Wisdom Siziba: 19-Year-Old Carries His Bat On Debut

The Logan Cup match between Matabeleland and Manicaland at Harare Sports Club last weekend saw several notable achievements, but none more remarkable than that of Matabeleland opening batsman Wisdom Siziba. Wisdom, making his first-class debut as an opening batsman at the age of 19, carried his bat right through the Matabeleland second innings, finishing on 40 not out of a total of 150. He is only the third Zimbabwean batsman to carry his bat through a completed innings in almost 100 years of first-class cricket, following Grant Flower and Mark Dekker.

Surprisingly, his feat of carrying his bat on debut has been achieved on as many as nine previous occasions worldwide, according to statistician Bill Frindall. It cannot be truthfully called a great innings, as he played and missed a number of times and much of the bowling was not of the highest quality - but it was nevertheless a remarkable achievement. Wisdom spoke to John Ward after the match.

JW: Wisdom, first of all, what do you do for a living?

WS: I don't work, I just get up in the morning and go and train every day. I was just starting to coach in Matabeleland, part-time coaching. I am coaching the youngsters in the afternoons at schools in the black townships, the western suburbs [of Bulawayo].

JW: How did you first get interested in cricket?

WS: My first introduction to cricket was Mr Nicholas Sisingo. He was my teacher from Grade 5, when he introduced me, saying, "Do you want to come and play cricket?" and I said, "Yes, I want to come," so he said, "Well, you come today at two o'clock." Then I arrived at two o'clock and he told me how to play cricket, all those rules and everything.

JW: Well, you can tell him he's done a great job now!

WS: Yes, he's done a great job.

JW: Derrick Townshend [the Matabeleland manager] has been telling me that you always get to all the Matabeleland practices even though it's difficult for you to travel from the western suburbs.

WS: Yes, it's difficult because I don't have any transport. I don't have anyone who is transporting me now, even though Nicholas is there part of the time. So I have to go earlier than they said; if they say meet at 4.30 then I will be there by four o'clock. I want to be there all the time.

JW: How far do you have to travel?

WS: I have to travel about 15 or 16 kilometres, by boarding emergency taxis. It can take about 20 or 30 minutes to town.

JW: I hear you scored a century recently in a club match.

WS: Yes, I was playing for a development side against Mac [MacDonald] Club II. I scored 149.

JW: Is that the highest score you have ever made so far.

WS: Yes, it is the highest I've made, but I've scored three half-centuries this season.

JW: If you'd had a bit more support, you might have got another one yesterday.

WS: Yes, but there are not a lot of fast bowling guys from Manicaland, and they didn't give me a lot of trouble because at other times I have been bowled bouncers and I had to duck, and they come down leg and I just play them. I took my patience, my concentration and said I am not going to get out. That's what Mr Townshend told me; he said, "I want you to bat through to lunch," and that's what I did, I batted through to lunch. When he came at lunch he said, "I want you to bat to tea," and I did, through my concentration and patience.

JW: Is this the most difficult bowling you have ever faced?

WS: Ah, no, the most difficult I have ever faced, I faced one of the quickest ones from Winstonians, a guy called Amos Maungwa. He's one of the quickest ones. And I've faced Heath Streak when he bowled to me very quick. He's the one who told me that when you're playing all of these fast bowlers you don't have to hide, you just have to take your patience, play them down, when they bowl up just hit into the space. He helped me out in my batting.

JW: When did you hear you were in the team for this match?

WS: For this match, when I was going to training in the morning sessions, and my friend Clement Mahachi who is at the academy now told me, "Haven't you seen your name in the newspaper so that you are in the travelling team that is going to Harare against Manicaland?" This was on Wednesday.

JW: Wednesday - was it a big rush for you to get ready?

WS: No, I just took about two months to train for that. I trained for that in the 1989 season, so I just told myself that I am going to keep on working very hard, training very hard. And when it came I just said, "Okay, now it's time to go," and then we went.

JW: Then in this match here, first of all your team won the toss and batted in the first innings.

WS: In the first innings I didn't bat very well. I didn't bat very well because I just lost my concentration. People were talking, and I lost my concentration, and when I went out I said in the second innings I mustn't lose my concentration, I must maintain it throughout the game, and I want to carry my bat with me.

JW: In that first innings you scored three runs off 29 balls - did it worry you when you found it difficult to score?

WS: Yes, it was very difficult because some of the balls were coming very hard. There were some bouncers, and when they bowled outside off stump then I couldn't cut because I did have a problem with my cut all the time, even before I came to Harare. But now it's just getting even a little bit better. I met Bill Flower, and he told me that I must look for singles, just work the balls around and improve my strike rate. When I go back to Bulawayo I will be improving in my strike rate, my concentration, not defending all the time but just to play the ball into the gaps.

