Curran wants to play for Zimbabwe

ENGLAND-born cricketer, Ben Curran, has once again opened up about his wish to play international cricket for Zimbabwe should the opportunity avail itself.

The 28-year-old batter is the son of former Zimbabwe international and head coach, the late Kevin Curran and the second oldest of the three Curran brothers.

Ben is eligible to play for Zimbabwe and is not dismissing the chances of him donning the red jersey at international level.

His brothers, Sam and Tom represent England and both have World Cups to their names. However, their brother looks set to taking a different route.

Having told this publication back in 2022 that he is open to the move, Ben recently told cricket publication, Cricbuzz that his connection with Zimbabwe is strong having spent most of his childhood in the country.

“What a story it would be, right? We will have to take that as it comes, if it were to happen, it would be probably pretty weird, special, mixed emotions all round. Probably have to think of mum, what she would be thinking, she would have a lot more emotions running through her I would think.

“I think my accent would give it away a little bit. I have lived in both England and Zimbabwe, but I guess my connection to Zimbabwe is pretty strong, with the fact I grew up and spent most of my childhood there and with my parents being from there.

“We went to Zimbabwe when we were really young, I think I was probably four, five, after my dad had finished playing for Northampton. We moved, I guess you could technically say back to Zimbabwe, and I spent most of my childhood there, went to school there; more than half my life,” he said.

Curran is set to return to Zimbabwe ahead of the start of the country’s domestic season and will also be playing in the second edition of the Zim Afro T10 league, which is scheduled to start this Saturday. He said during the country’s off season, he goes to play club cricket in England as an overseas player.

He added that all he needs to do is to perform to his best and hopefully, he will be able to catch the eyes of selectors.

“I’m committed to being in Zimbabwe, but obviously in their winter there’s not too much cricket that’s going on, so I have been playing club cricket in England as the overseas player, for Wokingham. Because I am a local player in Zimbabwe now, I am not allowed to play in both countries as a local. I would be happy to play any representative cricket for a Zimbabwe side in the English summer.

“There’s always a chance, I have just got to go back and perform consistently and that gives me the best opportunity. At the end of the day, it’s results-based. It’s one of those where I’ve got to do all I can and control what I can control and hopefully that puts me in the best position going forward,” he said.

Curran – who plays for Rhinos – finished the 2023/24 Logan Cup season as the seventh leading run scorer with 458 runs in 12 innings at 38,16 with a high score of 124 runs. He would like to follow in his father’s footsteps. He has already played for English County side, Northamptonshire, a club which his father also played for.

“The fact that my dad played there (Northamptonshire) for such a long period of time, it made it that bit more special, being that there were a lot of guys at the club that actually played with him. Allan Lamb is obviously a great family friend. The whole Lamb family, Lindsay and Lamby, still live in Northampton, so it allowed me to spend time with them when I was there. – @brandon_malvin