AT THE END OF THE DAY | International awe: CYMS lap up 'Vusi' Test match tales

"I said 'no thanks' and quickly walked away."

As a part-time bowler, 'Vusi' was understandably reluctant to expose his medium pace to one of history's most destructive batsmen in full flight. But thankfully, for myself and my Orange CYMS teammates, he was in a more obliging mood on Friday night when he donned the club's green and gold kit as our Royal Hotel Cup (RHC) marquee player.

I'll happily confess that the opportunity to take to Wade Park with the now-Canberra-based international player sits easily amongst the highlights of my own distinctly un-international career.

And while his returns against Kinross were modest, it was easy to see, via a couple of gorgeous cover drives, the class and skill that took him to T20 and 50-over world cups and to within seven runs of a Test century.

An interruption for rain - usually the bane of a cricketer's life - proved a blessing in disguise as we were able to gather in the changing room and soak up firsthand the memories - told with equal doses of modesty and good humour - of what life is like facing players of Gilchrist's calibre.

I didn't have a pen and paper (my teammate Tom Belmonte had the former though, and put it to use securing an autograph on his bat) but here's what I hope is a decent recount of some of those stories, paraphrased as needed and with Vusi's permission ...

He spoke of facing Sri Lankan off-spinner and record holder for the most Test wickets, Murali Muralitharan, and the uphill battle to pick his variations. "Someone said if you could see the back of his hand when he delivered the ball it was his doosra, but I could see the back of his hand every ball. I couldn't pick him at all, so I decided to sweep everything. Everything. Then I got out to Chaminda Vaas."

He spoke of opening the batting against Shaun Tait's thunderbolts in an ODI, and being ordered by his more senior partner to face the first ball. "I hadn't played Tait before and he was pretty unknown to us. I marked my guard and turned around and Gilchrist and the slips were miles away. Tait ran in and bowled the ball and I saw something fly by." Life wasn't much easier at the other end: Tait was sharing the new ball that day with Brett Lee.

He spoke of standing in the gully watching Brian Lara repeatedly deposit a Zimbabwean teammate's offerings to the midwicket boundary and then, when that avenue was blocked by fielders, marvelling as the Trinidadian master laced similarly pitched balls to the cover pickets.

He spoke of team meetings ahead of fixtures against Australian sides where the usual in-depth analysis of the opposition was dispensed with by the coaches in a matter of minutes because seeking chinks in the armours of Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden was considered futile. "A good ball is a good ball, even to a great player. Just try to hit the top of off."

He spoke of being blessed to learn his craft from two of his nation's finest players, brothers Grant and Andy Flower (rated the world's best batsman at times in the 1990s), with whom he played both club and international cricket. Deepening his connection with Zimbabwean cricketing royalty, it was the brothers' father who trained Vusi in his formative years.

Woven in the fabric of Vusi's stories were scant and brief references to his (not-inconsiderable) personal achievements; an obvious pride in having represented his nation; a sincere gratitude for the opportunities afforded to him by the game and its servants; and recurring and seemingly unintentional lessons in the importance of hard work and preparation as the building blocks to success.

Honestly, I could have sat there and listened to him until the early hours; I was filthy with umpires Steve Warrington and Matt Tabbernor when they forced us back onto the field to complete the game.

If all weather interruptions were that enjoyable, I'd happily play the 'rain card' every weekend like a bet-winning bower.

On Saturday morning Vusi traveled back to Canberra in the company of his Cricket ACT colleague and friend Michael Delaney, with whom he opened the batting at Wade Park.

At this stage it's uncertain whether the RHC draw will enable him to play for CYMS again. I hope so, for more than one reason, and if he does I'd encourage all the city's cricket lovers to come and meet him. I promise you won't regret it.

But in case we don't see him in these parts again, I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge his generosity to firstly travel to Orange for the game, and to then happily and openly share some glimpses of what life is like at the elite level of the game. It was, genuinely, a thrill and a privilege.

Thanks, Vusi.

P.S. A word of warning to anyone planning on cooking for Kinross bowler Stuart Crisp in the near future - don't bother, as he'll be dining out on clean bowling an international player for the foreseeable future. Fair enough too.

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