JW: You certainly did a good job in the second innings.

WS: Yes, because when we went to the hotel on the first day they told me I must think about tomorrow, what I am going to do about tomorrow. I have to stay the whole day, and in the morning they told me again I have to stay the whole day. And I came in, I worked out my game. Gary Brent was bowling very good, he bowled good balls and at times he was cursing, "Why can't you hit the ball?" The next ball he comes and I hit him and he talks again. But I didn't put that in my heart, I just concentrated on my game.

JW: Did you get worried when the batsmen at the other end kept getting out?

WS: No, it didn't bother me much because I told myself that I'm not going to lose my concentration, I'm just going to keep focused on my game, I'm going to concentrate, look for spaces, ones and twos, and then I made my 40 not out. But I wanted to score more than that because the bat I was using was not very good. It wasn't knocked [in] because they just went to the store and bought it for me on the afternoon that we were going to use it. It wasn't knocked, it wasn't treated, so that was why it was giving me a lot of problems in the first innings but in the second innings it was okay if I just kept on defending, but just getting on to drives it was getting old.

JW: So what do you think are the main things you've learned from this match?

WS: I think from this match I've learned that I have to score a lot of runs and I have to stay in, remain focused, concentrate, and I've faced a lot of guys who are very fast, very good, so at least they gave me the opportunity to go and train very hard. Work hard for it and then at the end I will score my runs.

JW: Do you have any good memories of anything else besides batting?

WS: Through my catches that I took on the first innings, I just told myself that maybe there's going to be a catch that's coming in the first innings, and when it was the last ball it was Ian Engelbrecht that was bowling and Neil Ferreira was batting, and he just lobbed a catch to me, and I just jumped to take it, and it was a fine good catch. And when I went for second innings I took a catch down at fine leg, and it was a very good catch because I had to dive forward to take that very good catch.

JW: Do you find it difficult being the only player from the townships in the Matabeleland side?

WS: No, not actually, because I told myself that I want to be in that team, whenever we travel I want to be in that team, and that's why I told myself that. I'm aiming to be the top batsman, I'm aiming to open for them, that's what I told myself at first. The next thing they put me to open for them, so I did a very good job for them.

JW: You certainly did. Maybe your success will encourage some of your friends to come along and play.

WS: Yes, I have to encourage them that they have to work very hard, not to give up, whether they're so keen when they're in poor form, they're not scoring runs, but just remain focused, work very hard. At the end it's going to come through very good work. It was a disappointing year for me last year because I attended the Under-19 selection at Eaglesvale but I wasn't picked up for the Zimbabwe Under-19, but I told myself that I'm going to make it to Mat'land, and I'm going to make it through to the Zim teams through Mat'land, through my performance in the Logan Cup. And I know now we haven't met Mashonaland, we haven't met Midlands, and on Wednesday we are playing at Bulawayo against the Academy, so I will have to prove then myself that I will have to score some runs in that game.

JW: Are you hoping to go to the Academy yourself?

WS: Yes, I'm hoping to go to the Academy next year, and I'm hoping to make a lot of impact, I'm hoping to make a lot of noise when I'm in the Academy. I want everyone to hear that there is a boy from Bulawayo, Wisdom Siziba, I came from the black townships and I'm now playing for Zimbabwe. Because I watched Grant Flower play against Pakistan in Bulawayo, that 156, when all the other guys were always going out, going out, but he told himself that I'm going to stay and I'm going to tell all the other guys who are coming in just to stay in and concentrate, and he made a brilliant 156 not out. There were no medium-pacers, but fast bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, all of the good fast bowlers in the world.

JW: Until yesterday, in nearly a hundred years of first-class cricket in this country, Grant Flower and Mark Dekker were the only two batsmen to bat through a whole innings and be not out at the end. So you're the third.

WS: That is very congratulations to me because I didn't think of it. I don't want to get out. They told me to bat through to lunch and I told myself I want to bat through to lunch. I played more than 50 overs yesterday so I ran a lot during the off-season and I just told myself I was going to run very hard, until two weeks to come this game versus Manicaland, and I concentrated on my batting very hard until I got it right. The last week we were going to come to Harare to play Manicaland is when I scored my 149, and I told myself now that's fine, there's nothing very difficult, I just have to go out there and concentrate. That's what I did.

JW: Is there anything else you would like to say?

WS: I would like to say to the young cricketers who are playing cricket, they just have to work hard - dedication and commitment, that's all.