Vermeulen charged with arson

By Tichaona Sibanda
2 November 2006

Controversial Zimbabwe Test batsman Mark Vermeulen has been formally charged with arson in connection with fires earlier in the week on both the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy and an office at Zimbabwe Cricket’s headquarters.

Police spokesman Andrew Phiri told our source in the capital that Vermeulen is expected to appear in court soon to answer charges of setting alight and destroying property belonging to Zimbabwe Cricket.

Vermeulen allegedly confessed to police he was responsible for the attacks and was seen Thursday in the company of detectives at the burnt-out Academy showing them how he carried out the attack.

Colleagues and friends have lately been worried with his erratic behaviour, leading to former fast bowler Henry Olonga professing last month that unless he changed the way he was behaving, he would soon find himself in trouble with either the police or cricket authorities. This latest brush with authority will certainly signal an end to his short and blighted career.

Cricket analyst Elvis Sembezeya said the fiery 27 year-old right hand batsman is well known for his desire to succeed but that has occasionally spilled over into petulance. 10 years ago he was banned from representing his school, Prince Edward High in Harare, for walking off with the stumps after receiving a poor lbw decision and locking himself in the changing room.

That was a sign of things to come. He was sent home during the second Test of the 2003 England tour when, after becoming only the 13th man in Test history to record two ducks in a match, ignored a management instruction to travel with the rest of the squad on the coach, instead choosing to leave the ground on his own. He had earlier refused to stop a ball at Hove in the UK because ‘it was too cold’ and had also had run-ins with the team manager.

Only last month, Vermeulen was banned from English first-class and league cricket for three years following an on-pitch bust up in the Central Lancashire League. The incident occurred when he was playing as a professional for Werneth against Ashton.

At the end of a poor over, he was verbally abused by a section of the crowd prompting him to march towards the boundary and hurled a ball towards the spectators. Fortunately the ball missed everyone and hit the railings in an end-of-season match. That incident happened when he was due to fly out to Zimbabwe the following day.

The attack on the academy came a few days after reports suggested that government had lost patience with the leadership of interim President of Zimbabwe cricket Peter Chingoka. Its reported that the Sports and Recreation Commission has directed that Chingoka and his executive should step down by the 18th of this month to facilitate elections for a substantative board.

This has fuelled speculation in Harare that some members of the interim board were behind the arson attack in a desperate bid to destroy evidence of corruption and financial mismanagement. Initially the interim board was mandated to stay in office until the 31 December, but there has been a supersonic decline of the sport in the last six months.

‘The change of date by government obviously unnerved a lot of people hence the suggestion some people in the board were behind the arson attack because most documents containing cricket matters were kept at the academy,’ said one source.

See previous report and pictures of the blaze