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15 years on from Henry Olonga becoming the first black player to represent Zimbabwe who is the countries greatest black cricketer of all time? Some names that come to mind are:

Henry Olonga
Tatenda Taibu
Hamilton Masakadza
Elton Chigumbura
Pommie Mbangwa
Brighton Watambwa
Prosper Utseya
Mluleki Nkala


For the record my vote goes to Tatenda Taibu. He is a true worldclass player who was a fixture in the side well before the rebel strike.

Nkala wasn't the greatest of players. Matabwa and Taibu do it for me. Taibu is just a world class performer, though at times carless, and Matabwa had genuine pace. He could have been a real threat had he not moved to the U.SA

Brighton Watambwa was one of the most talented bowlers Zimbabwe produced. It is a shame he was lost to Zimbabwe cricket so soon into his career.

Im positive that by the end of his Career Elton Chigumbura will be top of the list, he is only 23 but has shown big signs of improvement over the last year.

Lets not forget the tragic Trevor Madondo, who would have become a solid top order mainstay, had very good technique.

But for me, if I have to come up with 5 names in terms of impact, and rate them, I'll go with these at the moment:

1. Taibu
2. Chigumbura
3. Olonga
4. Masakadza
5. Utseya

chigumbura is tha man for me.

For me hondo and olonga.

Tatenda Taibu was for a long time considered to be the best player though Hamilton Masakadza (them having entered the fray at the same time) qualified in my mind as easily the better batsman.

But before Taibu is considered the best now he will need to get runs to the level that Mark Boucher has with the bat.

I think with time Brighton Watambwa would have outdone Henry Olonga.

But nobody can outdo Elton Chigumbura. He's already the best and our most valuable player and will continue to be so for a long tine to come, not unless another top class all-rounder comes (which I doubt because these kind of players only come once in a long time; in fact I don’t think any ever played for Zim before him and in stating this I’m mindful of the fact that it is another debate that will include Andy Blignaut,Paul Strang and Heath Streak.), or unless a certain Dean Muzawadza comes in and scores prodigiously for many years.

i wuld classify them according to function

Bowler - Henry Olonga
Batsman - Hamilton Masakadza
Keeper Batsman Tatenda Taibu
All rounder - Elton Chigumbura ( wuld have been quicker if we attended to him earlier when he injured his back)

As for the rest they were juss near sighs and dont have the stats to prove their worth