Graeme umpired 15 ODI matches in Zimbabwe between 1997 and 2001. Interestingly, in his final ODI played at Bulawayo, the Willower Dion Ebrahim batted and made runs in the middle-order for Zimbabwe that day. Graeme sadly passed away in 2018 having also umpired 87 games at The Willows.
After taking an early retirement option from the Forestry Research I accepted a placement by VSA as a forestry advisor in Zimbabwe. On arriving at Kotwa, a growth centre on the north-eastern border with Mozambique, some 250km from Harare I found the house still occupied by some council staff. The property had running cold water, an inside toilet but like most of the houses no power. Once I moved in a few days later the inside was painted to cover all the smoke stains from the previous indoor fires used for cooking and the solar panel brought over from New Zealand installed. This small panel was capable of supplying enough power to illuminate the house and to operate a short-wave radio enabling one to keep in touch with the outside world with both news and sport. Such a small luxury was important in keeping one’s sanity.
Some three months later, just prior to Ngaire joining me, I met up with the local umpires in Harare who like all associations were struggling and looking for new members. The bait they offered me was to umpire a Pakistan warm-up game. This meant organising some gear as the VSA assignment was for two years and I had no intention of becoming involved with cricket other than as a spectator. Fortunately I enjoyed umpiring in the 28 degree temperature and on the well-manicured field.
Every second Sunday we would leave Kotwa at 5.30 am and drive the 250 kms to the Harare Sports Club where we would have an English Breakfast before I moved to my allotted game. While I spent the day from 9.30 till 5.00 umpiring Ngaire would spend her day at the Harare Sports Club enjoying the lavish facilities. Some nights we would drive back to Kotwa while many times we would stay the night and do business in Harare the following day before heading back.
Hence with the start of umpiring we started and continued this Jekyll and Hyde lifestyle of having five days a week in the rural community of 5,500 Zimbabweans and two New Zealanders and the remaining two days in the opulence of a colonial style.
While umpiring my last game in Bulawayo (in 2001) before heading back to New Zealand after completing the VSA assignment, the reserve umpire ran onto the ground to tell me that there was an interview for me in Harare the next day. Instead of heading to Victoria Falls I made it back to Harare where I joined the commercial company Hortico to setup small scale horticulture with communal farmers. This was an interesting challenge, being given a free hand to develop the programme as I saw fit with the only restriction being they didn’t want big red numbers in the balance sheet.
The small scale programme was run as a separate entity to the main organisation which sourced product from white commercial farmers. Once the idea had been formulated a small programme was instigated and following its success saw the directors give approval to expand and within two years had over 5,000 communal farmers growing fresh vegetables which were exported into the English supermarkets especially Marks and Spencer. With this operation being driven by a commercial ideology where farmers were rewarded for their effort I found this was real development rather than the pseudo development of many other Aid organisations.
It was a situation where both the company and the farmers won but it was only because of being a Kiwi that both sides trusted me. Only fifteen years before they were firing real bullets at each other hence the black Zimbabweans didn’t trust the whites and vice versa.
Towards the end of my stay in Zimbabwe I came to stark realisation of what life is worth. At the time of the unrest with the ex-war veterans, many in their ranks weren’t born at the time of the 1970’s conflict, I found myself alongside two fellow workers held hostage in an attempt to raise funds. The initial ransom was two cattle beasts but by the time six hours had passed it was down to one cattle beast. Interestingly, in my naivety, I wasn’t concerned because up until that time two white farmers had been killed but expatriates had been left alone. My two colleagues were quite concerned as they had both been involved with the early conflict. From this encounter I know that I’m only worth a third of a cattle beast which was approximately thirty pounds at the time.
Being involved with international matches it is interesting to see how one is introduced to players. I had umpired Andrew Flintoff in the Under-19 test match where one of the local players had a very suspect action and I called him for throwing on one or two occasions. A few years later I was just about to start a game England A vs. Zimbabwe A when a young Flintoff yells out to his skipper Michael Vaughan “Hey skip, he’s the umpire that no-balls you for throwing.” Some introduction! Another incident was with Brett Lee; when I handed him the run-up marker he put his hand out and said “My name’s Brett, what’s yours?”
When I started umpiring ODIs the 4th umpire would bring me a full glass of coke at the drinks break and I would only partake of a couple of mouthfuls and tip the remainder onto the ground. I continued this procedure in my 3rd ODI unaware that the TV cameras were broadcasting this action. Two days later I met one of my communal farmers on his plot 200km from Harare. His first comment was “I saw you waste that coke”. From then on, they only ever brought me a glass quarter full.
During my stay I was fortunate to meet and umpire most of the leading players and work with many top umpires including David Shepherd, Darrell Hair and Rudi Koertzen.