FULL NAME: Nyasha Chari
BORN: At Harare, 10 October 1980
MAJOR TEAMS: CFX Academy (2000/01). Present club side: Old Hararians
KNOWN AS: Nyasha Chari. Nickname: `Tupack', after a rap singer
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Fast Medium
OCCUPATION: CFX Academy student

FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: 2-4 March 2001, CFX Academy v Midlands, at Kwekwe Sports Club.
TEST DEBUT: Still awaited
ODI DEBUT: Still awaited

BIOGRAPHY (updated April 2002)

Nyasha Chari is one of the promising township players who have benefited from the development scheme and are now coming through into first-class cricket. Like the others, he has no family background in the game and developed an interest at junior school through a Zimbabwe Cricket Union coach, in this case Henry Motsi. He became one of the few to spend two years at the CFX Academy, due to an injury that interfered with most of his first year there, in 2001.

He attended St Aiden's Primary School, a Catholic school in the black Harare dormitory suburb of Chitungwiza. Mr Motsi organized cricket practices at the school and selected Nyasha among others as one of the most promising players, to form a squad that played as a Chitungwiza team. He was very successful as an all-rounder, and remembers scoring a century against Chiedza Primary School and took ten wickets in an innings against Shiriyedenga Primary School from the Glen Norah township. Surprisingly, though, he did not win selection for the national primary schools cricket week, although he attended trials.

At Mr Motsi's recommendation, he won a scholarship to Prince Edward School that allowed him to continue his cricketing progress. He won a place in the first team while still in Form Two, thanks to regular outstanding bowling performances in the Under-14 side. He attended trials that included the best players from each age group for a school team to tour England, and Nyasha won a place as the youngest member of the touring party. His best performance was in a match against Brighton College, when he took three wickets for 25 runs in 10 overs. In the other matches he did not take many wickets but managed to keep the run rate down generally to less than two an over.

He was in the school first team for five years, and his best performances were seven for 49 in 23 overs against Eaglesvale, seven for 52 against St John's and six for 25 in 13 overs against Brighton College when they toured Zimbabwe. He played 56 matches for the school first team, he recalls, and only missed one, due to a shoulder he twisted during fielding practice. In those games he believes he took 220 wickets at a cost of about 11 each. His highest score for the first team was 83 against Churchill, but usually batted down the order at five or six where he had less chance of building an innings.

In Form Two he played for the national Under-15 team and travelled to the Uner-15 Week in South Africa; the following year he was a member of the party that played in the Under-15 World Cup in England. He played for the Mashonaland age-group teams from 1996 to 1999, winning selection for the Under-19 Week in South Africa in his final year. He finished school in 2000, but did not play cricket at school as he was studying for his A-levels. In 1997 he was appointed captain, but resigned after a few matches, feeling that the job was not for him.

He did play for Old Hararians Sports Club, though, with success. Starting in Form Three, he also played at times for Old Georgians, Universals and Harare Sports Club, but eventually settled at the Prince Edward Old Boys team, Old Hararians. His best performance was four for 20 when playing for Universals, but has been going in late in the order and rarely had much opportunity to shine with the bat. He played a few winter cricket matches for Goromonzi, but found it difficult because of clashes with other sports at school.

He was accepted for the CFX Academy for 2001, and in his debut match against Midlands he took a wicket with his fourth ball in first-class cricket. He is primarily an in-swing bowler, but he recently attended the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, India, and Dennis Lillee changed his action slightly to enable him to swing the ball out as well, and also develop a useful slower ball. He can cut the ball sharply in to the batsman off the pitch. By his own admission, he is not really a quick bowler, but is accurate and often difficult to score from.

Unfortunately he was to miss most of that year at the Academy. In an early Logan Cup match he injured a shoulder, which he followed up with a hernia injury in the groin. He tried to play through them, but they got worse and resulted in his missing the rest of the programme. He needed an operation to clear up the hernia problem, but needed a long course of physiotherapy. He spoke to Academy coach Dave Houghton about all the time he had missed and asked if he could make this up in 2002, which was agreed.

When batting, Nyasha is a strong front-foot driver who can also cut, but cannot yet play the pull. He is usually a middle-distance fielder but does not like fielding in the slips.

Nyasha pays tribute to the coaching he has received from former national player Robin Brown, who coached him just before the Under-15 World Cup, as well as Mr Motsi, George Lee-Bell at Prince Edward School, and currently Dave Houghton. As a Christian, he gives praise to God for his success.

Cricketing heroes: Malcolm Marshall, Dennis Lillee and Viv Richards.

Personal ambitions: "To play for my country."

Toughest opponents: "All left-handers give me a problem. Stuart Matsikenyeri has also given me quite a hard time. In recent years, Hamilton Masakadza. The best bowler I've ever faced I would say is Henry Olonga."

Proudest achievement: "Playing for my country [at age-group levels] and being picked for the Academy."

Best friends in cricket: "I'm a guy who talks to everyone. In the Academy I'm close to Keith Dabengwa because we spend most of the time together."

Other qualifications: Two A-levels.

Other sports: "At school, soccer (second team) and rugby (fourth or fifth teams, but I didn't want to go up to the top level because it's not my type of game."

Other interests and hobbies: "I'm getting interested in reading novels, and music. Singing at church."

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