Charles Musuka (UK)

I would like to learn the art of cricket umpiring and hopefully contribute in that capacity to the development of cricket in Zim. I am in the UK at present but hope to return home in December 2000. Can you help?

Reply: Peter Robinson of the Zimbabwe Cricket Umpires Association is always delighted to hear of those interested in umpiring. He can be contacted at ZCU headquarters, Box 2739, Harare, phone 704616/8.

Itayi Pswarayi (Canada)

Finally I have contact with the dearly missed cricket scene at home!!! My comments are that why are the juniors in Zimbabwe not getting the exposure that they need? Zimbabwe cricket at the schoolboy level, as I was a player at St. John's College in Harare, Borrowdale, see that it is very high and that there is a lot of talent located at these schools. It's nice to see a former teammate, Mluleki Nkala, playing for the open age group but bringing him up too soon and placing him in such long tours can tire him out before he has reached his peak. He is only 19 years old!!! I understand the hunger to bring him up but hold your horses, he is still young and injury-prone.

As for the Zimbabwe Schools Cricket team that participated in the World Cup in Sri Lanka, I was upset to see that players such as my former teammates were not included, Barney Rogers, Gavin Thorn, Steven Wright, Phillip Chadzimira, Michael Sherren, Hilton Henderson and plenty of others. We should give more opportunities to those who haven't as these guys all have great talent and some of the players that represented us are not exceptionally great. But good luck to all those I left at home!!!!!!!

Jerry Biti (Australia)

Good day to you all, my name is Jerry Biti, a Zimbabwean now living in Australia. I must say had it not been for cricket there is no way I could have kept in touch with anything in Zimbabwe. It's about the only thing which keeps Zimbabweans talking worldwide. Good luck to the boys in the Windies who are winded out at the moment we can win this one. Two leggies in the team for the English tour - won't the Poms love that! Come on, Strang, Murphy is waiting.

Adrian Oosthuizen (Hong Kong)

Your online edition is something to look forward to on this side of the globe. I'm hoping for to read of Alistair Campbell's first Test century in the West Indies. Perhaps this will be his "redemption song" in the land of Bob Marley. Also good to read that cricket is flourishing at Victoria High School - Pamberi Chipembere!

Does anybody know what happened to John Shepherd? I believe he was the first black player to represent the country. He played Currie Cup cricket in the late seventies.

Reply: Thanks very much. I think it was the Cricketer International that had an article on John Shepherd perhaps a couple of years back. If I remember correctly, he had a coaching job in England, possibly at a school. Yes, he was a great character in cricket in this country, and won far more respect than any of those who stayed away during the UDI era. (John Shepherd is currently North American development officer for the ICC, and resides in Antigua. More information is available in his profile on CricInfo)

Trevor McIntosh (New Zealand)

I think it is wonderful for a young talented player like Tatenda Taibu to get an opportunity like this against the West Indies. Amongst the current turmoil in Zim it is things like this that carry people through. Please carry on with the wonderful magazine. You really are showing people which way is up in terms of interesting, useful information. (I have yet to see info like this in NZ).

Mark Kidger (Tenerife, Spain)

Once again greetings from Spain. Zimbabwe is much in the news at present (at least the UK news that I follow closely). Some of us can only wonder at people like yourself who have had the guts to stick it out. Hopefully you'll win through.

It is with great sadness that I read of your problems - that you can't even get reports from the current Test series for ZC On-line! This is crazy. It's also a shame with the fine performance that Zimbabwe are putting in. A few years ago only a crazy man would have wanted to see a Zimbabwe v West Indies match (no disrespect intended, but it would have been somewhat one-sided, I fear). But it is a measure of how thinks have changed in Test cricket that perhaps Zimbabwe pose a greater threat to England this coming summer than the Windies. Hopefully England might start deigning to give teams like Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka at least three tests rather than a begrudging one or two test series. Certainly three Tests against Zimbabwe and four against the Windies might have been a fairer distribution. If Zimbabwe win this current test you might wonder ruefully about this.

Anyway, the side has made great progress with relatively thin resources (how do you do it?) and with a few players like Paul Strang still missing. My favourite in the current side has to be Henry Olonga, but please would ask him to take it easy on England this summer! Let him upset the Windies instead. What a fine bowler he is proving to be.

Reply: Having a small player base does have some advantages, I think - it's hardly possible to mess around with top players like the England selectors do with Graeme Hick and others, and the players know each other so well that team spirit is a major factor, I'm sure. They are able to train and play together a lot more than other countries can. But our comparative success is still quite remarkable, I agree.

David Colin-Thome (Australia)

I just got on the net to check what I expected to be a Zim victory and was astounded to see the result. You must be bitterly disappointed. As a Sri Lanka supporter, I can identify with that, because for the first 15 years or so, SL frequently snatched defeat from the jaws of victory which was a source of great frustration to its supporters. However, it could be worse and was - the Kiwi's took 25 years to win their first Test! As did SL, I am sure the Zims will in the not too distant future, start to press home advantages and pick up more victories. Wishing you guys the best for the rest of the series.

Jerry Biti (Australia)

Thank you very much for your reply last week. At that time I thought for once the Zimbabwe team was going to win a test match which they had totally dominated. However this was not to be, God knows what happened. However personally the way I see it we lack strong attacking batsman in the Zim team. If our opening batsman had given us the start we needed the rest could have been history. However what I don't understand is why Mark Vermeulen who is probably the most attacking batsman in Zim at the moment is not in that team. Trevor Gripper on the other hand is a very good solid opener and should open, as he showed against Australia. Now if I was the coach those would be the two changes i would make. We need Mark, especially if Flower is suspended. Well, the best I can say to the boys now is good luck in your next game. Although you lost you were the better team and still are and as a result you can still win the next game.