ON his Test debut last month, young top order batsman Tarisai Musakanda made headlines after teaming up with Malcom Waller for a brilliant runout of Sri Lanka’s Dilruwan Perera at Rajapaksa International Stadium in Hambantota.
Tarisai Musakanda
The well-executed runout grabbed the attention of various international media outlets, including the Australian publication, news.com.au, who described it as “one of the smoothest runouts you’ll ever see.”
Fielding at point, Musakanda ran and dived to his right to prevent a backfoot shot from Asela Gunaratne piercing the infield.
As he fell to the ground, he flicked the ball up to Waller, who also gathered it one-handed and fired a one bounce-throw to keeper Regis Chakabva.
Chakabva whisked the bails off the stumps to catch hesitant non- striker Perera short of his crease. “Amazing, amazing bit of work from Musakanda,” the authoritative Cricinfo.com’s commentary of the dismissal read. “One of the plays of the year. Or decade. Or ever.”
A few days earlier, Musakanda had earned the praises of his skipper Graeme Cremer, who singled out his excellent one-handed catch to dismiss Akila Dananjaya as a vital moment of the match as Zimbabwe sealed a historic ODI series win.
This was exactly what Musakanda’s teenage dreams were made of until the game he loved the most overlooked him and he was nearly lost to rugby.
After the disappointment of being left out from the Under-19 cricket World Cup squad in 2012, Musakanda, then a talented utility back from Prince Edward Boys School, found some solace in rugby.
He was part of the Zimbabwe Schools side for South Africa’s annual Craven Week rugby festival, one of the world’s biggest schoolboy rugby tournaments in the world.
Musakanda injured his back before the tour and was forced to pull out of the squad but still bounced back to earn selection for Zimbabwe’s Under-20 rugby team in the African qualification competition for the World Junior Rugby Trophy, as the team’s flyhalf later that year.
Cricket, as Musakanda confesses was always his first love and he later made further amends when in 2014 he was part of Zimbabwe’s 2014 Under-19 Cricket World Cup played in the United Arab Emirates.
But how did he end up in junior national rugby team colours?
MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
Re: MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
Who is Munyaradzi madzokere by the way?