It may seem like all Blessing Muzarabani, Zimbabwe’s more-than-two-metre-tall fast bowler, needs is boots to get going, but when his career started, that was actually all he had. That, and the backing of a woman who would do anything to see him succeed: his grandmother.Muzarabani was raised alongside a cousin in the high-density area of Highfields, where so many Zimbabwe cricketing gems have been polished, and his childhood was characterised by lack. “He was a very humble guy, with not a lot. His is a story of grit, hard work and love, particularly from his grandmother,” Stuart Matsikenyeri, Zimbabwe’s fielding coach, told ESPNcricinfo.
After starting to play the game as a young man, Muzarabani missed out on Zimbabwe’s Under-19 side but was picked to be part of the Rising Stars Academy, the development arm of a short-lived first-class team that went by the same name. They toured England in 2017, under the guidance of Tatenda Taibu and with Matsikenyeri also involved. “That’s when he started finding his feet at senior level,” Matsikenyeri said.
And he was almost poached right then. “I know Alec Stewart, who was coaching at Surrey, saw him when we played a few of the county ‘B’ sides and was interested in him. If he was not tied down to an academy contract, they might have signed him then. That contract was the only reason he couldn’t go.”
Later that year, Muzarabani made his Test debut in South Africa, in a forgettable pink-ball Test that lasted a day-and-a-half, and by January 2018, he was part of Zimbabwe’s white-ball sides too. But Rising Stars were not financially sustainable and, as the 2018-19 season loomed, there were rumours they would not be part of the upcoming season. That’s when Muzarabani went Kolpak.
“He took that deal with very good intentions,” Matsikenyeri said. “It was a perfect time for him to grow more than anything. Sometimes it’s not always a bad thing to leave home, and from an employment point of view, it also made sense.”
Muzarabani has always maintained that the combined appeal of learning to bowl in English conditions and a stable income was what led him to the UK and he that intended to return to Zimbabwe. He was correct on both counts.
In the first part of his stint with Northamptonshire, he played List A cricket with Jason Holder, where his education began. “He spoke quite highly of Jason Holder in terms of learning how to bowl in the UK, particularly for a tall guy. He took quite a lot of lessons from that and also just generally handled himself as a professional,” Matsikenyeri said. “He took quite a lot of lessons from a professional space. The difference in the man was quite clear when he came back.”
Blessing Muzarabani’s celebrations are becoming more emphatic the further he takes Zimbabwe•AFP/Getty Images
In December 2020, with the UK’s departure from the European Union, Kolpak deals ended. Muzarabani was back in the Zimbabwe squad that November and has been a mainstay since. While it is difficult to measure medium-term success because Zimbabwe have had so little of it – and slumped to an epic failure when they failed to qualify for the 2024 T20 World Cup – Muzarabani stands out.
Since the 2024 tournament, of pace bowlers who have delivered a minimum of 50 overs in the format, he has the third-best economy rate and is under seven runs an over.While his ability to generate bounce is obvious, he also maintains a mean line, cramps batters for room and forces them into mistakes. That was evident from the Australia game at this T20 World Cup, where his career-best 4 for 17 came through a clever back-of-a-length plan which invited the pull but he offered no width for the shot to come off successfully. “He really takes his art seriously. He’s growing in confidence,” Matsikenyeri said.
Though Muzarabani’s celebrations are becoming more emphatic the further he takes Zimbabwe, his feet are firmly on the ground. “He’s a shy guy. He doesn’t want to say a lot. He leads by doing, and by taking responsibility. He’s not going to jump up and down and say, ‘I want to do it’, but actually, he just does it naturally.”
“He’s very loyal to his team and he’s just got a great head on his shoulders”
Brendan Taylor on Brian Bennett
He is also close to leading the T20 World Cup wicket-charts and is currently joint-second, four behind Shadley van Schalkwyk, topping the list is not his primary motivation. “He’s not paying attention to that. He’s paying attention to what he needs to do with his body and what he needs to do to get as fit as possible for the next game. He’s not been paying attention to where he’s at in the tournament. He’s more about, now we’re going to India, conditions will be different, what do I need to do? It is that time for him where he’s really zoning in on what is important for him to be able to serve the team the next day and the day after that.”
