By IANS
London : Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Tatenda Taibu has decided to again play for the national side two years after he quit in protest against the country’s cricket officials.
The former captain said he could not ignore his desire to play international cricket again, and that his wife had played a big part in persuading him to change his mind.
Taibu had been playing overseas during his self-imposed exile, but his wife, Loveness, had suggested the couple return to Africa.
“My wife was tired of travelling and asked if we could come back home and I agreed,” he was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.
“She was against the idea of me leaving in the first place. All the time we were away she was always asking me when we were going back home.”
Taibu, the youngest captain in international when he was chosen to lead Zimbabwe at the age of 18, walked out of the national squad at the age of 22 in November 2005.
Taibu spent a month playing club cricket in Bangladesh in January last year before coming to England to join Pyrford in Surrey. He then signed a six-month deal with Namibia, who play in South Africa’s domestic first-class set-up, but did not renew that contract and returned home in May.
“I am back to score hundreds, double hundreds and take more catches. Cricket fans will see more of me,” he said.
Taibu told the paper that his return had nothing to do with financial gain because he had earned enough money to care for himself and his family.
“It is now a matter of playing for my country, I have made enough money in my life and I still have other things that bring me money,” he said.
Zimbabwe has also been boosted by the return of opening batsman Brendan Taylor, who had refused to play for his Northerns province in Zimbabwe’s first-class competition, the Logan Cup, soon after his return from the 2007 World Cup and then defied Zimbabwe cricket boss Ovias Bvute’s order not to accept contracts with clubs abroad in the off-season by taking up a club deal in Holland.
Taylor joined the Zimbabwean squad for training Friday, ahead of two four-day games against South Africa A that start Thursday.