FULL NAME: Stuart Matsikenyeri
BORN: Harare, 3 May 1983
MAJOR TEAMS: Manicaland (since 1999/2000). Present club side: Takashinga.
KNOWN AS: Stuart/Stuey Matsikenyeri
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Off Breaks
OCCUPATION: CFX Academy student

FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Manicaland v Midlands, at Kwekwe Sports Club, 3-5 March 2000
TEST DEBUT: Still awaited
ODI DEBUT: Still awaited

From 1999 to 2001 Churchill Boys High School in Harare had three players whose talent and progress would be the envy of any school in the world - and all three were as courteous and modest as any young men one could wish to find. Two of them, Hamilton Masakadza and Tatenda Taibu, were good enough to represent their country with success while still at school.

The third, Stuart Matsikenyeri, may not have reached that level yet, but it is well within his capabilities in the near future. He is currently a student at the CFX Academy, a talented batsman who has been earmarked ever since junior school, and a useful off-spin bowler. The three have always been very close friends and there is nothing Stuart wants more than to join his two former schoolmates in Zimbabwe’s international team.

Like them, Stuart has no family background in the sport, having grown up in the black high-density township of Highfield in Harare. Like his school friends, he learned his cricket from the township development programme run by Stephen Mangongo, helped by Bruce Makovah, while he was at Chipembere Primary School. Initially his older brother encouraged him to join the cricket at the age of about ten. He ‘had fun’ for a year, but then began to take the game more seriously in Grade Six when his talent was recognized with a place in the strong school first team.

“That’s when I started realizing that cricket would actually get me somewhere, with scholarships coming in,” he says, and he was to win one to Churchill School. He was soon opening the batting and bowling off-spin for Chipembere. The highlight of his junior school years was his first century, for Highfield Schools against High Glen in the final of a high-density suburb tournament.

In his Grade Six year he was also selected for the development side that played in the national primary schools cricket week, and also for the Partridges, the national primary schools team. The following year he was promoted to the national Under-14 team that visited Boksburg in South Africa for the age-group cricket week there.

In company with Tatenda Taibu and Hamilton Masakadza, his cricket prospered at Churchill. His highest score was 201, his only double-century to date, in a match against Eaglesvale, and also scored three other centuries. He first played in the school first team in Form Three, batting down the order for the first time; until then he had invariably opened. Nowadays he does open in one-day cricket, but prefers numbers four or five in the longer matches. His best bowling was six wickets in an innings at Under-16 level.

He was in turn selected for the national Under-16 and Under-19 teams, and also the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. He was a little disappointed with New Zealand, as the pitches were too slow for his natural attacking style, but he did share in a couple of valuable partnerships down the order.

He first played club cricket in Form Two, for Winstonians (now Takashinga) in the national second league. He found it hard going at first, but in his second season he began to find his feet. His best club performance was 130 against Universals in the Vigne Cup first league during 2001/02.

Stuart had his introduction to first-class cricket at the age of 16, playing for Manicaland in the Logan Cup competition, although he had no actual qualification for the province. He says that Andy Flower, then playing for Winstonians, was impressed by his batting and thinks he contacted Mark Burmester at Manicaland to have a look at him; they decided they wanted him. He has played some impressive innings for them, with two fifties, but without doing enough to persuade the selectors yet that he should follow his schoolmates into the Test team.

Dave Houghton encouraged him to apply for the CFX Academy on leaving school. Before he started at the Academy, though, he took up an offer from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union to play a season of club cricket in Australia. He played for Port Adelaide and found Australian cricket much more competitive than the game in Zimbabwe, even if the club cricket was not of such a high standard as the Logan Cup.

“It was good for my cricket because the Aussie showed me that they play a tough kind of cricket that is different from here,” he says. “They have a greater discipline and more aggression, and I thought I learned a lot from them.” His season did not go as well as he had hoped, but he does remember winning one game for his club in a low-scoring match, when he came in at number four and held firm while wickets fell at the other end until the game was won.

“I had days when I had a hard time but I felt it was a really good learning curve for me,” he says. “The Australians take their game a lot more seriously than us. They have got a passion that is greater than ours. But it is coming with the Zimbabwe team, and I think if the guys keep going the way they are we should be able to beat the Aussies very soon.”

The season finished in March, so Stuart missed the first two months of the Academy year. He found it much tougher than he expected. “I found there are a lot of things that one has to do to become a good cricketer,” he says, “and it has been a really good learning curve for me. We trained really hard, ran hard and had to do gym. The coaching during the year was good: we started off with Dave (Houghton) before he left for England, and then we had Eddo (Brandes) and Walter Chawaguta. I thought they did a good job and most of the guys have matured. I think we are all at a higher level than when we got here. We had people like Bob Simpson to help, and also Alistair Campbell and Vince van der Bijl from South Africa. It was tough, but very fruitful.”

In September 2002 he was appointed captain of the Zimbabwe development team to play in the Africa Cup in Lusaka. He had only occasional experience of captaincy before, skippering the school side when his two close friends were not playing, and manager Kish Gokal thought he did quite a good job. He was disappointed that his only major score was 51 in the first match, and the team lost to South Africa in the semi-final.

During the winter he played in the new winter league that has started in the high-density suburbs of Harare, playing at Churchill School and the new Takashinga pitch. He speaks highly of the quality of the pitch there, but the outfield needs improving and the pavilion completing before the ground will host first-league cricket.

Stuart names Stephen Mangongo as the major influence of his career. “He taught me how to hold the cricket bat at the start and he’s still with me now,” he says. “I think he’s the most amazing coach. He really wants me to do well every time and does whatever it takes to make sure I’m working at my game, that I’m doing the right thing and staying with my disciplines. I think he’s the one man who would be very disappointed if I lost my disciplines and started doing something else.”

Stuart is short and stocky, so his best strokes are as might be expected the cut and pull. He tends to bowl occasionally rather than regularly, and fields close in or ‘anywhere in the circle’. Gully is his preferred position.

The 2002/03 season will be an important one for Stuart, as he will want to make strong progress towards the Test team with some heavy scoring, in Logan Cup cricket especially. He has disappointed himself at times recently in failing to make the high, consistent scores he knows he is capable of, and will be looking to fulfill his potential and follow in the footsteps of Taibu and Masakadza.

Cricket heroes: David Boon - In my younger days he was my favourite player and I still admire him. People like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, and my best mate Tatenda (Taibu), who is a very inspirational player to me.”

Toughest opponents: “I can’t really say at this stage because I don’t feel that anybody so far has tied me down and given me lots of trouble; I think I’ve just got myself out most of the time.” Eventually he named a bowler he faced in the nets in Australia, Matthew Weeks, as the most difficult he has faced to date.

Personal ambitions: “I want to win games for my country and be recognized among the greatest players in the world. Hopefully I’ll be able to better my 201 when I play Test cricket one day.”

Proudest achievement so far: “Representing the Zimbabwe A team against West Indies and India. I felt so proud when I pulled on the red shirt and took the field against those guys.”

Best friends in cricket: Tatenda Taibu and Hamilton Masakadza.

Other qualifications: None yet.

Other sports: Rugby at school. “I played for the first fifteen and captained a couple of games. I also made the Mashonaland squad.”

Outside interests: “Hanging around with my friends; nothing serious.”

Views on cricket: “I would just like to see the guys in Zimbabwe beating the Aussies and the English.”