The team has become as important as family to Muzarabani, whose grandmother passed away a few years ago and was never at an international game. There is no else close to him in the stands cheering him on but 17 million Zimbabwean who are behind his every step. He is them, someone who has made something from nothing, and shown what they can achieve on a global stage.
At the other end of Zimbabwe’s stellar campaign stands the batter no-one has yet managed to dismiss: Brian Bennett. Who has taken a far more traditional path to sporting success. He was schooled at Peterhouse, one of Zimbabwe’s most prestigious boys’ boarding schools, and then spent a year at South Africa’s Kingswood College where he was under the tutorship of former first-class cricketer Andrew Birch. His rise to the national team was always a matter of when not if, and his returns have been staggering,In just 77 internationals across all formats, Bennett has scored four centuries and 13 fifties, and is already fourth on Zimbabwe’s table of all-time T20I run-scorers, and has anchored Zimbabwe’s line-up while also providing aggression at the right times.
Brian Bennett hasn’t been dismissed at the T20 World Cup yet•ICC/Getty Images
“I don’t know if there’s enough superlatives for the young man. At 22 years old, he has taken the world and Zimbabwean cricket by storm,” Brendan Taylor told ESPNcricinfo. “He’s such a level-headed guy and gifted beyond his years”
Taylor knows Bennett from coaching him, another of the advantages a young Bennett had as his family had the means to pay for private sessions, and remembers telling a teenaged Bennett to “just stay ready because I think your transition to international cricket could happen very quickly”. When it did, Bennett exceeded Taylor’s expectations.
“There is something so different about Brian, something we haven’t seen in Zimbabwe cricket for years. He’s very much a reactive batter to whatever’s coming his way and he has a wide array of shots and plays quick bowling with ease. His spin game is also developing rapidly for the better,” Taylor said.
Against Oman, Bennett was aggressive in racing to 48 off 36 balls, where he showed off the upper cut and paddle sweep. Against Australia, he was a little more circumspect with five runs off his first 12 balls as he got his eye in. He accelerated when the opportunity was there and ended with 64 off 56. And then he led a clinical takedown of Sri Lanka as Zimbabwe chased 180 like it was something they do every day of the week. Bennett’s ability to hold his nerve is what sets him apart and what Taylor thinks Zimbabwe can build on in the future. “He is unfazed and so calming at the crease and that’s infectious to the rest of the group,” Taylor said.
At 40, Taylor is also learning from Bennett. “We all can take a little bit from [him] and the way he goes about batting. We wish him nothing but the best and we’re so extremely excited for what’s in store for his career and what he is going to do for Zimbabwe cricket. It will be something incredibly special.”
Zimbabwe have done what has been asked of them at the T20 World Cup•AFP/Getty Images
How is Bennett dealing with the sudden attention? In a similar way to Muzarabani, by taking as little notice of it as possible. “I liken him to a younger Craig Ervine, a man of few words but as good as they come,” Taylor said. “He’s very loyal to his team and he’s just got a great head on his shoulders. Having his family over here as well and you can just see they’re such a tight-knit close family and very well supported by his mum and dad. He’s very well liked in the group and he’s got a soft nature to him and a cheeky sense of humour as well.”
Bennett’s parents have been in Sri Lanka watching the team and his mother was interviewed after the Australia game. “This is our first time at a World Cup with him and we are very, very proud parents,” she said.
Those same 17 million Zimbabweans who love Muzarabani also can’t stop talking about the thing Bennett did that had nothing to do with his batting. His flying catch against Oman, running and diving forward, has become the stuff of many memes. It’s one of the things that will ensure that no matter what happens, Zimbabwe are being talked about in this tournament well beyond the final ball and has given the cricket a respectability it lacked for decades.
Zimbabwe are back, is what people are saying, but perhaps for the first time, they are truly here. The full spectrum of their complex, scarred and striving society can be found at the top and bottom of this World Cup XI. Muzarabani and Bennett’s paths could not be more different but it’s how they have converged in the middle at this tournament that matters.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s correspondent for South Africa and women’s cricket
