"Virat Kohli has all the qualities of a great leader," says former Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu

Tatenda Taibu is a former Zimbabwe Cricketer who is well known for his heroics against South Africa. Finishing with an average of 30.31, Tatenda was one of the finest cricketers of Zimbabwe Cricket. In this interview, he talks about his favourite cricketers and also speaks about what India needs to do in order to win overseas tests.

In an exclusive interview, the former Zimbabwe captain takes us down the memory lane as he talks about Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Andy Flower and MS Dhoni.

Q: Hailing from Harare in Zimbabwe, how did proper cricket start for you? Please take us through your childhood.

Tatenda Taibu: So, the way I started playing cricket was in PT lessons in high-density suburbs of Highfield. I grew up in a poor area and Zimbabwe Cricket had a programme to spread cricket into the high-density suburbs and my primary school was one of the schools that was picked for that programme. So, it was then we got used to that sport as a PT lesson and the coach, then a gentleman called Steven Mongongo. He would ask us to hold the bat and also throw a cricket ball and the ones that he thought were natural, were put onto the one side and they were the ones that were asked to come for afternoon practice sessions and he thought I was natural in bowling, throwing and batting and from then on that’s how I started playing cricket.

Q: You made your first-class debut at a tender age of 16. What challenges did you face to get into the domestic and the national side? Did the things change from there?

Tatenda Taibu: Well, it was quite a funnier story because when I started making it to the national age groups of under-12, 14, and 16 things were happening too fast for me, because when made it to the under-16 for the first time I was 1 year underage. I actually played my first First -class game when I was with the national side playing against the West Indies. So, things were happening too fast for me to realize the strides that I was actually making. And just to carry on from that to answer your other question. Of course, it’s difficult being a young boy, you are expected now to perform as a man. But, because things were happening quick for me at that time I didn’t realize, but it’s only now that I look back I realize.

Q: Who was that one cricketer you looked up to while growing up?

Tatenda Taibu: Well, with this question its quite funny because my role models kept changing along the way. First, it was Viv Richards because he was the first cricketer I watched on TV playing. So, one day I walked into my house and it was a black and white TV set and there was a documentary about Sir Viv Richards and I got hooked up to him because it was a cricketer being show on TV, so that was the first one. Then, along the way when I started understanding more about the game, this I’m talking when I was about 11-12 years old, I had a hardcover book which was full of pictures of Sachin Tendulkar and newspaper articles of Sachin Tendulkar and then when I started playing cricket with Andy Flower when he came to our club to join our club -it was an all-black cricket club, but Andy came to join us. So, I started seeing how Andy practised and the mental side of the game why do I have a hero from another cricketer that I don’t even know personally, one who doesn’t know I exist. Why not have a hero that I can see face to face because he was giving me tips all the time, I mean he took me as his little brother and he became my hero from then on up until I started doing well, I decided I’m not going to follow anyone but challenge myself. But, even today I respect Andy Flower for what he and has a family had done for me while growing up that I can never be able to repay what they have done for me.

Q: How was it like to face the deadly Pakistani bowling line-up comprising of Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar in your debut Test innings where you remained unbeaten on 51 at the Harare sports club in 2002?

Tatenda Taibu: I think that is the innings that changed my Test career because we decided as a team, I think first of all it was the speech that was given by Alistair Campbell because he was the captain at that time and he gave such a speech that I remember very well that I got so confident from the speech that he gave and we decided that we’re going to prepare a green track even though we knew that the Pakistani bowling line-up is not the one to prepare a green track, but we decided that our best chances to win against Pakistan was to bowl them out. I mean to win a Test match, you have to bowl a team out. We didn’t believe that we have a bowling line-up to bowl out a Pakistani side on a flat deck but were capable enough to bowl them out on a green track. So, that meant the batsman had to come out of their comfort zone and face that attack on a green top. So, that was the plan and because of that speech that he gave I got so confident that I knew I was going to do well.

