ZIMBABWE’S cricketing talent drain to world cricket
powerhouse England is set to continue after another promising rising star Eddie
Byrom expressed his desire to ditch the Chevrons and pursue his
international cricket career with the reigning 50-over world champions.
The Southern African nation has in the past proved to be a
consistent conveyer belt of cricketing talent for England.
Several cricketers and coaches, who trace their roots to
Zimbabwe have gone on to excel in English cricket.
Names that quickly come to mind include Paul Parker, Graeme
Hick, Gary Balance, the Curran brothers Sam and Tom as well as world-renowned
coaches Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower.
Now the highly-rated 23-year-old left-handed opening
batsman, who is on the books of English county side Somerset, could soon be
joining the growing list of players with Zimbabwean links to play for England.
Byrom has established himself as one of the brightest
prospects on the English cricket scene, impressing with his technique and
aggressive style of batting across all three formats of the game.
The young star, who has in the past featured for Zimbabwe’s
junior national teams as well as the now-defunct franchise Rising Stars,
qualifies to play for both the Chevrons and England through birth and ancestry
respectively.
He, however, ended the speculation surrounding his future
after revealing that although he appreciates how Zimbabwe played a role in his
early development, his goal is to play for England.
“It’s a very simple answer. I really want to play for
England. Zimbabwe was great for me, I’m very thankful for all my coaches and
people that worked with me there, but I have really committed to wanting to
play for England for quite some time now. “That is the route I am committing to
and working towards,” Byrom revealed.
“Growing up in Zimbabwe was really interesting.
Cricket-wise it was great, such a sunny country. I really enjoyed starting out
my cricket there, but it got to a stage where I didn’t really see myself going
professional, so I didn’t really want to stay there for too long and I made the
move to Somerset.”
The son of former Zimbabwean sports journalist Glen Byrom,
the gifted cricketer was born in Harare and attended St John’s College, one of
the top private schools in the capital.
He featured prominently for Zimbabwe’s age group teams
between 2011 and 2015.
After initially moving to Kings College on a cricket
scholarship, Byrom graduated at the Somerset academy in 2016.
He then broke into the Somerset first team for the County
Championship in 2017 where he excelled while opening the batting alongside
Somerset and England great Marcus Trescothick.
He has not looked back since then and last year he was
rewarded with a new contract after impressing in the T20 Blast, a competition
in which he scored 185 runs at a strike-rate of 196.81 including a half-century
on debut against Surrey.
Byrom also reflected on his stint on the domestic cricket
scene three years ago when he featured for Rising Stars, an academy that was
run by former Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu.
He has in the past attributed the exposure he gained during
his stint in the Logan Cup for the good run of form he went on to enjoy during
the 2018 season.
“It was really good. Before I went out there I was
deliberating where I should go play cricket that winter, maybe back to New
Zealand where I’d played before, but an opportunity came about where I could go
back there and play first-class cricket, which I thought would be a good
opportunity to get some more games under my belt,” Byrom said.
“I really enjoyed it, everyone was under the age of 23, it
was all players trying to make their way in the game that were promising
players. It was a good group to work with and our coach was an ex-international
player [Zimbabwe’s Stuart Matsikenyeri] so I really enjoyed it out there, I
felt that I got a huge amount from it.” Standard
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