The Tale of the Talented Mary-Anne Musonda
Talented Mary-Anne Musonda is among a select group of women who are flying the flag high for Zimbabwean Cricket. She is one of only six women batters to score a century in an ODI debut, and only two since 2000. Musonda is the only player on that list who has also served as captain of the team she was playing for. However, she had no idea what her knock meant at the moment.
In October 2021, six months after the ICC gave Zimbabwe Women ODI status, they faced Ireland in Harare, who had set them a target of 254 to win. When the supremely Talented Mary-Anne Musonda arrived to bat, Zimbabwe were 25 for 2 before slumping to 82 for 3 in 14 overs.
While speaking to ESPNCricinfo after Zimbabwe emerged victorious in a T20I triangular series against hosts Namibia and Uganda, she said:
“In my head, I was cognizant of the fact that we were playing our first ever ODI, we had to try to get close to the score, and try and win. That’s the kind of mindset I went in with. I didn’t think that I want to try and score a century. It did not even cross my mind. When I got to the 80s and 90s, it was not registering as much as it would register to other people; and when I hit that hundred, I was very underwhelmed rather than overwhelmed. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
As spoken to ESPNcricinfo from Windhoek
Given Zimbabwe’s desperation to obtain official status in the previous two years because “we wanted to play against elite sides,” Musonda believed it was critical that they put on a good show to justify their spot among the established teams. And she made certain that this happened on her own.
Talented Mary-Anne Musonda contributed to three half-centuries and led Zimbabwe to win with 37 balls remaining. It was only then that she realised what she had accomplished. In certain ways, yes.
“People were clapping me off the field, and social media was buzzing like crazy, and I was thinking ‘Okay, this must be a big deal’. I think it was actually the day after that I realised it was actually a big deal.”
Zimbabwe hosted the World Cup qualifiers a month later, and had the opportunity to go from being unknowns on the international arena to competing in a global competition in less than a year. A 114-run loss against Pakistan wasn’t a good start, and their challenge was called off when the Omicron variation was discovered in southern Africa, but Musonda was pleased of her team, which she had seen make tremendous strides in a short period of time.
“I’ve seen where we’ve come from. There’s a lot of progress thus far. We are not where we were two or three years ago. We’re headed in the right direction.”
Talented Mary-Anne Musonda had just done her Masters in Development Finance at the University of Cape Town three years ago, and had returned home to Zimbabwe to pursue a career in cricket. She had flirted with it a few times after discovering the sport in high school and abandoning the many other ball games she had participated in.
Talented Mary-Anne Musonda attended KweKwe High School in the Zimbabwean midlands, where she participated in basketball, volleyball, netball, and hockey, as well as cricket after being seen by the school coach.
“Hockey was my main sport, though I was an allrounder. Once, when I was playing hockey, the cricket coach scouted me out and that’s how I started,”
At the same time, ZC was introducing girls’ cricket to schools, but there were no girls’ teams for the gifted and Talented Mary-Anne Musonda to join at the time. Musonda recalls, “I started playing with the lads.” “I played with the boys for a couple of terms and fell in love with cricket, never returning to hockey.”
The school had a girls’ squad within a year, and some of them competed in provincial trials. Talented Mary-Anne Musonda was then named in a possible 13-man national team, but without formal status, he had little chance of playing frequently. Still, she hoped for a change, and she wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“My mum said I should keep pursuing my studies but she also promised to keep supporting me with cricket. I thought that was a workable deal, so I continued with both.”
Talented Mary-Anne Musonda completed her A-levels and then relocated to South Africa, where she studied corporate finance at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. She continued to play and was selected for the Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland team.
“In-between or in study breaks, I would go back home, and if there was cricket training, I would join. Sometimes it would clash with maybe a week or two of my semester but I had to make those little sacrifices. I decided not to give up on either and see what would happen. It’s such a great initiative. There’s a world of difference between other leagues and this one. This one is very inclusive”
The Talented Mary-Anne Musonda returned to Zimbabwe after her Honours year to look for work, but was unable to do so, so she opted to continue her education. She explained, “I needed to make sure I had a lot of options.” “My mother constantly talked about having a lot of choices and not being bound by anything.”
She opted not to look for job right away when she returned to Zimbabwe for the second time. “For about six months, I dedicated myself to cricket and began to perform effectively. I was given the honour of captaining the team a year later.”
She made her T20I debut for Zimbabwe against Namibia, and realised she didn’t have to enter the corporate world right away and could try cricket instead.
At first, it appeared to be a wise move. Talented Mary-Anne Musonda was scheduled to play in the Kia Super League in England later that year, but her opportunity was snuffed out when the ICC temporarily suspended ZC and its players for government influence in the cricket board.
“When that opportunity came, I was so excited,” Like everyone, you always want to get to the next level, and when you don’t go there, you’re disappointed. But it doesn’t stop you from being ambitious or from trying to get the same opportunities and to improve yourself and your skills, and hope that in the future, you will get more opportunities.”
Those opportunities began to appear two years later. The ICC granted Zimbabwe Women ODI status in April 2021, and Talented Mary-Anne Musonda was named to the ICC’s 100 percent Cricket Future Leaders Programme, a mentorship programme for female cricketers, later that year. She has since been teamed with New Zealand double international Rebecca Rolls, who has represented her country in both cricket and football. Talented Mary-Anne Musonda is already benefiting from the work they have done halfway through their six-month contract.
“We have good conversations about cricket. Not just about cricket but [also] about the kind of person I am and the kind of person I want to be,” Musonda said. “She guides me and gives me good advice. Mentorship is so important. Most people want to go somewhere but they don’t know how to get there. Mentorship is one way of helping – especially leaders – to understand themselves and the environment they are operating in, and to prepare ourselves as women who have never been in the places where men have been.”
Talented Mary-Anne Musonda is encouraged by the growing popularity of women’s cricket in Zimbabwe.
And, as the only Zimbabwean player in the Fairbreak T20, a one-of-a-kind franchise league in which teams are made up of players from Full Member and Associate countries together, she will have another chance to rub shoulders with some of the greatest next week.
Talented Mary-Anne Musonda will play for the Tornadoes, which will be captained by Stafanie Taylor and feature international captains Sophie Devine and Sune Luus, and she is looking forward to meeting them.
For the time being, she is encouraged by the rising interest in women’s cricket in Zimbabwe, both from the standpoint of players and the media.
“I saw it in the inter-franchise [competition] we had a few weeks ago.” “There’s a good pool coming up, particularly at the Under-19 level,” Musonda remarked. “ZC is also working hard to promote the game. That’s the only way to let the rest of the world know that women’s cricket exists.
