When the youngest captain in Test history stood up to Robert Mugabe’s enforcers he and his family had to flee the country after a kidnap attempt and death threats

Eighteen months after Tatenda Taibu had become the youngest captain in the history of Test cricket, having been chosen to lead Zimbabwe at the age of 20 in April 2004, his life was under threat. In a sinister warning he was forced to look at images of death in Harare. That distressing experience led to his temporary exile as he went on the run from Robert Mugabe’s enforcers.

All these years later, on a sleepy morning in the Liverpool suburb of Crosby, where he and his family now live, it is quiet inside Taibu’s front room. We have reached the point in his story where he had been summoned to the office of a minister in Mugabe’s government in October 2005. Taibu had just announced his retirement from international cricket in protest against his players not being paid or treated fairly.

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Two years after Zimbabwe’s former captain, Andy Flower, and their fast bowler Henry Olonga had been forced to flee the country after they wore black armbands during the 2003 World Cup to highlight the death of democracy under Mugabe, Taibu had a serious message to impart. Zimbabwean cricket was close to breaking point. He refused to play for his country until the authorities offered their cricketers proper financial support.

His stand against inequity, and the corruption of cricket administrators, was much lonelier than the joint protest of Flower and Olonga. Brave as they had been, Flower’s and Olonga’s plight had been followed closely by the international media. Taibu was alone when he retired on a similar point of principle and arrived at the minister’s office.

“He did not listen to much of what I wanted to tell him,” Taibu says now. “He just went into his drawer, pulled out an envelope and threw it on the table. Then he went to his window and looked outside. My mind was racing. I started thinking: ‘OK, I’ve watched this in movies – but this is actually happening to me. What has he just thrown at me without saying a word? What’s in the envelope? If it’s money, does he want to buy my silence?’ I had lots of questions running in my head.”

The 36-year-old Taibu looks up, his still boyish face creasing with a difficult memory. “The envelope was full of photographs. I pulled them out and the first one was a picture of a dead person. I was thinking: ‘OK, now I’m experiencing shock, because I did not expect this.’ It was an upsetting photo. I flipped it over and looked at the second one. It was the same. These were gross pictures of dead people. It looked like a war. So I’m thinking: ‘What message is being relayed? If these were photos taken during the war [against white minority rule in the 1970s] is he telling me all white people are bad? Or is he telling me I could soon be dead myself? I knew he was married to a white woman so the first idea didn’t make sense. He meant this as a warning to me.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Taibu looks on as Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene plays a shot during a 2010 T20 World Cup match for Zimbabwe in Guyana. Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

“I had seen six photos and they were all bad. I pretended to look at the others while he stood silently at the window. Then I said: ‘Thank you for your time, sir. I must go to another meeting.’ I left his office as quickly as I could.”

Taibu had already been threatened by activists from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party who were involved in cricket administration. In his new autobiography, Keeper of the Faith, he explains how he had been warned repeatedly on the phone that he would be beaten up and that he was “a black boy being used”. His wife, Loveness, had been trailed by anonymous cars and hounded on the phone.

He said I had so much power but I didn’t realise it. The only way to stop me using that power was to intimidate me into leaving

As Zimbabwe’s first black captain, and a pioneering young player who had proved it was possible to emerge from a development programme in the impoverished townships all the way to Test cricket, Taibu believes he should have been “their poster boy. In the [Test] team at the age of 18, vice-captain at 19, captain at 20. But I was on the run, scared of what the future might hold for me and my family.”

Taibu is understated in detailing the fear he and his wife felt but he also makes it clear that they were being hounded out of the country. “I was strong for a long time but things built up. Two cars followed us every time we went out. Two other cars were parked outside my home when we got back. We felt we could not go home because my house is electronic. I had to open the gate with a remote. There was the feeling that, if we opened the gates, then one of these cars would follow us in. So we drove off. We had no freedom. But the final straw was soon after our first son was born and Loveness almost got kidnapped. That’s when we decided to leave.”

Exiled in Bangladesh, England and Namibia, Taibu was lost to international cricket for two years. When he returned to Zimbabwe he was told why he had been forced to flee. “I met a Zanu-PF activist who was a cricket executive. He told me his mandate was to instil as much fear in me as possible so that I would leave the country. He said I had so much power but I didn’t realise it. The only way to stop me using that power was to intimidate me into leaving.”

