The Price is right

championships.
He is the son of the late Tim Price, Zimbabwe’s best known professional golfer for many years.
But when Tim went off to the pro-shop at Royal Harare Golf Club some 10 years ago, instead of staying with him, the young Ray walked to Harare Sports Club to pursue and develop his career as a spin bowler.
He told PowerPlay: “I played a good game of golf but never liked it as much as I did cricket.”
Which was a great price of good fortune for Zimbabwe Cricket he is now widely recognised as one of the best spin bowlers in the world, especially in limited over matches.
And that’s not just a local opinion. The ICC formally rated him among their top four spinners during the group stages of the World Cup in February and March.
Price has a remarkable economy rate of 3,85 runs per over, achieved over 89 matches against the world’s very best batsmen, including all the famous six-hitters to whom spin bowlers are often meat and drink.
Zimbabwe has produced several; great spinners in past years, such as Jack du Prees, Paul Strang, John Traicos and the often under-rated Grant Flower.
But none with quite the guile, cunning, fervour, confidence and aggression of Price. Figures produced after Zimbabwe’s final World Cup match against Kenya show that from the 4 612 balls he has bowled, only 2 943 runs have been conceded by him.
He has taken 69 wickets at an average of 33.29. Price was clearly one of the Zimbabwe successes in their India sub-continent campaign where spectators know good spin bowling when they see it.
Fortunately he also has considerable Test match experience, taking part in 18 tests for Zimbabwe, so that this background will be more than useful in the imminent Test series here.
He can bat a bit too, achieving averages of 10 runs in both Tests and ODI’s from his usual number nine, with a best ODI score of 46.
He also has experience in English County cricket, turning out for Worcestershire. Ray will be 36 years in June but who can doubt he will be in the red shirt for Zimbabwe at the 2015 World Cup with his famous staring down challenge to every batsman who dares to stand between him and the stumps.
Unfortunately he himself has doubts. But four years is a long time in cricket and we shall just have to wait and see.
PP: How did you develop that ‘in your face’ approach?
“I don’t really know how that started. I remember playing against the Australians when I was quite young, about 21 or 22. We played against Brett Lee when I was at the academy – I just remember how aggressive they were and how much they wanted to win.”
PP: Has this benefited you in any way?
“Yes indeed. It just showed me how hungry they were to do well for their country. Many of them were trying to break into state sides and this was one way to do it. Their attitude made me ask myself if I was hungry enough to play international cricket.”
PP: How do you assess your value to the Zimbabwe team in terms of morale?
I think I am definitely more of an encouragement than anything else. Not least in my own approach to the game. Especially when it comes to the bowlers, I try to get guys to a relax a little bit and try to enjoy themselves because when you start off, you get nervous because of the crowd and a lot of distractions.
“If you can move all the stuff that you do in the net into the middle and not be as nervous as the guys that you are playing against – and that’s how you deal with pressure better than them.
“It’s very strange because I still get nervous before the beginning of every game. I always do, it does not matter who I am playing against. I have also got quite a different attitude where I like to build the opposition up in my mind into a bigger thing than they are. A challenge to myself.
PP: How do you value your experience from county cricket?
“Very highly. I learnt a lot from England and playing in English conditions. The level of professionalism that guys there showed compared to my own at that time was very different. We had many fine professionals in our team, Grant and Andy (Flower) and Heath (Streak) were amazing professionals but at just a different level.
“I was unprofessional back then, I was quite young and thought I could get away with anything and I did not really take note of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes – all the hours spent getting fit and staying fit and organising your thoughts in your head.
“I was lucky that I got to spend time with Graeme Hick. He was a fantastic cricketer, approaching the game in a straightforward way, not making it up but very methodical in the way he trained and practiced.
“He had a fantastic attitude, He would say to me – ‘hey your attitude is not right and you need to improve it.’
PP: How do you cope with cricket’s tough times?
“I think that in whatever you do, you have to have the heart for it. This is important because there will always be tough times in the profession that you choose, whether it is through lack of form or the amount of time away from your family and things like that.
“The nice thing about a team sport is that you are there for each other. I have had a bad game once in a while but the team wins and it is nice to still be able to enjoy victory in the changing room after a bad day as an individual.
Golf is very different, if you have a bad day that’s it.
PP: Do you still feel there is still one more world cup in you?
“Another World Cup would be awesome but I don’t think I can do another four years, I think only God knows that. I will see how my body does and also whether they need me in the team because we have some really good spinners coming through.
“Prosper (Utseya), Graeme Cremer and Greg Lamb are good spinners and key figures for our future in Zimbabwe and I think they will do very well. They are still quite young and have a lot of years ahead of them so I am looking forward to watching those guys when they are 32-33 years old and when they have thoroughly organised their games.
“I do not really put a number on when I am going to retire as long as I am still enjoying the game and doing well in it then I keep going.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Raymond Price cleaned toilets and fixed air-conditioners while he was still an amateur cricketer. “It wasn’t exactly a lucrative job. After all, it’s easier to play cricket than clean toilets.” – PowerPlay.