There may be 15 other teams in New Zealand for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup but 19-year old Tinotenda (Tyno) Mutombodzi is firmly backing his Zimbabwe side to go all the way.
Hailing from the capital city Harare, Tyno started playing cricket at primary school and started getting serious in his school’s Form One side when he was 11.
There was plenty of backyard cricket action with his brother, Holdon, who to this day remains Tyno’s inspiration, along with his Zimbabwe team mates.
The aggressive all-rounder says his progression through the Zimbabwe age groups ranks – from under-13s through to under-16s – has nurtured and assisted him hugely. Currently he models his game on South African batsman AB De Villiers.
A tall right-handed batsman and leg-spin bowler, Tyno captured a magic hat-trick in a Twenty20 fixture against the touring Pakistan side in October last year. He also scored regularly and picked up wickets in the ODI matches against Pakistan.
Tyno has tremendous confidence and a fearless approach to cricket, and is not backward in declaring his personal goal for this tournament – “I want to be the Man of the Series”.
He is equally definite about Zimbabwe’s chances against the more favoured opposition.
“Yes, Pakistan, Bangladesh will do very well and we play Sri Lanka first which will be interesting – but when it comes to the crunch, I back my team.” he says.