It is not yet a case of move over Shane Warne as another leg-spinner with the name of Shane emerges from the playing fields of central Africa to claim the prize of being the player of the inaugural Central and Southern African under-15 tournament.

Shane Swinfen, of Botswana, viewed the television screen in the Zambia hotel with a certain bemused horror as his hero, nicknamed Hollywood and now sporting a close-cropped hairstyle, failed to put together an Oscar-winning effort against India in the opening game of Australia's limited overs international series.

All this came though after Swinfen had turned in several nifty performances, including a hat-trick against Malawi, to collect 13 wickets during the five-day tournament just concluded and won by a particularly strong all-round Namibia side.

Sponsored by the International Cricket Council as part of their globalisation plans in Africa, the emergence of the 14-year-old Swinfen even took the Namibians by surprise. A gangling lad with a ready smile and crop of curly blond hair, he also contributed with some stylish batting. Swinfen tied the Namibia batting in a few tidy knots on what became the opening day of the tournament after the scheduled first day was rained off.

In fact, Botswana emerged as the major surprise package in a tournament where the host nation, Zambia, were expected to at least come second to the acknowledged pre-tournament favourites, Namibia, whose all-round strength was a little too much for the other four countries.

What we had, however, was Swinfen's tight bowling picking up two wickets for seven in eight overs and all but strangling Namibia's plans to win the match with plenty of overs remaining. Swinfen ended with 13 wickets at a remarkable average of 2.30 for the tournament.

Little wonder that on the first day that play was possible Botswana's coach, Ajit Goplakrishnan, lamented how another 30 to 40 runs on the board might have cost Namibia the match. As it was anything above 100 might have sealed even Namibia's hopes, which was admitted by the crafty Namibian team management.

Rain and heavy outfields throughout the well-run tournament saw sides only passing the 100-mark on three occasions with Namibia's habit of winning the toss in all four games and then putting the opposition into bat usually working well in their favour.

If Swinfen won the player of the tournament award, the Namibia captain, D C Grobler, who also doubled as wicketkeeper, did enough to take the batting award with 90 runs at an average of 90; the bowling award went to the lanky Namibian seamer, Terrence Jordan, who collected 12 wickets at an average also below 3.00.

Rasheed Patel, chairman of the Zambia Cricket Union, as well as the director of the department of sport, youth and child welfare, Sostone Kashiba, expressed satisfaction with the handling of the tournament while the ICC director of development, New Zealander Andrew Eade, felt that what he saw was a significant step in the long-term growth and development plans the ICC has for Africa.

Long a minority sport in most of the region (except in Namibia), cricket has been regenerated in this part of Africa through the careful husbandry and coaching programme of Hoosain Ayob, the ICC development officer for Africa, with under-13 and under-15 schemes showing growth after careful planning since 1997. Patel and Eade praised Ayob's work in the schools and for developing a large army of coaches among women teachers who have been enthusiastically embracing the programme.

What was interesting during the tournament, which also received financial backing from Toyota (Zambia Ltd), was the need to know more than a smattering of the seven languages used during the five days. While English was the predominant language we also had Sotho, Tswana, Nyanja, Bemba, Afrikaans and ChiChewa.

The idea of this tournament was not only to gauge the growth in the programme at this level but also for the youngsters to enjoy the game, said the ZCU secretary Tom McCarthy. He thought that this was achieved and the ICC and Africa Cricket Association woukd be more than pleased with the efforts.

About the only disappointment was Tanzania failing to send a team while Lesotho, whose programme has been stuttering along yet is showing a healthy growth, almost pulled off the surprise of the tournament on day two when they reduced Zambia from a confident 20 without loss to 55 for nine before the hosts scraped home in front of a jubilant crowd which had been earlier warned for their pitch invasions.

It was a remarkable performance by a young side, said the Lesotho coach Grant Peacock, who said that several of the players were either 12 or 13-year-olds. "It was so close and so tense," he added.

In the final games Lesotho were bowled out for 27 by Namibia who knocked off the required runs without losing a wicket while Botswana scored 152 for nine and dismissed Zambia for 52 with man-of-the-tournament Swinfen taking four for seven in his regulation eight overs.

© CricInfo Ltd.