Greg Lamb - a short biography

FULL NAME: Gregory Lamb

BORN: 4 March 1980, in Harare MAJOR TEAMS: CFX Academy, Zimbabwe Under-19

KNOWN AS: Greg Lamb. Nickname: 'Gumbos' (Shona for 'tree stump' as 'I have no calves!'

BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat

BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Medium Pace

OCCUPATION: Student at CFX Academy

FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: 26-29 January 1999, ZCU President's XI v England A, at Kwekwe

TEST DEBUT: Still awaited

ODI DEBUT: Still awaited

BIOGRAPHY (February 2000)

Greg Lamb, voted the Most Promising Young Cricketer of the Year in 1999, is one of Zimbabwe's most dedicated young players and is currently in his second year at the CFX Academy in Harare.

His progress is all the more remarkable as he has no home background in cricket at all. His father played rugby and his mother tennis, and neither had any real interest in cricket. He first became involved in cricket from the age of about eight, when he was attending Rydings School nearby. He owes much, though, to former Zimbabwean player Robin Brown, whose son he befriended at the age of about eight. They lived on adjoining farms in the Karoi area in the north of the country, and Greg often used to go over to the Browns' farm and play with his son, cricket playing a major part in their activities.

Robin himself took Greg under his wing and gave him a lot of personal coaching, right through to the age of about 16 or 17. Greg describes him as very strict in every way, but admits that this was the right policy and taught him a lot about the disciplines of cricket. Robin did a lot of coaching at the school, and when Greg was still in Grade 2 he invited him to join the group he was taking of boys a year older than Greg. Such is Greg's natural talent that he found himself in the school colts team that same year, playing with and against many boys three years older than himself. He actually scored his first century, 125 not out against Banket, while still in Grade 3.

In Grade 5 Greg moved up to the school first team, and was twice selected for the North West Districts team to play in the national primary schools cricket week. He won selection for the national team at that level, the Partridges, and was especially proud of an innings of 116 not out which he played in a match against the previous years' team. He actually began at school as a wicket-keeper, but grew bored with that, decided he enjoyed fielding, and then took to bowling medium-paced seamers.

On leaving Rydings, he went to Lomagundi College, but his first three years, he says, 'were some of the worst years of cricket in my life'. He was not particularly committed to the game, despite scoring the occasional fifty and still being selected for the national age-group sides all the time. When in Form 3, though, he was selected for the school first team, 'and things started to come right again'. Part of this was due to a friend of the school, Brian Dolphin, who brought his bowling machine along to the school twice a week and worked with Greg on his batting. Greg feels that his problems were more mental than technical, although there were some faults to be ironed out, but this was a turning point in his career.

He finished his school career in a blaze of glory in his final year, 1998, especially at the annual Prince Edward School festival, when he set himself the aim of scoring a century in each of the three matches his team was playing, and succeeded - one against the host school, and two against visiting teams from abroad. He won the school's Sportsman of the Year award, also representing them at hockey, tennis and squash.

At the end of the year he had the choice of remaining at school for a further year or attending the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy, and chose the latter. "That really helped me with the mental side of my game, which I was missing at school," he says. "I never really thought about the game, but just went out and batted the best I could. People like Andy and Grant Flower came in to help us, and it really did help me."

That was the year, 1999, when he first started playing club cricket in Harare, an opportunity he had not had before due to distance. He had played Districts cricket for Karoi before then, though, under the captaincy of Robin Brown, and with success, scoring a century and about six fifties during the 1998 season. In Harare he joined Old Hararians, due to his friendship with Dirk Viljoen who grew up on a nearby farm. His highest club score to date is 80, against Alexandra during the 1998/99 season.

He was selected to make his first-class debut for a President's XI against the touring England A team early in 1999, but scored only a single before being stumped. The highlight of the year, though, was the match between the Zimbabwe Academy and the touring Australian Cricket Academy, where the express pace of Brett Lee caused much trepidation among the locals. Greg found Lee's bowling an awesome proposition, much faster than anything he had previously experienced. "It was the experience of a lifetime," he says. Batting at number seven, he was undefeated on five in the first innings as the tail collapsed, and then an attacking 67 off 67 balls in the second innings, but most of this was when the second-string bowlers were on.

During the off season he went over to England to play club cricket for Brook, in Surrey. He took a while to settle down, being too fond of the cut which led to his early downfall, before learning to play mainly off the front foot. After scoring one run in his first three innings, he broke through with a century that boosted his confidence. In one match he scored 160, his highest score in any class of cricket to date. He enjoyed some good bowling figures, too, taking about 30 wickets and scoring about 780 runs during the season. He also played at times for the Somerset second eleven, where he made a good impression.

During the current season of 1999/2000 he has played for President's XI teams against touring teams from Australia and Sri Lanka. His best score in these games was 47 against the Australians, again in the second innings, and regrets not going on to make it a fifty. Still only 18, he was invited back for a second year at the Academy, now known as the CFX Academy, for 2000.

Gwynne Jones, the academy director, says that Greg was invited back for a second year as it was felt that he has tremendous talent but needs to develop a stronger mental approach and start making more runs than he has been doing. It is mainly for the mental rather than the technical side that Greg needs to benefit from the academy this year.

Greg has also played for the Zimbabwe Board XI this season, going on tour with them and playing Easterns, where he scored 30, and Natal. He found it a good experience to play alongside a number of players with international experience.

Greg has played in two Under-19 World Cup competitions, in South Africa in 1998 and Sri Lanka in 2000. He had a difficult time in South Africa, when he played in only two of the seven matches.

In Sri Lanka he was disappointed with his lack of runs, but being run out in five of his seven innings did not help! But he finished off with a seventy against South Africa and forties against West Indies and Namibia. He did not find it too difficult to adapt to Sri Lankan conditions, having learned from his experiences in England, and found himself able to handle the conditions, even the sharp turn, after the first match. Gwynne Jones agrees that he was disappointing on these two tours as he was going through a bad patch.

He is happy with his form and technique at present, feeling that his only weakness is that he is failing to keep his head still when batting. He is a strong driver and cutter of the ball, and bowls mainly little away-swingers. He prefers the number four position in the batting order, where he now bats for Old Hararians, and enjoys fielding in the covers or point. He feels he is a capable catcher and thrower, but still has to work on his anticipation. Gwynne Jones feels he has the makings of a genuine all-rounder, and rates him as a fine fielder.

The bowlers who have given him the most trouble so far in his career are, not surprisingly, the internationals he has faced: besides Brett Lee, he names Damien Fleming, Muttiah Muralitharan and Glenn McGrath - and also admits to struggling at present against the seamers of fellow student Travis Friend. He is very keen to be selected for the Zimbabwe A tour of Sri Lanka which has been proposed for the end of the season but has still not been confirmed.

He has had little captaincy experience but says, "I have been learning from the best, Trevor Penney, who has really helped me, but captaincy is definitely not for me - I lose my temper too quickly for that!" If this is true, it is rarely evident in his usually affable, positive demeanour.

Greg is confident that he will succeed in his cricket career, but knows that he has farming to fall back on. He still plays squash and tennis, and enjoys horse-riding. He is a keen fisherman and enjoys taking his holidays at Kariba.