Mluleki Nkala: an updated biography

FULL NAME: Mluleki Luke Nkala
BORN: 1 April 1981, at Bulawayo
MAJOR TEAMS: Matabeleland; Zimbabwe (1998/99); CFX Academy (1999/2000).
KNOWN AS: Mluleki Nkala. Nickname: Syke - after a cartoon character called Cycle from his childhood.
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Fast Medium
OCCUPATION: Professional cricketer

FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: 4-6 March 2000, Zimbabweans v West Indies Board XI, at St George's, Grenada.
TEST DEBUT: 1-5 June 2000, v England, at Nottingham.
ODI DEBUT: 27 September 1998, v India, at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo.

BIOGRAPHY (updated April 2001)

Of all the young black cricketers trying to break through to the top level in Zimbabwe, Mluleki Nkala is the one on whom, perhaps more than any other, even Henry Olonga, cricket lovers and administrators in Zimbabwe are pinning their hopes. He is the first black cricketer of genuine all-round talents to appear on the scene and, all things being equal, he may be considered likely to be Zimbabwe's first black cricket captain at some time in the future.

Fortunately certain elements of the local press, which have in the past shown themselves eager to press ungrounded charges of racism against the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, have not yet got hold of him as their latest champion to add an element of political pressure to the situation. Fortunately also, Mluleki is a very mature and well-balanced young man who is unlikely fall easy prey to manipulation by the unscrupulous. Although naturally ambitious, he is content to take his career one step at a time and has not been adversely affected by the honours that have come his way so far during his brief but illustrious career.

Mluleki comes from a family of 14 children, having eight brothers and six sisters. His six older brothers, who attended Whitestone School in Bulawayo, developed an interest in cricket there, which they brought back home to their house in the suburb of Kumalo and the young Mluleki tried to join in, at the age of about six. As he persevered, he was slowly allowed to play more of a part in their games at home, and quickly developed a personal passion. In those days television in the afternoon only started at around four o'clock, giving the boys time on their hands before then during which they had nothing else to do but play sport! Some of them at least were at home each afternoon, and they used a dustbin as the wicket and old pieces of wood for bats.

In Grade 2 Mluleki became a boarder at Whitestone and was able to use the sports facilities there. Presumably because he showed talent, he was allowed to join practices, which was not usually permitted until Grade 3, and he used to play in the nets with the brother closest in age above him. In Grade 4 he progressed to the Colts team to join his brother. In his first match the team was bowled out for a total of nine runs, Mluleki himself falling second ball, but he did take two wickets with his bowling. He did well enough over the next two years to be sent to Matabeleland primary schools trials, with most of the boys there being two years older than himself, and only just missed selection; he remembers being bitterly disappointed.

At various times during his early years Mluleki's skills as a batsman and a bowler developed at different rates. In his earliest years at Whitestone he was considered to be more of a bowler, but his batting came on when he was promoted to the school senior team, and when in Grade 6 he was selected for the Matabeleland team to play in the Zimbabwe primary schools week, it was purely as a batsman. He scored his first century at this cricket week, against Harare Schools, and impressed the selectors enough for them to put him in the national side. He scored three more centuries for Whitestone the following year, when he opened both the batting and the bowling, but remarkably he played for the Matabeleland and Zimbabwe Under-13 teams that year mainly as a bowler and had little batting to do! He took his best bowling figures, eight wickets for seven runs, in a match against Milton Junior School that year. For the Under-13 team he took seven for 24 against Boland in the South African week.

During his early years at high school, Falcon College, bowling was his stronger suit. Falcon he says was a very important stage in his development, with a couple of the teachers there really going out of their way to look after him and help him, especially in cricket terms, notably Dave Grant, his housemaster, who had also coached him at times at Whitestone, and the head coach Dave Fleming and Richard Harrison. They also made sure he played other sports as well, notably rugby and athletics. He progressed to the Matabeleland men's athletics squad and the Zimbabwe Schools rugby side; he also used to play tennis and squash, but has now given up these sports for cricket. He does play golf as a recreation.

Falcon had a very strong side during Mluleki's years there, and at one time no fewer than eight of their team were in the national schools side. Batting low in the order, he scored a couple of centuries for junior teams there, despite being regarded mainly as a bowler, and during his Form Two year he was dismissed only once in inter-school matches. His batting began to slide when he played in the school first team, though, for which he never scored a century. As he became more noticed on a national basis, he began also to miss matches through these other commitments. In an internal house match over 25 overs at Falcon once he hit 163, at present his highest score in any class of cricket, and in a school game his highest was 149 against St George's College of Harare when in Form Two.

Mluleki was already regarded as captaincy material, not an easy achievement for those without a strong family background in cricket. From Form One he captained his school age-group teams, and also the national Under-16 team in their World Cup. In Form Four he toured England with the Under-19 team, and the following year captained that side, which he also did at the 1999/2000 World Cup immediately after leaving school.

