Neil Johnson, a short biography
MAJOR TEAMS: Eastern Province B (1989/90-1991/92), Natal (1992/93 1997/98), Leicestershire (1997), Matabeleland (1998/99)
John Ward
23-Sep-1999
FULL NAME: Neil Clarkson Johnson
BORN: 24 January 1970, Harare
MAJOR TEAMS: Eastern Province B (1989/90-1991/92), Natal
(1992/93 1997/98), Leicestershire (1997), Matabeleland (1998/99).
Present club side: Old Georgians.
KNOWN AS: Neil Johnson. Nickname: Johnno.
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Medium-Fast
OCCUPATION: Professional Cricketer
FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Eastern Province B v Natal B, at Kemsley Park
(Port Elizabeth), 11 December 1989
TEST DEBUT: 7 October 1998, Zimbabwe v India, at Harare Sports
Club
ODI DEBUT: 24 October 1998, Zimbabwe v New Zealand, at Dhaka
BIOGRAPHY (updated September 1999)
After a year or two of rumour, Neil Johnson has been the latest
of Zimbabwe's returning exiles, following in the footsteps of
Murray Goodwin and Adam Huckle. He arrived back in Harare early
in September 1998 from Natal, in preparation for representing the
country of his birth.
Neil's father was a farmer in the Umvukwes (now Mvurwi) district
in the north of Mashonaland, and Neil's first memories of cricket
were at Umvukwes Primary School, where he won selection for the
school's Colts team (for players under 11) at the age of 6 or 7.
He has no memory of any performances of note, though. But, when
Zimbabwe won its independence in 1980, Mr Johnson was offered and
accepted a job as a farming consultant at Howick in Natal, and
Neil emigrated with his family at the age of 10.
He soon made a name for himself as a promising young cricketer as
he continued his schooling into Howick High, first representing
the Natal Under-12 team for junior school players, and eventually
gaining selection for the Natal B Schools team for Under-18
players. From Howick he moved to Kingswood College in
Grahamstown, in the eastern Cape, when he opened the bowling with
Brett Schultz for Eastern Province Schools and was selected for
the full South African schools team in 1988.
He made good progress as an all-rounder, batting in the middle
order, although for a time he was considered to be a bowler who
could bat. He did score a few centuries at high school, his
first being 127 for Howick against Estcourt at the age of 15, but
can remember few details of his school cricketing career.
Throughout this time of his life, his father was by far the
biggest influence on his cricketing progress. Mr Johnson while
in Rhodesia, as it was then, had played Districts cricket for
Umvukwes and also represented Mashonaland Country Districts. He
was always there to advise Neil and take him to net practice,
although he did little actual coaching, preferring to let him
develop his own natural game. Neil's technique was fine-tuned as
a teenager by Chris Stone, an English professional coaching in
South Africa.
Kepler Wessels soon recognised Neil's talent, and it was through
him that Neil won a bursary to the University of Port Elizabeth
(UPE), where he studied a BA in Industrial Psychology. He played
for the University first team and Eastern Province B, and also a
few Benson and Hedges limited-over matches for the full
provincial side, but without any success.
After four years at university, he was offered an attractive
professional cricket contract with Natal, and so decided to
return to his adopted home; despite the patronage of Wessels,
Eastern Province failed to make a comparable offer, partly
because he was also suffering from a troublesome ankle injury at
the time. Neil pays tribute to Wessels for much of his success
in adult cricket; he found him a hard man who demanded much hard
work, but whose attitude helped him to develop the mental
toughness required in top cricket.
A useful all-round season for Natal in 1993/94, including a
century and five wickets in an innings against Border, won him a
place in the South Africa A team to tour Zimbabwe in 1994/95. It
was then that Denis Streak of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union first
approached him to ask if he might consider returning to the
country with a view to playing full international cricket. Neil
was interested but felt unable to commit himself immediately,
mainly because of his impending marriage. Obviously also, had he
been selected for the full South African team he would have
stayed down there.
By 1997 he felt ready to return to Zimbabwe, after a few more
useful seasons for Natal but without any further international
recognition. He applied to have his Zimbabwean passport returned
and was allowed temporary residence in the country. He informed
Natal of his decision and made arrangements to move to Zimbabwe
in September 1998. He kept in contact in particular with Andy
Pycroft of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, who did much to prepare
the way for him on the Zimbabwean side. One important aspect of
his return was that he was needed as a coach in Matabeleland,
although he would have preferred to be based in Harare.
The Zimbabwe government moved slowly, although others have had to
wait much longer than Neil did. Neil missed the one-day series
against the Indian tourists in October 1998, but finally had his
passport and Zimbabwean citizenship restored just 48 hours before
the Test match. The Zimbabwean selectors had deliberately kept
their options open, and so Neil was included in the team. It was
anticipated that he would greatly add to the all-round strength
of the side, with his pace bowling and superb close fielding to
add to his batting.
In the event Neil failed with the bat on his Test debut, but
played a crucial part with the ball and in the field in
Zimbabwe's second Test victory. He denies being nervous when he
went in to bat, but was twice out cheaply, caught at short leg
off Anil Kumble. With the ball he achieved the rare feat of
dismissing Sachin Tendulkar twice in the same match. He did not
have a specific plan, but concentrated on bowling just short of a
length on a pitch with good bounce, and swinging the ball away
towards the slips. Frustrated at being tied town, Tendulkar
twice played false shots and was caught, once by slip running
back off a top-edged pull and once by the keeper. He also took
three fine and crucial catches in the slips, dismissing
Azharuddin, Dravid and Sidhu.
