EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Henry Olonga was a central figure in one of the most courageous sporting protests of recent times. During the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the Zimbabwean fast bowler and his teammate Andy Flower wore black armbands on the field to protest the death of democracy under Robert Mugabe. Not only that, they did it at the Harare Sports Club, just a few hundred metres from the President's house. The two players also released a statement slamming the regime and exposing incidents of torture, false imprisonment and starvation.

For Henry Olonga, the cost of that protest was high. He was forced out of Zimbabwe's national team and out of the country, never to return. Now, Henry Olonga has moved to Adelaide with his Australian wife and their two children. Steve Cannane caught up with him at the Sydney Cricket Ground for a different kind of performance than most of his fans might expect.

STEVE CANNANE, REPORTER: Henry, Steve Cannane. How are you? Nice to meet you.

HENRY OLONGA, FORMER ZIMBABWE CRICKETER: Tara, my wife.

STEVE CANNANE: Tara, how you going? Now is this the first time you've actually played at the SCG?

HENRY OLONGA: It certainly is. I've looked in admiration to lots of people who've played here, but I've never had the privilege of playing myself.

STEVE CANNANE: Former Zimbabwean fast bowler Henry Olonga is about to make his debut at one of the world's most famous cricket grounds, not as a cricketer but as a singer, performing as part of a charity dinner.

So normally you'd turn up at a cricket ground with your kit, but what's in there?

HENRY OLONGA: Just a lowly MP3 player, I'm afraid - or a tablet, really.

STEVE CANNANE: So that's your backing track?

HENRY OLONGA: That's my backing track. I can't sorta lug an orchestra around with me. I wish I could.

COMMENTATOR: He's bowled him! Right through his defence! So Henry Olonga has done it again.

STEVE CANNANE: Henry was the first black man to represent Zimbabwe at cricket. He played 30 Tests and 50 one-dayers, but he's best remembered for his protest at the 2003 World Cup.

HENRY OLONGA: I got to the point where I felt I needed to speak out against some of the things that had happened. I mean, it's a long list. There's human rights abuses, there's rigged elections, there's Opposition members being put in prison or beaten up. And myself and Andy Flower effectively wanted to protest against a lot of those things. And we'd felt that a dignified way of protesting was to wear black armbands as symbols of mourning the death of democracy in Zimbabwe and we also wrote a statement and we did that in the first match that Zimbabwe played in the World Cup of 2003. ...

... (2003): It's really nice to see that people out there who believe in what we've done. As we said in the statement, it's the right thing to do.

STEVE CANNANE: But the stakes were much higher for Henry Olonga. Andy Flower was retiring from international cricket after the World Cup. Henry was only 26. And as the first black cricketer to play for Zimbabwe, some considered his actions a betrayal of the President, who was a hero of the anti-colonial struggle.

HENRY OLONGA: I got dropped from the side, they didn't pick me anymore until a game in Bloemfontein deep into the competition. So it was effectively the end of my career and then the death threats came and that meant I had to consider leaving the country, which I did after our final match in South Africa.

STEVE CANNANE: Henry went into hiding in South Africa before moving to England. The death threats came from credible sources within intelligence and political circles.

12 years on, he has never returned to Zimbabwe. His courage is still admired throughout the cricketing world.

IAN CHAPPELL, FORMER AUSTRALIAN CAPTAIN: Courage comes in a lot of different forms in sport. You've got the courage of a batsman who faces up to fast bowling. You've got the courage of a Dennis Lillee who has a bad back injury and overcomes that. But the courage to say, "I'm gonna stand up to a leader who is notorious. I'm never gonna - I may never go back to my country. I may never see my parents again." The courage to make that sort of decision, I can't comprehend that.

HARSHA BHOGLE, CRICKET COMMENTATOR: I'm absolutely certain he was aware at the time that his views would lead to him finishing with the game. It's almost like a batsman who knows when to play a shot and when to leave a ball. A lot of people would have left that ball alone to be able to continue playing cricket for Zimbabwe. So it takes a very different kind of person to be able to play the shot that he did.

MIEK COWARD, CRICKET HISTORIAN: There are very few sportsmen and sportswomen who are remembered for something above and beyond their achievement out in the middle, as it were. And he will always be remembered for that, that he had the courage as a young man in a very difficult environment to stand up.

STEVE CANNANE: Last month, Henry moved to Adelaide with his Australian wife Tara and their two children. It seems like he's left cricket behind.

HENRY OLONGA: I've heard the cricket the wickets are bouncy in Australia and I'm not interested in facing some 15-year-old who hears that I'm an ex-Test cricketer and wants to prove a point.

STEVE CANNANE: But if his performance at this charity dinner is any guide, he could be in demand as a singer.

HENRY OLONGA: This is gonna be quite a unique experience for some of you. You've probably never heard a black man singing opera, have you? (Laughs from audience) Tonight's your night. (Laughs from audience)

(Olonga sings)

I started as a soloist at the age of 13 when I was cast as a girl in a play called Oklahoma. I need to explain this. I went to a boys-only school and you gotta find the girl somewhere, so I started off as a girl in Oklahoma. The next year I was in The Gondoliers. I was given a principal part as Marco. It was also the same year when I watched the three tenors perform at the World Cup in Italy and I just fell in love with the idea of singing like them.

(Olonga sings)

(Applause from audience)

Thank you.