The Sunday Mail
It’s funny how much pomp and fanfare the international cricket community goes into every four years when all cricket activities come to a standstill and eyes zero in on the 50-over edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup.
This tournament is akin to the Fifa World Cup and taking part in it is itself a huge honour and privilege and as such, I always felt Masakadza’s failure to take part in the tournament was like Ryan Giggs’ failure to take part in a World Cup match.
It is a travesty of enormous proportions.
“Being part of the event far outweighs the results.”
Now no truer words have ever been spoken or can best describe the emotions which Hamilton Masakadza must have felt as he walked onto the pitch for Zimbabwe’s opening encounter against the Proteas earlier this morning in Hamilton, New Zealand.
The mere fact that Masakadza was making his long-awaited debut against the much-fancied South African side or that the match itself was played in the city of his namesake seems like it was just destined to be.
The cruel irony of it all is that this moment, one which it took 15 years for him to accomplish, came and went just like that and the 31-year-old probably barely had a chance to take a breath and take in that moment.
My story with Masakadza began back in 2000, when the cricketer made his Test debut at Harare Sports Club.
As he walked onto the park, the entire crowd started screaming “Taibu, Taibu, Taibu”.
At the time, Tatenda Taibu was one of the more prominent black players in the team, having made his debut earlier as an understudy or future replacement for Andy Flower.
A large portion of the crowd only saw skin colour and automatically assumed it was he and not Masakadza walking onto the pitch.
A few overs later, a couple runs under the belt and a correction on the loud speaker and Masakadza had announced his arrival onto the international stage.
After a nervy start, he went on to make a century, with the entire arena gasping for breath at every shot, every missed chance and he didn’t do any of his new fans a favour after he spent what seemed like an eternity in the 90s before that cover drive and single saw him cross the line and make history.
He finished day three on an unbeaten 115, entering the history books by becoming the youngest player to make a century on debut.
The record has since been broken by Mohammad Ashraful.
Years later, Masakadza was pivotal in Zimbabwe’s monumental 2013 Test victory over Pakistan, ending a 15-year wait and a record-setting 467 against Kenya in 2009, which was the highest number of runs by a player in bilateral series at the time.
He also had a cluster of local feats and records, but yet through all this he seemed to struggle getting to the World Cup, missing out on three editions in 2003, 2007 and 2011.
The reasons have varied, ranging from his educational pursuit, an injury and even being dropped due to poor form.
As for me, I have either watched from the sidelines or pounced for an interview during the editions he missed in 2007 and 2011, either to chronicle his emotion or thoughts on the missed chances.
Among the numerous talks that we had, one really stuck to me and best described what it meant to him to take part in a World Cup encounter.
“In cricket, like any other sport, every sportsman’s dream is to represent his country at the biggest stage of them all and depending on which sport it is, it doesn’t get any bigger than the World Cup.
“I have already been to two Twenty20 World Cups, but unfortunately I’m still to make my debut in the 50-over format and it is something I want to do before I retire.”
This was back in 2012, soon after Zimbabwe had clinched the PRAN AFL Twenty20 tri-series and he had an outstanding outing throughout the tournament, but still he wasn’t satisfied and had a quest for much more.
Well, today Hamilton has made it to the Promised Land.
The pain and frustration of missing out on this tournament all those years could be the one thing that pushes and motivates him.
