Were it not for a remarkable turn of events, Zimbabwean leg-spinner Brian Murphy might today be settled permanently in Cape Town, playing club cricket and following a career in commerce.

Then, early in 2000, he was plucked completely out of the blue by the Zimbabwean selectors to tour the West Indies. One Zimbabwean leg-spinner, Adam Huckle, had retired disgruntled; another, Paul Strang, was troubled by an arm injury, while off-spinner Andrew Whittall had lost form and was pursuing another career. Suddenly Zimbabwe were without a spin bowler for tours to West Indies and England.

So it was that Brian was plucked out of obscurity, selected for the two tours and offered a contract once he had graduated from the University of Cape Town. A further surprise was in store eighteen months later, when Heath Streak resigned as captain and the other top players in the team were unwilling to take over the job. Just as suddenly Brian, who had excellent leadership credentials when in charge of the Under-19 team before going to university, was offered the job.

Then the luck began to turn. He had hardly begun when he injured a finger in Bangladesh and had to return home. When fit again, he rejoined the tour in Sri Lanka, hoping to take over the reins again. He never did, thanks to a freak and unique injury.

“When I got to Sri Lanka I wasn’t bowling as well as I should be,” Brian admits. “So I didn’t pick myself for the First Test match, in the hope that maybe I could get it right for the Second Test. But unfortunately I got a spinning finger injury and had to come home; it put me off for six months.

“I remember bowling a ball in the nets and I just heard this crunching noise, and that was it. They said it was some sort of stress fracture in one of the bones on the finger! I don’t think any of the specialists had heard of anything like this.”

It seemed nobody knew what treatment to give Brian for his injury, apart from waiting for it to heal by itself. He had two cortisone injections - and that was all. He spent the last part of the Zimbabwe season in the gym, getting himself fit.

In June he received a call to play for Wallasey, in the Liverpool and District League in England. Paul Strang was their professional, but he suffered a finger injury and recommended the club call Brian as a replacement. He was only too happy to oblige, the call coming at just the moment when he felt his finger was better again.

Brian stayed two months before returning to Zimbabwe, at which point the recovered Strang played for Wallasey again. He had a ‘fairly decent’ season and his finger gave him no further problems, so he was “happy with the experience, especially in those conditions, and also to play a bit of cricket after being off for so long.”

Brian returned to play for Universals Sports Club in Harare and did not expect to be captain of Zimbabwe again - not yet, anyway. Sadly, nobody in authority appears to have made any personal contact with him about either the captaincy or his progress after injury, but in his self-effacing way he says he did not expect them to. “If you’re out injured, you’ve got to prove you’re able to play in a number of games before you’re selected again,” he says. “And you have to be in bowling form - and when I had the captaincy I wasn’t.”

He started the season in superb batting form, with a century and a ninety in his first three matches for Universals. “There’s still a long way to go with my bowling,” he says, “but I’ve got to be patient and keep working at it. If I put in the hard work, I should be expecting to play [against Pakistan in November]. As long as I’m in good form, getting wickets and getting runs.”

Opening the innings for Universals has proven inspirational for his batting. “I usually bat down the order,” he says. “I just wanted to play longer innings and we needed an opening batsman. I’ve done night-watchman duties for Zimbabwe before, so my technique against the fast bowlers is reasonable. Going up the order was a good decision for me.”

It was Brian’s idea to open the batting himself, with support from club chairman Max Ebrahim, and it is certainly paying dividends. He has been working on his batting in recent years and feels more confident than he has perhaps ever done before. “It does help when you’re not bowling as much or when you’re injured, because you have the time to work on other things. I guess it’s a little bit of a blessing that not bowling gave me the opportunity to work more on my batting.”

Brian worked it through himself without the help of a coach. “But each session you go to, you try and get more information. There are a lot of different players I have thrown-downs with, so I just get what information I can from them and go from there.”

Brian has been appointed as captain of Mashonaland for the Logan Cup competition this season, so he is still there or thereabouts in some people’s minds. A good tournament may well see him back in the Test team, but it may not be easy. Left-arm spinner Raymond Price has been impressive as Zimbabwe’s spinner recently, but good form by Brian may persuade the selectors to play two spinners, especially in Bulawayo.

He recognizes that this will be a very hard season because so many players are desperate to gain selection for the World Cup, and with the likes of Grant Flower and Doug Marillier to bowl occasional spinners he will have to be at the top of his form, with both bat and ball. But with the determination he has shown in working his way back to form by himself, he may well break through into the team again.

“It’s been very much an inward-looking experience,” he says of the past ten months. “I’m trying to work on my own game and spend time influencing myself and other people around me.”