It was actually not until he came under the influence of Andy Pycroft on the England Under-19 tour of 1997 that he began to realize that he could reach the top as an all-rounder, although even now he tends to consider himself more as a batsman who can bowl. Andy encouraged him to take his batting more seriously rather than simply `floundering around and enjoying it'; he urged Mluleki to concentrate, continually affirming that he had the ability to become a successful batsman in his own right.

Mluleki's most memorable performance of the tour was his 71, although in a losing cause, in the second innings of the first unofficial international against England Under-19s at Edgbaston, Birmingham. He batted for three and a half hours, the longest time he had ever spent at the crease. After this he was promoted from number seven to number five, and celebrated with a powerful century at Northampton, on an admittedly flat pitch on which five centuries were scored in four days and neither side had a second innings.

After this came the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa, which was, he says, `a great tournament for the whole team', as they won through to the second round, the super league. He did not reach any great height with the bat, but did well with the ball, with five for 51 against the West Indies being his best performance.

After this the selectors decided to blood him at a higher level, giving him a couple of matches for the Zimbabwe Board XI, where he did reasonably well but without any notable performances. During the off-season he had a spell at the Australian Cricket Academy, mainly under Dennis Lillee who looked after his bowling.

Such was his obvious promise and potential that he was selected, in September 1998, to play for Zimbabwe in the second one-day international against the touring Indian team, despite the fact that he had as yet played no first-class cricket or even club cricket. There was a spate of injuries to pace bowlers, just after the Commonwealth Games, and it was in this role that he was actually selected. A good game against the Western Province tourists earned him a place in the squad, and then he was plunged into the team for the match at Queens Sports Club. Andy Pycroft had just taken over as convener of selectors, which no doubt helped his cause.

At the age of 17 years and 179 days, he was by almost two years the youngest player to represent Zimbabwe in an official international match. It was a nerve-racking experience for him, but `there is no sensation like it', he says. He was happy to play in Bulawayo, his home town; his parents came to watch a cricket match for the first time, as well as his brothers, and it was this which started his youngest brother's interest in the game - Mluleki is certain that he too will become a good player. He was aware of them all cheering for him on the boundary during the game, along with many of his friends from school.

Zimbabwe batted first, and Mluleki was originally down to bat at number nine, ahead of Andrew Whittall and John Rennie. At the end of the Zimbabwe innings, though, Agarkar came on to bowl reverse-swinging yorkers, which Mluleki had seen on television before but never faced. The decision was made to send the more experienced Whittall and Rennie in ahead of him, and as the innings closed with seven wickets down he never got to bat. "I wasn't too disappointed," he says.

When Zimbabwe fielded, defending a total of 235 for seven, Mluleki went to field on the fine-leg boundary. Sachin Tendulkar turned the third ball of the match in his direction, and he fumbled it and sent in a poor return, but then settled down until he was called on to bowl with the score on 44 for no wicket.

It was a sensational beginning. "Some people have those days on their first time out," Mluleki says modestly. "I was just lucky. The first ball I bowled was a yorker, and Tendulkar blocked it; I could see he was just sizing me up, to see where he was going to hit me. Then Alistair Campbell [the captain] came over to me and said, `Syke, it's no use holding back here; you've just got to give it your all.' It was all or nothing.

"The next ball I bowled was short and wide; he smashed it, and I just turned my head, and saw Craig Wishart [at backward point] dive and catch it. Joy would be the understatement of the year, I think! My mum had been saying the night before, `You've got to get this guy out; I know you can do it.' I just said, `Yes, mum, yes!' That was a brilliant start. But it was a very flat pitch and I didn't bowl that well after that, and Ganguly whacked me quite a bit. But it was a great experience." His eventual figures were 32 runs off five overs for his one wicket.

For eighteen months this remained Mluleki's only international match, mainly because of school commitments and the need to give full attention to his A-levels. A mutual decision was reached about the extent of his cricket between the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, the headmaster, his parents and Mluleki himself, which in effect kept him from representative cricket during his final school year. Looking back, he wisely feels that it was good for him to get away from big cricket for a while and all the hype there was concerning his career. He studied English, business management and maths, while preparing to give the year 2000 over entirely to cricket.

At the end of 1999 he went down to South Africa for this third South African Schools Week, but admits he has never done well there, often suffering from injuries. After that he went to his second Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, this time as captain. It was very different from the previous World Cup in South Africa, he recalls. "Sri Lanka is a very different and hard place to tour, especially when you're young," he says. "You struggle to adapt to conditions, the surroundings and the general country. We lost to the West Indies, who were a good team and really fired up, as you could see, for the tournament. Then we beat the Americas quite easily, but then had a heart-breaking loss to England. We just didn't make it into the Super Sixes.

