Emakhandeni Cricket Club  celebrates Nyumbu’s success John Nyumbu
John Nyumbu

John Nyumbu

Mehluli Sibanda Senior Sports Reporter
EMAKHANDENI Cricket Club on Saturday celebrated the success of their captain John Nyumbu who recently broke into the Zimbabwe senior national cricket team.
A small function was held at the club situated in Bulawayo’s high density suburb of Emakhandeni which was attended by Nyumbu, his wife Sheila, family members, club sponsors, members of the club executive as well as players from the club.

The player was on a short break from the national team and returned to Harare on Sunday to train with the rest of the national team players.

Pollock Mubobo, the Emakhandeni Cricket Club coach said the event was meant to celebrate Nyumbu’s career with the hope that the 29-year old off spin bowler, who together with left handed top order batsman Sean Williams, are the only players from Bulawayo in the senior national cricket team, will inspire other youngsters to strive to make it into the national team. Nyumbu said he was humbled by the kind gesture shown to him and all the support given to him in his cricket career.

“I am really humbled by this kind gesture, thank you all for the support. Hopefully my stay in the national team will be long. My advice to the other Emakhandeni players is that this shows that hard work pays off,’’ said Nyumbu.

Emakhandeni Cricket Club sponsor Phathisani Nkomo said he was proud of Nyumbu for his recent success with the national team. Nkomo said Nyumbu’s success was a sign that Emakhandeni was now a significant contributor to the national cricket team.

Another Emakhandeni player, top order batsman Brian Chari is currently in Bangladesh with Zimbabwe A and if he does well on that tour he stands a good chance of being selected into the national team for a tour to the same country next month.

Nyumbu, after 10 years of playing first class cricket, being in and out of Zimbabwe A, finally broke into the national team with his debut coming in the only Test against South Africa at Harare Sports Club last month. He took five wickets for 157 runs in South Africa’s first innings to become only the second Zimbabwean bowler after seamer Andy Blignaut to take five wickets on Test debut.

His One Day International first appearance came against South Africa at his home ground Queens Sports Club on August 17.
Nyumbu played in all the three ODIs against South Africa as well as all of Zimbabwe’s fixtures in the Triangular series against Australia and South Africa.

Nyumbu in his short international career has 15 international wickets to his name, five in Tests and 10 in ODIs. With the 2015 International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup five months away in Australia and New Zealand, Nyumbu has set his sights firmly on cementing his place in the national team to stand a good chance of being selected for the global cricket showpiece.

 

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