Former Zimbabwe test cricketer banned for 10 years

By Tichaona Sibanda
15 September 2006

Mark Vermeulen, the 27 year-old t alented batsman who played eight Tests and 32 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe was on Wednesday banned from all first-class and league cricket in England for 10 years for throwing a ball at spectators in frustration at his own bowling. A video clip on the BBC website shows Vermeulen, r esponding to jeering supporters, walking towards the boundary and throwing the ball at them, but it fortunately hit the railings. Several children were sitting in the pavilion at the time. He l ost self-control during a match for Werneth against Ashton.

The fiery batsman is also seen pulling up a boundary marker from the ground and brandishing it at the crowd before stomping around the outfield ‘like a raging bull’ for 10 minutes. In the end, Vermeulen is seen being escorted back to the pavilion by fellow team mate Darren Shadford, the Werneth captain and former Lancashire fast bowler. But his barrister told Cricinfo, a leading cricket news website on Friday that he has secured an appeal with the Lancashire Cricket Board and that the hearing will be next week Monday. Though Vermeulen’s actions were indefensible, he was not invited to give his side of the story to the league management committee’s disciplinary hearing, whose sentence has been deemed too severe.

Former Zimbabwe fast bowler Henry Olonga told Newsreel Friday in London that although he admires Vermeulen’s ability as a sportsman he said he’s got to start behaving responsibly ‘otherwise this kind of behaviour will affect him not only on the playing field but off it as well.’ 'There is no way to defend any kind of behaviour where you read about a cricket player throwing a ball into a crowd and swearing at people. If he wants that kind of behaviour he should switch to boxing,’ Olonga said.

Vermeulen is now reported to be ‘devastated’ and is being comforted by Andy Flower, his former Zimbabwe team-mate at his house in Essex . Vermeulen has a long history of run-ins with authority, having been expelled from Prince Edward High School in Harare , for walking off the field with the stumps after being given out LBW in the match and locking himself in a changing-room.

Sources told us that during the 2003 Zimbabwe tour of England, he was sent home early after several transgressions, including deliberately failing to stop a ball against Sussex at Hove as it was ‘too cold’ and verbally abusing the then team manager, Babu Meman, in public at Shenley, where they were playing Middlesex.