"It was a great match to be in but we were very disappointed to lose. It was a lesson. At one stage we were down and out, then we got back, and the game was won, but we still managed to lose it in the last two overs. It was a heart-breaking loss, and we missed the Super Sixes, which would have been a great opportunity to put our might up against the best. Then we went to the Plate, but we weren't playing that well; you could tell that the motivation wasn't quite there. We were getting tired and having injury problems with my ankle; it was a difficult tour, but definitely a very good experience. Especially for me, as I missed half of the tour with injury. It was very disappointing as captain to be watching half of the games. But it was a great learning experience, and I came back hopefully a better cricketer and person."

Mluleki was plunged into full international cricket almost as soon as he left school, being selected for the tour of the West Indies. "I spent most of the tour just learning and trying to get fully fit after my foot injury," he said. "I did a lot of watching and played in the one-day internationals, but the Tests were good to learn from."

This was followed by the tour of England, and he was omitted from the First Test team at Lord's. Then came a victory over a weakened Yorkshire team at Headingley, Leeds, on an excessively green pitch with Pommie Mbangwa taking ten cheap wickets. "I bowled quite well but didn't take that many wickets," he said, but it was enough to win him a place in the Second Test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. He had quite a satisfying debut, not getting a chance with the bat due to the rain that badly spoilt the match, but taking five wickets. "I think I was lucky to play as the team was struggling and I was not all that experienced," he said.

Mluleki was in the team at the start of the triangular tournament that also included West Indies, but missed a few games due to a side injury. He did play in the final, although without much success. His main memories are of the team successes rather than individual performances, though. "I learnt a lot, but I still feel personally I've got a long way to go," he said. "Every time I bat or bowl I learn something, even if it's a little thing, that the more experienced guys know, because I haven't played all that much first-class cricket. One thing I did learn is that I need more patience, and sometimes when things are really looking down, that's the time you've really got to kick in, because cricket's the sort of game where things can turn around so quickly. I've still got a long way to go I experience, in mental toughness, even in physical toughness. I got a bit better, a bit stronger and mentally tough on the tour, but I still feel I've got a long, long way to go."

He returned to Zimbabwe to secure a Test place against the touring New Zealand team, but with limited success. His bowling was not tight enough to put pressure on the New Zealanders, and he scored few runs, recording a `pair' in the Second Test, thanks to a dubious lbw decision against him in the second innings. It was very special to him, though, to be part of the Zimbabwe one-day team that won a home series against New Zealand.

He gradually began to settle into international cricket during the extended 2000/01 tour by the Zimbabwe team to Sharjah, India, New Zealand and Australia. On a team level the highlights were another one-day series win, this time in New Zealand, and bowling West Indies out for less than 100 to win a match in Australia. "On a personal level I started putting in some performances that were important and winning a couple of games," he says. He played a vital innings of 36 off 27 balls at the death when Zimbabwe won their only victory in India, eventually by one wicket, and also took three wickets for 12 runs in that victory over West Indies.

Talking about how his game developed over that year, Mluleki said, "I think I've learned a bit more control and consistency when I bowl. I haven't really had much opportunity in the longer game to bat, and I think I've still got a long way to go there. I think as a one-day game I'm starting to find my feet and I'm trying to get the confidence I need, batting low down in the order, and as a bowler I think I've improved in knowing my strengths and my weaknesses. I think on my tour of Australia I started to reach the stage where I knew what I was doing and was confident in myself.

"I thought last year was a good year for me," he says, "because for a long period of time I was playing in the side but not doing very well, just borderline. But when I got dropped for the first time [in India] I was sitting in the wings and I looked at my game and worked harder at it. Then I came back and played really well against India, when we won our first game, and for the first time I really contributed with the bat, and that was special. Then in Australia I started bowling more consistently with the ball, and knowing I was producing the goods and not just playing for the sake of blooding a young player. I don't want to get too carried away at the moment and try to keep myself level-headed, knowing that I'm still only 20, and there are good young players in Zimbabwe who are 23 and haven't played as many games as I have. I still think I've got a long way to go, so I'll just keep working at it; I've still got to get stronger because I'm still getting too many injuries, which is disappointing for me."

On his return to Zimbabwe Mluleki played domestic first-class cricket for the first time, as an all-rounder batting at number five for Matabeleland. An intercostals injury prevented him from bowling throughout the Logan Cup programme, but the day before his twentieth birthday he celebrated it with an innings of 168 against the CFX Academy, the highest score he has made in any class of cricket. His previous best first-class score was 51 in an earlier round of the competition, and as he said himself one of the best features of it was his clean straight hitting. "That was probably the most pleasing thing for me about the whole innings," he said afterwards. "Usually I like to sweep and cut the spinners a lot, and I didn't actually do that much; I played a lot down the ground.

