youngsters the chance to prove what they can do. I like batting number four.

When I got my hundred, we got beaten, though. I scored 110, but the whole team folded up for 207 and we lost the game. That's the only match we lost. I did get a hundred against the Academy in the warm-up match before the Coca-Cola Week in South Africa. Down there we played six games, winning three and losing three, and ended up sixth of 12 teams. We also played two three-day matches, against Natal and Easterns in Bulawayo. I also played matches for the Board XI.

At Winstonians Club we haven't been playing well as a team. We've had a couple of problems with our batting and have to sort that out. I haven't made many runs myself; I only got a sixty and I haven't been batting in the top order. It has been tough and we've tried a couple of changes to see what would be best, so I've been batting number six for the team.

I'm taking my A-levels this year: accounts, business management and art. I really have to decide about whether to go to the Academy when I leave school. I will see when I get my A-level results. I will talk to the people at the Academy and see what is best for me.

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