adminTHE central Zimbabwean city of Kwekwe takes its name from the sounds of the croaking frogs that live in the river that runs through it. If your ear is close enough to the ground you can probably hear them, and in the summer of 2012 that’s where Mark Vermeulen’s lobes were. “I was sleeping on the floor, which became quite difficult after a while,” he remembered. “But I don’t know about any frogs.”
Vermeulen’s night-time arrangements were not the result of spending time in the famed African bush or – given his reputation, you will be forgiven for thinking – a prison cell.
They were because he was trying to do what he loved most – play cricket.
He was a member of the Mid West Rhinos team that consisted of mostly out of towners from Harare who were being put up in a house in the city.
Sort of.
“It was a decent-sized house but the administrators actually needed to rent the rooms out to other guests so they could make up the money they needed to pay for the place.
“So we all ended up just everywhere,” Vermeulen said. “And I was on the dining-room floor. It got quite tiring after a while.”
Despite the discomfort, Vermeulen turned out in all eight first-class matches for the franchise and was their second-highest run scorer after Brendan Taylor. He also finished the season sixth on the overall run charts to mark a comeback to the game after four summers of flitting about the Zimbabwean domestic scene like a man in a maze.
Between 2008 and 2012, Vermeulen played just 17 first-class games for four different teams during a period of transition in Zimbabwe’s domestic game that saw it go from a regional system to a franchise-based one.
Before that he was on trial for arson.
And before that he was doing his best not to get hit on the head by another cricket ball because it had already happened three times.
The first came on an Under-19 tour to England, but that was mild compared to what followed.
At the 2003 World Cup, his skull was fractured by one of his own team-mates, Travis Friend, in the nets.
But the big blow came later that year in Australia.
An Irfan Pathan bouncer proved almost lethal – literally – when it snuck between grill and visor and cracked the other side of Vermeulen’s skull.
He spent three hours in surgery and left with a plate in his head and a dire warning.
“When I had the operation the doctor told me that because I was a young man, he would not tell me to stop playing sport, but he also said that if I got hit again, there was a good chance I won’t survive.”
Chilling as that is, it’s only the prologue.
“I actually wouldn’t mind dying on the cricket field,” Vermuelen said.
“I know it sounds a little sadistic but I’ve thought about it and I just love cricket so much that it wouldn’t be that bad. Obviously I hope it doesn’t happen but . . .”
Vermeulen’s matter-of-fact way of stating this is an indication he has moved on from believing cricket owes him something and is now willing to give himself completely to the game.
Back in 2006 that was not the case.
Cricket in Zimbabwe was changing in ways Vermeulen did not like. He was left out of national squads and could not bear his exclusion.
That October, after he saw the team he was not part of training at the Harare Sports Club, he tried to burn the club down.
But his attempt went only as far as the club’s curtains. Someone spotted the smoking drapes and the fire was put out.
The next day Vermeulen targeted a smaller but no less significant target: the national academy.
That time the sparks spewed over everything from cricket kit to computers. Vermeulen was arrested shortly afterwards and his troubled past thoroughly combed.
One of the stories repeated was how he had hurled a ball at a crowd in an English league game, narrowly missing a young girl, and then brandished a spiked boundary marker like a lightsabre.
Some remembered his refusal to ride on a team bus. It all sounded like the doings of someone who needed help, and Vermeulen’s lawyer successfully argued that he deserved that.
Vermeulen was acquitted but not entirely free.
He was still made to serve a 12-month ban from cricket in Zimbabwe, which put paid to his aim of being part of their squad for the 2007 World Cup and forced him to reflect on what he had done and what he was going to do.
“I just realised doing crazy things doesn’t help. When you get older, you get wiser, I guess,” he said.
“I spent two years in court and another year and a half out of the game so it was three and a half years totally wasted, and at that time of my career that should not have happened.”
It was not that Vermeulen was racking up the runs before the “incident” that interrupted his career. It was that he was threatening to.
Vermeulen has played for every one of Zimbabwe’s five franchises.
It allowed him to stay home in Harare and the ease of being there showed. Vermeulen had his best season in more than a decade.
Time in the middle was both a form of therapy and an audition.
“I love batting, so I know if I stay out there and bat for as long as possible, I don’t have to deal with everything else like the boardroom issues, whatever,” he said.
“And I didn’t ever lose any love for cricket. I still think I have two or three years left in me and I think I will give it one last full go in the hope that I can play a Test again.
“I’ve become more determined because I know I don’t have many years left in me. I’ve become more focused.”
He seems to be on the right track.
Vermeulen was included in the Zimbabwe A team that was due to travel to Bangladesh in June.
The tour was postponed after the BCB requested a rescheduling because of the monsoon, which disappointed Vermeulen.
He was hoping to use it to earn his place in the Zimbabwe XI for a one-off Test against South Africa in August – the only Test on their agenda in the foreseeable future.
If he gets to the play there, he hopes to bat against Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.
“I’ve just got to be aware that I don’t get hit in the head,” he joked.
“But seriously, if I had a last wish for my career it’s to average 99.96, so that it’s more than Don Bradman.”
Does Vermeulen really think he can do that? “Why not? The way to increase your average is not to get out, so I’ve just got to make sure I never get out.” – Cricinfo.
Online Reporter