তাতেন্দা তাইবু

He was born in Highfield, Harare, on 14 May 1983, three years after Robert Mugabe had become Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. His natural cricketing talent was obvious from a young age, and it was not long before he was at the forefront of a generation of young black cricketers from Harare making a serious impression in a then-white dominated sport. He made his Test and One Day International debuts in 2001 when he was just eighteen years old and was named vice-captain on a tour of England when he was nineteen. Just two years later he was appointed permanent captain – the youngest in test cricket history and the first black player to captain Zimbabwe – following Andy Flower and Henry Olonga’s ‘death of democracy’ protest in 2003 and the white player walkout led by Heath Streak in 2004. Tatenda would soon understand the perils of the role himself, and in November 2005 he announced his resignation from the role and his international retirement, after a series of disputes with the board led to his family’s safety being compromised. Tatenda spent the intervening period in countries such as Bangladesh and England, before a return to the national team a few years later as a more detached member of the side. He announced his retirement for good in 2012, as his rediscovery of faith began to demand more of his time, while making him view the sport in a different light. He returned to help Zimbabwe as selector, scout and academy director in 2016, but once again mismanagement and interference from above led to him and many others’ departure a year later, leaving Zimbabwean cricket in a familiar position of peril. He now lives in Crosby, Liverpool with his wife Loveness and his two young boys. *Jack Gordon Brown*, who collaborated on this book, was born in London. After studying journalism at the University of Salford, he became an editor at deCoubertin books in 2016. He collaborated with Philip Ross and James Corbett on Faith of our Families: Everton: An Oral History and England: The Complete Record, 1872-2018.