For most of the time I batted with Andy and we got hit on our helmets, I got hit on the ribs, on the bicep by Shoaib Akhtar and Andy would laugh about it and talk about it in the middle. I mean what more do you want as a youngster facing a bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq and I think Mohammed Sami was playing as well, with your role model at the other end. What more does a guy want, I really cherish those moments which has changed my test career from then on because I gained a lot of respect from that innings from my own teammates.

Q: You were appointed as captain at a very young age, how difficult was it to lead a group of players who were unsure of their future at that time?

Tatenda Taibu: Captaincy wasn’t tough for me during that time, I had already been the vice-captain and my teammates respected me, big time. Things kept moving for me very quickly that captaincy really never burdened me because someone gave me a piece of advice, “You know Tatenda before you are a captain – You are a batsman and before you are a captain- You are a wicketkeeper” So, in other words, I only had to concentrate on batting when I was batting and then captaincy when I’m fielding because while batting you have very few things to think about – whether to up the rate, what time to declare and things like that which we never got into as Zimbabwe for me to decide those things. But when you’re fielding you got to take care of fielding positions and bowling changes, but I always believe that I’m a wicketkeeper before I’m a captain. So, I never thought about the whole situation as the Zimbabwe captain because I used to get so engrossed into the game or a series to think outside of that.

Q: Your best ODI performances, in fact, both the ODI hundreds came against a strong South African bowling attack. How was it different performing against South Africa and other countries? Also, can you brief us about Mark Boucher sledging you for your average? Ironically, he finished with an average less than that of yours.

Tatenda Taibu: You see, South Africa has got a little bit of story behind it. There is a series we played, we’re coming from Bangladesh and I played so well in that series- I think I scored my highest test score there and then went to South Africa where we lost badly. You know, everyone who played South Africa know that South Africa had a game plan to attack the captain and they did attack me and attacked me well and they chirped me. I think there is a clip of Boucher chirping at me, that’s exactly the series- the last innings I started chirping back. Normally I used to chirp every now and then, I used to think it’s a waste of time and I would rather concentrate on what I was doing. So, when I came back from the tour one of my coach Bruce Mako called me and said “Tatenda! You were chirping! Weren’t you?” to which I replied Yes, and he said “Why? I knew you as someone who concentrates on the game and believed in shaking the hands with the players after they congratulate you for doing well."

I said I had nothing to lose- I had done badly both as a captain and as a player. The next piece of advice he gave me was “The next time you play South Africa and whenever you feel that anger caused by that chirps, use that energy to practice in the nets before the game." So, from that time on I used to score plenty of runs against South Africa and that is why I ended up with such a record against South Africa.

Q: Back in 2007 at Harare Sports club chasing an uphill target of 324 against the likes of Pollock, Ntini, Morkel and Philander, you almost won the game single-handedly but fell short off target by 28 runs. Was that the best knock in your career?

Tatenda Taibu: Yeah, that’s definitely one of the best innings that I’ve played. I always feel settled when I face tougher oppositions than when I played what I felt was a weaker team. I mean I used to struggle big time playing our club cricket than I used to feel playing international cricket. In club cricket, I was really terrible- I mean if you would watch me in the club cricket and then watch me in the nets you would never pick me. Only the people that knew me knew that I never played with my ability, but I played with my heart. So, the higher the task the more at ease I felt. So, to answer your question – Yes, that was one of the best knocks that I’ve played.

Q: Who was the toughest opponent and the toughest bowler you ever faced?

Tatenda Taibu: Muttiah Muralidharan was the toughest bowler I’ve ever faced. You see, with Muttiah- he was different from a lot of other bowlers. Most of the bowlers during that time had only two kinds of balls- the stock ball and the variation ball. Now, Muttiah Muralidharan had three- one was the traditional off-spinner, one that went straight which looped and bounced a bit more than the normal deliveries and then he had the doosra. So, he was difficult because of that and to pick between the straight one and the doosra was difficult. So, he was the difficult one to face during the first half of my career.

Q: Who is your favourite captain, the one you think reads the game very well and has control over the game?

