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A NUMBER of factors could have deterred Trevor Garwe from pursuing cricket as a career if he had chosen to focus more on the obstacles.

Growing up in one of the high-density suburbs of Harare — where football is the most popular sport — Garwe could have easily become a goalkeeper, since he was good between the posts during his primary school days.

But an opportunity cropped up at some stage during his high school years and he fell for it, thus turning his back on football to become a cricketer.

Most of his friends, however, were deeply into football and very few were familiar and even bothered to follow cricket.

Garwe could have easily been discouraged by their influence and negative comments made by some of them had he chosen to listen to them.

The 24-year-old fast bowler reckons it was not an easy road working his way up from the schools structures to the Mashonaland Eagles first team and eventually to the national team.

He had never considered cricket as a possible career path until one day when he decided to try his hand with the ball while still a Form Two pupil at Glen View 1 High School.

He played his first game after one month of practice and was convinced he had the talent to continue with the game and then decided to discard football to concentrate on his new sport.

But there were no grounds fashioned for cricket in Glen View and the school team — with the most basic equipment to muster the techniques of this highly sophisticated game — had to use the football pitch when the soccer side was not using the facility.

But unlike many of his age group who quickly threw in the towel because of the lack of equipment, Garwe soldiered on until he made it into the Takashinga second team in 2002 as a 16-year-old.

The next season he was in the first team and played alongside most of the players in the national team like Tatenda Taibu, Hamilton Masakadza and Elton Chigumbura.

He also played for provincial side Mashonaland A team and the breakthrough into the national team structures came in 2003 when he was selected into the Under-19 team for the South Africa tour.

"I had thought I would continue as a footballer but it all changed when I got an invitation to try cricket from my brother Wilson who was the sportsmaster at the school.

"It was a completely new experience but I just told myself I have to learn the game although I did not have the equipment. It was difficult.

"My brother could only afford to provide bat and ball and everything else was luxury until I joined Takashinga where I benefited a lot from players like Taibu, Chigumbura and Masakadza who could borrow us some of their kits," he said.

Garwe remains determined to ascend the ladder of success after getting a number of calls to the national team in the past few years.

In 2004, Garwe toured Australia with the national A team and has been a regular face in the side since then.

He got his first and only full national team cap when he played against Kenya last year but did not get the best start he had dreamt of on debut after finishing with bowling figures of 1/51.

"It was disappointing because I had bowled well the first over and took a wicket but could not maintain the momentum. That is history now and I have been working hard in all areas and hope to become an accomplished all-rounder.

"I believe I can do it because I have scored runs for Eagles and I even have a ton and three half centuries in first class, which is very encouraging," he said.

The Eagles bowler has experienced variations in form but is not discouraged even after spending the most part of the last four years on the fringes of the national team.

He has 111 first class wickets under his belt with his best performance being 6/65 and his highest score with the bat is 117 runs.

At 24, Garwe is convinced he still has more years to achieve his goals before retiring from the game.

The rising Zimbabwe medium pace bowler is looking forward to more cricket with the return of Test matches in the near future.

"My dream is to command a place in the national team. That is my major inspiration. The Tests are around the corner and I just feel I should use the opportunity now to perfect my game and get recognition.

"The Logan Cup has provided us the platform to prepare for the Tests. It’s good preparation and the Twenty20 tournament was fantastic especially playing seasoned players like Brian Lara, Lance Klusener and others who have made great achievements in their careers.

"It’s inspiring and the level of competition is getting better season after season. It’s good for us as individual s and the national team," said Garwe.

He cited the retiring South African fast bowler Makhaya Ntini as his inspiration.

"I have been following his game ever since I started playing cricket. We share almost similar backgrounds and he had been great inspiration. I met him once while on tour to South Africa and his words to me were very uplifting. He has had a great career and I know many people will miss him from the game," said Garwe.