Guy James Whittall is a former Zimbabwean

Zimbabwean cricket team

The Zimbabwean cricket team is a national cricket team representing Zimbabwe. It is administrated by Zimbabwe Cricket...

 cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er who played 46 Tests and 147 ODIs and captained Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean national cricket captains

Zimbabwe became a full member of the International Cricket Council on 6 July 1992, thereby gaining the right to play Test matches. It had previously become an associate member of the ICC on 21 July 1981 after independence. Before independence, Rhodesia had competed in the South African Currie...

 in four One Day Internationals. An all-rounder

All-rounder

An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists...

, he was a right-handed aggressive middle-order batsman and an effective right arm medium pace bowler.

Early days

Whittall was selected for the national schools side aged 16. With them he toured New Zealand and England in 1989 and 1990 respectivally. The side was coached by former international David Houghton and they were unbeaten in both tours. His first Logan Cup century came for Zimbabwe Schools against the Harare Central team although the tournament didn't have first class status at the time. His first-class debut came at the age of 18, playing for Young Zimbabwe. He first played for Zimbabwe against Worcestershire, opening the batting. With a handful of games for Zimbabwe against touring County sides under his belt he was selected for the Zimbabwean team to tour England in the 1993 season. Although he would not get a game in England, he received another chance to make his Test debut when he was included in the side for the tour to Pakistan.

International Cricket

Whittall made his Test debut on the 1 December 1993 against Pakistan in the Defence Housing Authority Stadium. Zimbabwe would go on to lose the game by 131 runs and Whittall contributed an innings of 33 and the wicket of Basit Ali

Basit Ali

Basit Ali is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 19 Tests and 50 ODIs from 1993 to 1996. He was recognized by many to have a similar batting style as Javed Miandad. A right-hander, he has the relatively uncommon statistic of having a higher ODI than Test batting average...

. He would not have to wait long to make his mark, with his maiden Test century coming in just his 6th Test. At Harare Sports Club in February 1995, Whittall scored an unbeaten 113 to help his side to a historic first-ever Test victory, against the Pakistanis. Two years later he wrote his name into the record books with an unbeaten 203 at Queens Sports Club against New Zealand. Whittall was well short of his double ton when the number 11 Everton Matambanadzo

Everton Matambanadzo

Everton Zvikomborero Matambanadzo, born in Salisbury , is a former Zimbabwean cricketer who played in 3 Tests and 7 ODIs from 1996 to 1999. His twin brother, Darlington, also played first-class cricket for Mashonaland....

 came to bat. The New Zealanders did their bit to help, giving field placings designed to give easy singles thus giving Matambanadzo the strike. The milestone eventually came with a boundary through the slips.

Against the same opponents in September 2002, Whittall fell just short of registering another double hundred. He finished unbeaten on 188 in controversial circumstances. Whittall was impeded by Dion Nash

Dion Nash

Dion Joseph Nash played for the New Zealand cricket team, captaining the team in 1999 with the injury of regular captain Stephen Fleming...

 as he attempted a second and this resulted in the last batsman Pommie Mbangwa being run out.

Although he never took a 5 wicket haul, Whittall took over 50 Test wickets for Zimbabwe. His career best was 4/18 against England.

His ODI career included three World Cups, and he did particularly well in 1999 as Zimbabwe made the final 6.

In March 2003, Whittall announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in order to concentrate on his family's game-ranch business. He is also a professional hunter in Zimbabwe.