Taibu was only 24 and, yearning to play international cricket and to help engender change in Zimbabwe, he tried again. Mugabe’s regime was so entrenched that cricket could have only a limited impact but, in sporting terms, Taibu’s talent flourished. In the first ODI series he played on his return, in August 2007, he scored 107 not out against a South Africa attack led by Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.

A wicketkeeper batsman, only 5ft 5in, Taibu was brave and skilful. He did well in both Test and limited-overs internationals and, just before he was exiled, he showed his promise in the longer form of the game. Walking out to the crease in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with Zimbabwe reeling at 37 for four in 2005, he followed up his first-innings 85 with a masterful knock of 153 which saved the Test. “I think those two hundreds mean the most to me,” he says now.

“The 153 against Bangladesh was Test cricket but the one-day hundred against South Africa meant even more. I had just come back against a great bowling attack. I would even say the 40 I scored in the game before was more special. It was the first time I felt what they say about getting in the zone. A South African journalist said, ‘That was some innings’, because I hit Dale Steyn for three sixes. I told him I was going to score a hundred the next day – and I did. I just wish I could have played more games like that.”

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Zimbabwe’s poor results, financial woes and political problems kept them out of the Test arena from 2005 to 2011. Taibu’s prime years, from 22 to 28, were spent in the wilderness. His Test career began in 2001 and ended in 2012 and, over 28 Tests, his batting average in a struggling team was a creditable 30.31. He took 57 catches and made five stumpings.

“When we were taken out of Test cricket I was rated No 27 in the world as a batsman,” Taibu says. “I was only 22 and before that happened I had dreams of being world No 1 as a batsman in Test cricket. I was starting to really understand my game when it suddenly stopped for six years. I always felt it didn’t matter that I was playing in a losing team.

“I learnt from Andy Flower [his mentor and former Test captain who went on to become England’s head coach] always to look with long-range vision. I always thought you can’t buy experience in a shop. So I’m gaining experience right now, the hard way, and it will make me a much better player in the future. When I look back at my international career I value those times. The Australian, England, South African, Indian, Pakistan, West Indies and Sri Lankan teams we played against had some amazing cricketers.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Taibu maintains links to Zimbabwe cricket and still runs his academy in the country from his home in Crosby, Liverpool. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Taibu, his wife and their two sons have settled in Crosby. He plays club cricket for nearby Formby and while a dominant batsman, he has also begun bowling and has already taken a hat-trick this season. Taibu coaches at his sons’ school and earlier this year he played first-class cricket in Sri Lanka. “I’m still trying to decide whether to go back and play there or just to continue here full-time and return to Zimbabwe a couple of times a year and make sure my cricket academy is running smoothly. We will stay in England the next five years at least. My eldest son [Tatenda Jr] wants to become a neurosurgeon and we are determined to help our boys reach their full potential. They must come first.”

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His involvement in Zimbabwean cricket continues in different forms. Taibu still runs his academy which helps young Zimbabweans grow as cricketers and last year he was the assistant coach to Heath Streak as they nearly succeeded in steering their country into the World Cup. But West Indies came through the qualifying tournament, held in Zimbabwe, and Taibu laments the typical chaos that undermined his team’s preparation. “Ahead of our crunch game against West Indies half of our squad did not turn up for training because they had not been paid their allowances.”

Streak and Taibu were sacked and while he watches the World Cup on television, he admits to ambivalent emotions. “As a Zimbabwean you want your country to be on the biggest stage for cricket. So for Zimbabwe not to be there is painful. But you also wonder, if we had qualified, would it have given an indication to the world that everything is nice and rosy and dandy in Zimbabwean cricket? I would not want that because the same problems remain. Little has changed since Andy and Henry made their stand at the 2003 World Cup or since I stood up to the board in 2005. In 2018 I was making the same plea for our players to be paid.

“The government is still brutal and it’s hard for Zimbabwe cricket to develop. Maybe our not making the World Cup is a blessing in disguise. Maybe it will make people on the outside look at our situation more closely. We need help to make sure that cricket survives in the country. I would love to see more young boys reach their dream of representing Zimbabwe in international and Test cricket. I would love to see a brighter future for all Zimbabwean cricketers.”