School of Cricket?

[Chubb]

Zimbabwe's public schools produce a lot of cricketers, thanks to a ZCU scholarship programme talented black kids from the townships get to go to previously exclusive private schools. Churchill High School produced Tatenda Taibu, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Vusi Sibanda and Hamilton Masakadza as well as a few others.

An example of the scholarship programme in operation would be Waddy Mwayenga. He lived in poverty and his dad was a groundskeeper at St. John's College, which is the most expensive school in Zim- thanks to Waddy and his brother Alan's talent they got to attend St. John's. That's a huge one-generational leap, all thanks to cricket.

There has also long been a lot of effort to take cricket to the ordinary schools- Zim having a far better educational infrastructure than most other African countries. There are lots of tales of kids being found by coaches at a school out in the townships- the four from Churchill all started out there.

The expansion of cricket into the black population through schools cricket and scholarships is one of the few examples of the ZCU actually getting something right.