Well, the life of former Zimbabwe cricket team fast bowler
player Waddington Mwayenga is a far cry from all this.
Mwayenga, who played one Test and three One-Day
Internationals (ODIs) in a brief international career between 2002 and 2006, is
pursuing a new career path as a bus driver in Melbourne, Australia.
The 36-year-old Zimbabwean is one of the three former
international cricketers currently employed by the Melbourne-based bus company
known as Transdev together with former Sri Lanka players Suraj Randiv and
Chinthaka Jayasinghe.
The three cricketers play for local cricket clubs in
Australia, but have had to take to other careers to survive Down Under.
Mwayenga is a father of two children: a three-year-old son
and daughter born in 2019. After having his first child in 2017, he was
attracted to a career at Transdev because he wanted a flexible job to help his
wife raise the family.
“I love it, it’s very flexible and you meet some amazing
people,” Mwayenga said recently in an interview with the Australian TV station
Channel 9 News.
Transdev Melbourne managing director Ian Craig told the
company’s official website transdevmelbourne.com.au, Mwayenga is part of a team
of over 1 200 bus drivers from diverse ethnic and career backgrounds who are
part of their crew.
“We have a huge diversity of professional backgrounds,
among our [more] than 1 200 bus drivers,” Craig explained.
“Next time you get on the bus you may be driven by a former
cricketer, a former pastry chef, or a former social worker just to name a few
examples.
“Despite the diversity of backgrounds, our drivers share a
united passion for customer service and ensuring we continue to provide
Victorians with a safe, reliable and comfortable journey,” he said.
Mwayenga and Randiv, who was a part of Sri Lanka’s playing
11 in the 2011 World Cup final, were recruited via Transdev’s Journey Maker
Academy, an initiative developed to help people from outside the transport
industry to become bus drivers, the company explains.
The programme is particularly targeted at people with car
licences and strong customer service backgrounds, who are supported in gaining
a heavy vehicle licence required to drive a bus, it adds.
Since 2018, Transdev Melbourne has recruited 200 bus
drivers via its Journey Maker Academy programme; it also offers dedicated
recruitment programmes for experienced bus and truck drivers, it says.
Jayasinghe, who played five T20Is for Sri Lanka between
2009 and 2010, was recruited through the Bus-to-Bus programme, which helps
experienced bus drivers transition into a new role via a tailored training
programme — including driving evaluation and tailored training in customer
service, Transdev states.
In 2020, Transdev recruited a number of experienced drivers
from the tourism industry due to the impact of Covid-19, it explains.
While playing cricket and driving a bus may seem worlds
apart, the drivers say they draw on traits such as patience, teamwork and
discipline developed during their professional sporting careers in their
current bus driving roles as they help Victorians get to where they need to go.
Mwayenga, who has been with Transdev for more than a year,
is based at the Thomastown depot in Melbourne, Victoria.
The former Zimbabwe international cricketer, who became an
Australian citizen in 2014, worked for Cricket Australia for 10 years as
multicultural programmes officer, promoting and developing cricket in
newly-arrived immigrant communities.
Additionally, Mwayenga also plays for Youlden Parkville
Cricket Club in Victoria, where he has starred as a player and coach since
2008, winning several individual and team accolades along the way.
Harare-born Mwayenga was a promising right-arm pace bowler
whose potential was recognised at a young age, but never fully managed to
fulfil the early promise in his international career.
His father was a groundsman at St John’s College in Harare,
and it was while hanging around there with his older brother Allan (a left-arm
seamer) that the legendary development coach Bill Flower, father of Andy and
Grant, discovered his potential and arranged for a cricket scholarship for both
boys to Vainona High School, and later St John’s itself.
He represented Zimbabwe at age group levels and in the
Under-19 World Cup of 2002, where he took five for 21 in the match against
Kenya.
He had a traumatic ODI debut against a strong Pakistan team
and struggled against India on his Test debut almost three years later.
As a 20-year-old, Mwayenga also played against his now
adopted country Australia in an ODI at Harare Sports Club in 2004.
He took a catch to remove the legendary wicketkeeper/batsman
Adam Gilchrist and claimed the prized wicket of the Aussie skipper Ricky
Pointing off his own bowling, although the tourists comfortably won the match
by 139 runs.
“A baptism of fire I guess, just being a 20-year-old
playing against people of Michael Clarke’s calibre,” he said of the
experience.”
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