Formby cricketer Tatenda Taibu, who was brought up in Zimbabwe, but now lives in Sefton, has brought out an autobiography about his eventful life, which tells of what it was like to be an outspoken athlete in the country during the regime of Robert Mugabe.
Taibu, who played for Hightown St Mary’s and now for Formby in the Liverpool Competition, has called his book Keeper of Faith: Cricket, Conflict and God in Zimbabwe’s Age of Extremes.
It tells about his upbringing in a poor township near Harare to becoming captain of his national team in 2004 at the age of just 20, the first black skipper of the team.
Just over a year later he was exiled in Bangladesh, on the run from a cricket board that tried to threaten him into silence.
He was forced to quit the sport at the age of 29 to devote more time to his Christian faith before later moving to the UK
Much of Taibu’s career took place against a back- drop of constant mismanagement, poor administration and regular political interference, and he provides first-hand accounts of the damaging effect this had on Zimbabwe cricket, from Andy Flower and Henry Olonga’s ‘death of democracy’ protest at the 2003 World Cup to his own stand in 2005, which compromised the safety of him and his young family.
OTS News on Social Media