Runs for Africa
A collection of interesting run makers coming out of Africa
Belgium is not known as a hot bed of cricketing talent, but recently a player born in Brussels has been putting up big numbers in first-class cricket in, of all places, Zimbabwe.
Antum Naqvi is a real cosmopolitan cricketer. Born in Belgium, Naqvi was raised on cricket in Sydney and the Northern Territory of Australia before making his first-class debut for the Mid West Rhinos in Zimbabwe’s Logan Cup. In between times he had stints training with the T20 franchises the Jamaica Tallawahs and Lahore Qalanders (although he didn’t play for them) and a period with the MCC Young Cricketers in London.
Recruited to Zimbabwe out of Darwin by former Zimbabwean representative Solomon Mire, Naqvi debuted for the Rhinos earlier this year when he turned out against the Mashonaland Eagles at Kwekwe. He started well on day one, but with the ball rather than the bat. His right arm offies claimed 4 for 22 from 7 overs as the Eagles were skittled for 92 before the Rhinos reached 102 for 4 by the end of the days play, Naqvi not out on nought having come in at number 6. On day two he set about the bowling as he racked up a century on debut, reaching 140 not out from 232 balls with 13 fours and one six, helping the Rhinos to a big first innings lead. He rounded off a tremendous first up performance with three catches and 1 for 52 in the Eagles second innings to help his new team win by an innings and 133 runs.
His second match a week later saw him notch up a second successive century, his 103 against the Mountaineers in Harare coming off 158 balls, top scoring as the Rhinos piled on 513 in reply to the Mountaineers 285. The game petered out to a draw but Naqvi had made his mark once more, and claimed a further two scalps with his bowling.
His third match saw him playing against the Matabeleland Tuskers back in Kwekwe, where Naqvi’s younger brother Awad was among the opposition. In a non eventful match that was hampered by rain and ended in a draw, Awad made 27 while Antum took 3 for 73, before the elder brother was dismissed in his only turn at bat for 21, bowled by the Kent and former England Under-19 off break bowler out of Kandahar, Hamidullah Qadri.
In another rain affected draw in early February, this time against the Southern Rocks in Harare, Naqvi bowled 40 overs in claiming 3 for 73, before he was out for just 7 as the Rhinos faced just 22 overs before the game ended. The two sides met again in late March and Naqvi made his third hundred from five innings as he hit 108 from 114 balls on day one, sharing in a 3rd wicket stand of 198 with Prince Masvaure as the Rhinos tallied 621 for 9 declared. He then claimed 4 for 47 opening the bowling as the Rocks followed on in their second innings, helping his side to a big innings win.
As of the start of December, his first-class batting average stands at 94.75, while he has 18 wickets from his 5 matches at a healthy average of 24.44. In List A cricket he averages 73.42 from 8 matches, with 3 hundreds and a fifty, with his highest score a blistering 146 from 117 balls against the Eagles in mid November.
A trained commercial pilot, Naqvi has been welcomed into the fold in Zimbabwe and recently played for a Zimbabwe Under 25 team against Uganda in Harare, with a possible call-up to the national team pending on his eligibility. There are whispers he is only playing in Zimbabwe to gain first-class credentials and qualify for a sportsperson’s visa to the UK next northern summer, but whatever the case he has made a rollicking start to his top flight career.
Another player who has burst onto the scene in domestic cricket in Africa is the Free State Knights all-rounder Dian Forrester. A left-handed bat and right arm fast bowler, Forrester enjoyed a dream List A debut when he turned out for the Knights against South Western Districts at Oudtshoorn on the 16th of September. Put into bat the Knights had stumbled to 98 for 5 before Forrester emerged at number 7, and were soon 105 for 6 with over half the 50 overs still remaining. With Clayton Bosch joining him, the pair added 194 from 25.4 overs as Bosch boshed 64 from 71 deliveries. But it was Forrester who was the star of the show, hitting 9 fours and 8 sixes in his 128 from 100 balls, bringing up both his fifty and hundred with maximums, rescuing his teams total to a competitive 312 for 8 from their 50 overs.
