![]() ![]() I still absolutely love the game and bringing it to the homes and ears of millions is enjoyable in itself for the job but doubly so as I enjoy the game of cricket so much,” Mbangwa said. ![]() Sufficient improvement means you get employed and enjoyment and fulfilment mean you keep accepting the requests that come. Of course, at the raw stage of it in the beginning, there is no method, style or grace in delivery because one has no idea, but over time one learns about it and improves. “However, the only thing I was qualified for was giving my thoughts on the game I loved, as that is where I have experience. I found it so interesting that I really would have been quite happy performing any of the roles in the production process. I became curious about how the whole chain of events that leads to the viewer at home getting the picture of what’s happening at a cricket ground. I did not really set my sights on commentary and cricket broadcast, but my interest peaked when I was introduced to it in 2003 as a guest commentator. “I was not a regular in the national side and so the buzz of competition was replaced by the adrenaline of live television. Mbangwa struggled to maintain consistency for the Chevrons and decided to stop playing cricket in 2004 when he started becoming curious about how sports television broadcast works. It’s all really part of growing up and life.” I disliked discovering traits in myself and my teammates which were not honourable, but have come to appreciate, with age, that we live and we learn through various correct and incorrect choices. “There was an innocence and great camaraderie through those youthful years. He enjoyed the competition and how testing it was playing against wonderful players across the world, but best of all he enjoyed being part of a team, as it meant going through things with people on or off the field. Mbangwa said it was easy for him to integrate into the team because then there were a number of players of his age that had come through age group cricket and played club and provincial cricket with him such as Olonga, Gavin Rennie, Everton Matambanadzo and Gary Brent.īecause he had almost literally grew up with these players at various levels of cricket, Mbangwa said he hung out with them and they became quite close. To this day, I count it as a special privilege and top-notch achievement of which I am grateful and proud,” he said. The nerves were potentially debilitating and I think as much as they were because of a desire to do well, they were also because of how surreal it was that I was going to take to the field of play at the pinnacle of the sport I love and represent my country. I doubt that I will ever forget it as it was the realisation of a quite unlikely dream. “My first cap was on an away trip to Pakistan and I remember the day as if it was yesterday. In 1996, Mbangwa was called up to the Zimbabwe senior national team training squad, which was a great opportunity for him to impress and get selected.Īs fate would have it, Mbangwa was drafted into the team after the first choice bowlers sustained injuries in a tour of Pakistan in 1996 and he quickly made a statement by taking the wickets of Ijaz Ahmed and Wasim Akram in his Test debut. He made Zimbabwe Schools while at Milton High School in Bulawayo, which he captained as head boy in 1994. Subsequent to that was going through the age groups from Under-13 right up to Zimbabwe Schools with pretty much the same guys as your opponents at school and teammates in the representative teams,” said Mbangwa. “Matabeleland Under-12 was my first experience of representative age group cricket and that was much fun as we got to play at what was called Partridges Week (the national primary schools cricket week). His skills and talent saw him being called up to the Matabeleland Under-12 team and that was when he fell in love with cricket because he got to meet new faces and made new friends on various trips he made to different schools and provinces.
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