His one-day debut came at Dhaka, against New Zealand in the Mini
World Cup. Batting at number three, he had to go in early on the
cheap dismissal of Grant Flower, but scored a brisk 27 off 27
balls before dragging a ball on to his stumps. He had the
mortifying experience, though, of bowling the last over of the
match and conceding 14 runs to allow New Zealand a thrilling
victory off the final ball. He had bowled well enough earlier to
be entrusted with the final over, but concedes that he was
bowling too good a length and did not attempt enough yorkers.
He went to Sharjah feeling desperate to score runs and prove his
worth. After two failures, he came good with 62 against Sri
Lanka, but took only two rather expensive wickets in his five
matches. His situation changed in Pakistan, though, as he was
promoted to open with Grant Flower, as Alistair Campbell, after
several failures opening the innings, moved down into the middle
order. He was now opening both batting and bowling. He began
with 74 in his first match, and then went better with 103 in the
second, leading the way for Zimbabwe's first-ever victory over
Pakistan in Pakistan. Again his bowling was proving expensive,
but with the bat he has never looked back. The pitches for the
one-day matches were good, and with mild weather at that time of
year he really enjoyed himself.
His finest hour came in the First Test at Peshawar, on a pitch
that was so fast and green that it reminded him of Kingsmead in
Durban. He admits to feeling almost petrified, going in on a
hat-trick to face Waqar Younis, who had just dismissed Murray
Goodwin and Andy Flower, and wondering what he was doing on the
same field. But his response was to take the attack to the
bowlers and he played his shots well, just like a one-day innings
he thought. It was no easy task, with Wasim in particular
bowling brilliantly, and he was dropped on 99 before running
through to the fastest Test century recorded for Zimbabwe. He was
not out with 107 overnight, batting with Andrew Whittall. Next
morning the field was set back to give him a single to keep him
away from the bowling, and he pushed at the fifth ball, only to
snick a catch to the keeper. With no other batsman reaching 30,
his was virtually a lone stand. Zimbabwe were only 58 behind
Pakistan, and his innings made a victory possible when Heath
Streak and Henry Olonga destroyed the Pakistani second innings.
There was a three-month gap before Zimbabwe were able to play
international cricket again, and this was only a triangular
tournament in Bangladesh also involving Kenya. The weaker
opposition did not inspire Neil with bat or ball except for the
third match, when he hit 101 against Kenya.
Then came the World Cup in England, when Neil was destined to
bring his name to the attention of the whole cricket world. He
began with a Man of the Match award against Kenya, scoring 59 and
taking four wickets, but with the lowly opposition this was
largely ignored. He also had little part to play in the
thrilling victory over India, and failed against Sri Lanka and
England.
It was the historic victory over South Africa that amazed the
cricketing world and brought Neil real publicity for the first
time. Opening the batting against South Africans he had played
with and against for several seasons, he was soon picking the
half-volleys and driving classically on the off side, his
favourite strokes. He gave Zimbabwe a flying start and, although
he slowed down after reaching his fifty, his fine 76 paved the
way for a total of 233 for six. Then, opening the bowling, he
got his first ball to lift sharply off a pitch freshened by a
shower, and had Gary Kirsten caught in the gully. Before long he
had Jacques Kallis caught at the wicket and, when he yorked
Hansie Cronje, South Africa were in dire trouble at 34 for five.
They were never to recover, and Neil was again Man of the Match.
He came to prominence again at Lord's, Zimbabwe's first official
appearance there. With Zimbabwe chasing a target of 304, he
again began in a blaze of glory, and dominated a superb stand of
114 for the second wicket with Murray Goodwin. He was
particularly severe on Shane Warne; with the advantage of batting
left-handed, he struck the leg-spinner time and again through the
off-side field and had him temporarily removed from the attack
after only three overs. Goodwin's dismissal began a collapse,
though, and Neil himself lost momentum in the nineties before
reaching his century, and never regained it. With the tumble of
wickets, though, it seemed that the policy was to abandon the
victory charge and just play out time, keeping the deficit as
small as possible. Neil batted through to the end, finishing on
132.
In the final match against Pakistan he was unable to bowl, having
aggravated a knee injury during his innings against Australia.
With the bat, though, he was the only batsman to emerge with any
credit, scoring a gallant 54 out of a total of 123 while his
colleagues performed dismally. In fact, during the entire World
Cup, although Zimbabwe did well enough to come within a whisker
of the semi-finals, Neil was the only player to play up to his
normal form.
During the off-seasons Neil has done much to broaden his
cricketing experience, playing in the Lancashire League for two
seasons, a further two seasons in the North Yorkshire and South
Durham League, a year with the county team Leicestershire as
their overseas professional, and most recently a year in Ireland.
His season on the county circuit, in 1997, was statistically the
most successful of his career as far as his batting was
concerned: in 12 matches he scored 819 runs at an average of 63,
with two centuries, including a career highest of 150 against
Lancashire, and also took 12 catches. In a way, though, he was
rather a disappointment to the county, who had expected to use
his bowling extensively, only for an Achilles tendon injury to
allow him very few overs with the ball. This rather upset the
balance of the team, then the reigning champions, which also had
to bear the worst of an English season of very poor weather.
The most dangerous bowler he has faced in his career, he feels,
was Allan Donald -- expcept for a stint against Shaun Pollock in
the nets! Interestingly the batsman he least likes to bowl
against is his former Natal team-mate Dale Benkenstein, another
to be born in Harare. Neil, along with many others, cannot
understand why Benkenstein has so far failed to gain a place in
the South African team.