The South West Districts side were seemingly in control at 294 for 4 from 46 overs before Forrester returned to the bowling crease, removing the dangerous Kelly Smuts for a well made 65 from 40 balls. He then claimed the wicket of Thomas Kaber with his next ball, before starting the penultimate over with another wicket, this time nabbing Tyrese Karelse for just 4, while the well-set Jean du Plessis remained on 100 not out at the other end. Two dot balls followed before the debutant put the icing on the cake of his dream debut, claiming a hat-trick to wrap up the innings with the wickets of Gumede, Majiza and America, the Knights winning by 12 runs with an over to spare.
Two more List A fifties followed in succession, as Forrester enjoyed a fruitful first season during the CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge Division Two competition, although his Knights lost to South Africa Emerging Players in the final. From his 8 matches Forrester made 353 runs at 50.42 and claimed 14 wickets at just 16.92 a piece. His first-class career has also taken off as he made 87 on debut against Limpopo in Bloemfontein in early November, while in his second match he had scores of 86 and 127 not out against Northern Cape at the De Beers Diamond Oval in Kimberly. While playing in Division Two of South Africa’s domestic scene at present, the 23 year old will have high hopes of rising up through the ranks with more performances like that.
I’d like to finish this post with a look at the South African born grandson of the English great Denis Compton. Ben Compton, also a cousin of former England opener Nick Compton, has endured a struggle to break into first-class cricket but also shown a tremendous work ethic and desire to succeed. Debuting for Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge at the age of 25, Compton managed just 14 and 13 as Warwickshire’s Dom Sibley dominated the match with scores of 215 not out and 109. It was a stuttering start to his first-class career and he played just 5 matches in total over three covid affected seasons at Notts, averaging a mere 14. But a stint in Zimbabwe’s Logan Cup with the Mountaineers (set up by Zimbabwean legend Dave Houghton) saw him find his groove, rattling off 479 runs at 79.83 with hundreds against the Tuskers and the Eagles coming in Harare in January and February of 2022. Compton also added two centuries in the Pro50 One-Day Championship that season and returned to take up a contract with Kent in the English summer.
Flowing on from his African sojourn he started the 2022 season in tremendous form, hitting three consecutive centuries to start the season: 129 v Essex at Chelmsford and 104* and 115 v Lancashire at Canterbury. Three fifties in consecutive matches followed before a big match against Northamptonshire saw him knock up scores of 140 and 68* at Northampton’s County Ground. Selected for a First-Class Counties Select XI to play the touring New Zealanders at Chelmsford, Compton had 878 runs to his name already that season and high hopes of reaching the much vaunted 1,000 runs before the end of May, a feat achieved only 9 times before by eight different batsmen (Sir Donald Bradman achieved it twice).
Despite scoring a fine 119 in the Select XI’s second dig, to go with his 39 in the first innings, Compton was denied his slice of history as the game was denied first-class status when both teams agreed to play more than the eleven a side, to give everyone in their squads a run. It is a crying shame when touring teams turn what should be first-class matches into nothing more than an open wicket practice, and it proved costly for Compton. His season tailed off after that illuminating start and he finished with 1193 runs at 54.22, still not a bad return.
Another stint in Zimbabwe saw him register 4 more hundreds and form a strong opening partnership with the magnificently named Joylord Gumbie. He hit 154 v the Eagles in mid December before adding 217 v the Southern Rocks a week later. In January he added a knock of 131 v Naqvi’s Rhinos and another ton (105) v the Eagles, with all the aforementioned games being played in Harare.
A lean season followed back in England with Kent in 2023, but a move to the KwaZulu-Natal Inland team for the CSA 4-Day Series in South Africa has seen him in the runs again, highlighted by a solid 170 scored against North West at the Absa Puk Oval in Potchefstroom at the start of December.
Whether the fact he was born in South Africa has him thinking of chasing the international dream with the Proteas, who face a Test tour to New Zealand this summer with a weakened selection pool due to their big money SA20 competition hoovering up their top line talent, remains to be seen. But an opening batsman averaging close to 50 in first-class cricket (48.53 from 45 matches) with 12 hundreds and 14 fifties clearly would have the class to make it work.