TARISAI Musakanda, one of the brightest cricket prospects to emerge from Kadoma in the Midlands has relaunched his cricket career to try and catch the attention of national selectors after on and off field troubles had cast his career in limbo.
Having made his national team debut as a 21-year-old playing in his first One Day International against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo in 2016, off-field challenges, chief among them, uncontrolled drinking habits threatened to put an end to his promising career.
In January 2020, he was axed by his New South Wales; New City Cricket Club in Australia for a drink-drive conviction.
Musakanda has put behind his challenges to relaunch his once-promising career with an emphatic batting display during the opening stages of the domestic cricket season.
He has however started the 2023/2024 Pro 50 Championship season like a house on fire scoring back-to-back half-centuries; 83 and 81 not out in Rhinos’ four and eight-wicket victories against Mountaineers in Mutare recently.
He has attributed his revival on working hard in the nets.
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“I have just tried to concentrate more on things that I can control and training as hard as I can on my strengths to try and expand my comfort zone,” Musakanda told IndependentSport.
“I have worked a lot with the coaches on the mental side of my on and off-field habits and that’s been a key factor with my teammates as well.”
The 28-year-old all-rounder has played five Tests for Zimbabwe scoring 134 runs since making his debut against Sri Lanka in Colombo in July 2017. His last Test match came against Pakistan at Harare Sports Club in May 2021.
He is targeting a return to the Chevrons, but he knows he needs to get control of the bottle.
“The process is tough but my drinking habits have been a major problem and that’s one thing I’m trying to control and hopefully all will be good with time,” confessed Musakanda.
“The season has just started I am just going to keep doing the best I can to get my team in the best positions to win games. As for the national team, I still want to get there but I’ll just do my work.”
Musakanda, a top-order batter who bowls both slow medium and right-arm medium in equal measure has 16 One Day Internationals under his belt scoring 308 runs at an average of 20.53 with 60 as his highest score.
He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo in November 2016 and last represented the Chevrons in August last year against Bangladesh at Harare Sports Club.
The former Prince Edward Schoolboy has also played 12 T20Is for the Chevrons with his debut coming against Pakistan in July 2018 in the capital before playing his last match against Bangladesh in July 2021 at Harare Sports Club.
Rhinos head coach, Adam Chifo is happy with Musakanda’s transformation and professionalism.
Despite the young all-rounder getting some odd 12th-man duties running with water and drinks for the greater part of last season, he did not throw in the towel.
“For starters, I think maybe he had a lot of things happening. He had a lot going on, he had a lot of peripheral issues, and at some point that got into his game. So over time some of those issues have been sorted out and he has sought assistance in terms of his mental well-being. He and I’m glad that he is finally getting into good spaces yes he’s still going through some processes but he’s found some comfort in his game,” Chifo said.
“We have had man-to-man mental sessions like how to deal with fame and the outside world and we had to deal with issues that come off the field onto the field. I think it’s almost a year now because we started last season.
“We sat down and we discussed in terms of how he can about his social life and his game and we came to an agreement in terms of how he can about it and it is paying off now, but it’s still a work in progress.”
The presence of experienced skipper, Prince Masvaure in the Rhinos’ camp has also helped Musakanda immensely during his rehabilitation.
A genuine all-rounder and a magnificent fielder, Musakanda’s stunning effort at gully to dismiss Afghanistan Ibrahim Zadran in the first innings of the 10-wicket win in Abu Dhabi in March 2021 did not go unnoticed by Test skipper, Sean Williams who lauded the young talent.