Tatenda Taibu: I think I never actually played in the same time, I never played in the same game with who I felt was my favourite captain and that would be Ricky Ponting. But’ I’m now taking these from when we played together during the IPL. Now, Ricky Ponting wouldn’t (talking about practice and not the game) wait for the coach to start to get things moving, he always used to start things moving and then he would easily pick up the ones that would easily get things moving and wait up on the coach. So, for me, that was a strong quality. The body language and the confidence that he carried on a cricket field is what that is making me choose him. Obviously, the record speaks for itself, if you look at the record of the Australian Cricket team. But, I’m talking more on a personal level.

Among others, I never played with MS Dhoni- the closest I played against Dhoni was just when he was getting into the national team. He was actually trying to make his mark in International Cricket and you know I can’t judge him. Look at Virat Kohli- what I love about Virat Kohli is he performs- I mean he is a seasoned performer and not only that, I watched him in a video and he was saying “we lost because we did not score enough runs”. Those are sort of the qualities I look for in a leader. He let the blame come to himself first and then his team. If I get a chance to probably watch him close, he would be the one I would love to.

Q: Being a wicketkeeper yourself, who is your favourite Wicketkeeper batsman?

Tatenda Taibu: My favourite wicket-keeper batsman was Adam Gilchrist. With my answers a lot of them are not only by seeing from afar but it’s people that I come really close to or talk to. Purely from a wicketkeeper-batsman point of view, it has to be Adam Gilchrist. I never really went close to Sangakkara for me to speak of him. I was close to Andy Flower; his batting was way ahead of his keeping and his keeping was not natural. But if I was to pick between Andy Flower and Adam Gilchrist, it has to be Adam Gilchrist.

Q: What do you think India needs to do in order to win Tests overseas?

Tatenda Taibu: I think the question you’ve asked has a very easy way of doing it. You cannot target the national team players because they have got families and are already busy. Now, what India could do is to setup an Indian Cricket Academy in countries like England, South Africa and Australia – I would pick these three countries because they produce very good cricketers. So, they will do a project similar to that I had with the Rising Stars Academy in which young players from 18 to 22 (players from Zimbabwe) are touring England for six months and we’ve got them a lot of competitive matches against county sides and academies. If you search for Rising Stars academy which is under the website flashsport.co.uk, you will have a better understanding of what I did with Zimbabwe cricket.

So, India can do a similar project since they’ve got money but target the younger group. You know, the thing with cricket you have to learn to play in different conditions by playing there for a considerable amount of time which help them get accustomed to the conditions. If you target the younger players and send them to these countries every summer, you have coaches who coach them and let them play a lot of cricket, so you get accustomed to different conditions. Now, when they make their jump to the national team they’re already accustomed to the conditions. So, that’s the plan I would have for India to win abroad.

Q: What made you quit cricket so early?

Tatenda Taibu: I was asking myself some serious questions - more life questions. Because my life has been all about cricket and I was asking myself if it was all about cricket. So, I wanted to find some peace, you know playing well and being a credit to society are two different things. A person can ever play so well but be a horrible person and I was asking myself what life is all about. So, from that question, I knew that I would find my answer spiritually. My character is such that when I’m looking for something I would blind out everything else for me to be able to find my answers and cricket started getting into the way for me to find those answers. However, my autobiography will be out in March, I think that will give more understanding as to why I had to retire at an early age.

Q: Why do you think Zimbabwe cricket is dying? Is Mugabe one of the reasons for it?

Tatenda Taibu: Well, to be honest, I was going to answer your question regarding Zimbabwe cricket, but I would rather not for a lot of reasons. All I know is it’s just a sad situation.

Q: One advice you’d give to the budding cricketers all over the world?

Tatenda Taibu: Well a lot of cricketers, in a lot of interviews that I’ve done, a few times when I’m asked to give advice to the budding cricketers it goes without saying- you know, for you to make it you have got to work hard, you have got to be determined and push against all odds. So, that goes without saying. But, after succeeding, a character of a person goes beyond what’s produced on a cricket field. A person can be a good athlete and a terrible human being, what good does that do to anyone. So, the challenge really or what I would advise is to focus more on being a credit to society that even after your glory days are gone, you are still respected by people. So, it’s more life values than the actual sport. There comes a time when you have to retire but you still have to live life after that.