"I consider it a big step; getting a first-class hundred is a big step for anyone. I had a lot of luck; I was dropped quite easily on 7, and then quite a difficult catch on 88, but you have to have some luck sometime. I'm happy I went on and got a big one." He shared a 267-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Heath Streak, and Mluleki paid tribute to the national captain for his advice on how to play the spinners and rotate the strike during his innings when the field was put back to tie him down. "I'm happy I batted for such a length of time," he continued, "and it's given me the confidence that I can do it at this level, and maybe push on and make it at a higher level."

He told of a duel with Justin Lewis just before he got out, bowled hitting a poor shot, as he admitted across the line. "I ran down the pitch and hit him over mid-on for four. They pushed mid-on wider and put mid-off straighter, then I ran down and hit him over extra cover for another four. That shot sticks in my mind because I saw it all the way. But I was happy with the way I was driving, and most happy with the way I ran my singles, rotating the strike, and concentration rather than shots."

As a batsman, Mluleki feels his main strength is his concentration. He enjoys playing the cut and the sweep, rather than the straight-bat shots often prominent in tall players. His preferred position in the batting order is number six; he does not like to go in any higher as he finds if he has bowled earlier it interferes with his batting. Rather like Gary Sobers, perhaps, as is also his statement that if he doesn't bowl well he always bats well, and vice versa! He laughs at the comparison, though: "I don't think quite in that class, no! When it comes to batting and bowling I put maximum effort into both, but my attitude has been that if my batting doesn't come off one day I really have to put 120% into my bowling. It's nice being an all-rounder because you always feel you have a second chance to redeem yourself."

As a bowler, he feels that his main strength is his accuracy and consistency. Even in his younger days when he strove for pace alone he managed to retain his accuracy. He is basically more of a seam than a swing bowler, although he has been practising his inswinger in particular and is trying to learn how to swing the ball more. As a fielder he rates himself at present as no more than `fairly good', preferring the covers or midwicket areas.

Of the opponents he has met so far in his brief career he has great respect for Andy Flower and Saurav Ganguly as batsmen, Flower in particular striking him as a batsman who always seems in calm control and never likely to get out. Brian Lara, though, he rates in a class of his own. "He is fantastic when he gets going," he said. "His movement, the way he manoeuvres his bat and gets the ball where he wants it, the power he gets in his shots with his unorthodox technique is amazing. He's definitely the best, I felt."

After his tour of India he noted how hard it is to bowl to the Indian batsmen in their own conditions. "Sachin Tendulkar is awesome in India," he says. He also rates Mark Waugh very highly and says that, with Lara and Tendulkar, "they seem to be able to score a run a ball no matter what the situation and no matter how difficult the pitch is they know how to pick up the singles. It makes it very hard to tie them down, and as a bowler you know you have got to keep them down to three an over, and they are still going quite comfortably at four or four and a half, on a difficult pitch. They're match-winners, and those three are the ones that stick out in my mind."

"Brett Lee," he said when naming the bowlers he has found most difficult as a batsman. "He was very difficult, and in India I found Agarkar quite a handful when he was reverse-swinging the ball quite a lot. But batting down the order in one-day matches, you don't get to face the bowlers as you would at the top of the order."

Regarding his ambitions, Mluleki says, "I don't like looking too far into the future, but step by step. I'm just looking at my next matches, and showing people what I can do. I'm still learning and finding my way." He must be aware of his future as a potential `FZC' (Future Zimbabwe Captain!), but wisely has put such thoughts to the back of his mind, prepared to take one step at a time.

He is very positive about the future of cricket in Zimbabwe, including the domestic game. "I think the Logan Cup is going to get better and better, and stronger and stronger," he says. "The circuit is going to get bigger and stronger, which is very good for Zimbabwe cricket. Hopefully we will get to play some more matches, because five is not many - a double round - and especially when it is badly rain-affected, as it was this year, it makes it difficult for the batsmen to get in form or for bowlers to stake a claim for the national side. This is what you want your domestic cricket to be doing: getting players to push for national selection.

"It will take a bit of time, but I think in the next couple of years you will see some big changes in the local scene, especially if the Academy boys keep coming through with a strong attitude. You can see the fighting attitude they showed in their batting against players like Heath Streak, enjoying the challenge. At this moment it's important to have the national players around in the Logan Cup to improve the standard, but I think as time goes by you will probably find the standard will improve without the national players. I think as you can see with the B side now there are a lot of young talented players coming through, and if they're playing in the circuit I think it will make it just as tough."

Mluleki says his main hobby is watching movies on television, so it was clearly a very good thing when he was young that television only began at four in the afternoon! He also enjoys sports and music channels.