Incredible tale of Jimmy’s first victim
MARK VERMEULEN’S INCREDIBLE TALE OF ARSON, A HORROR INJURY AND SUICIDE ATTEMPT
WHEN Jimmy Anderson celebrated his 600th Test wicket at an empty Ageas Bowl on Tuesday, watching on a television some 7,700 miles away was the man he dismissed for his first.
The name of Mark Vermeulen has been linked with England’s greatest bowler since the moment he became his maiden Test victim in May 2003.
In the 17 years which have passed, Anderson has gone on to break all world records for a fast bowler, while the Zimbabwean opener only played another seven Tests in a chequered career which saw him banned for a bust-up with fans, commit arson and attempt suicide.
But Vermeulen is still happy to be a part of history and raised a smile at his home in South Africa as Anderson dismissed Pakistan’s Azhar Ali — before the replays rolled of that famous first wicket at Lord’s.
‘It was definitely not a nice moment at the time, but I don’t feel so bad now I know he has got another 599,’ the 41-year-old tells
Sportsmail from Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape.
‘For Jimmy to play 156 Test matches as a fast bowler, to keep himself fit and put his body through all that hard work, it is an amazing effort. It would be nice if he could get another 20 wickets and get above Anil Kumble and separate those three spinners at the top.’
Vermeulen was playing just his second Test when he came up against the then 20- year- old debutant Anderson, whose first over at Zimbabwe’s other opener Dion Ebrahim went for 17.
But the young Lancashire seamer cleaned Vermeulen up in his third over on his way to a fivewicket haul, and the batsman got out to him again in the next Test at Durham as he bagged a pair.
‘Nobody knew much about him at the time,’ recalls Vermeulen. ‘We certainly hadn’t seen any footage of him before we played that Test match at Lord’s.
‘He was obviously nervous in that first over but the ball he got me out with straightened down the slope and hit the top of middle and off. I thought, “OK, that is not a bad ball, you can’t be too upset about that”.
‘He had a bit of nip about him. He was a good line and length outswing bowler in that first couple of games that we played against him. He definitely showed potential and he has certainly fulfilled that now.’
V ERMEULEN was sent home from that 2003 tour of England for disciplinary reasons after ignoring instructions to travel on the team bus. It was only the start of his troubles.
The following year, in a one-day international against India, he top-edged a bouncer from Irfan Pathan into his helmet and fractured his skull — the third serious head injury of his early career.
‘I had to have a six-hour operation,’ recalls Vermeulen. ‘ The doctor said that between your skull and your brain you have between five and seven millimetres of leeway, and my skull was fractured in by three to four millimetres, so I was fractions away from either death or serious brain damage.
‘The doctors told me not to play cricket again but I was like, “No, I love the game too much so I will take my chances”.’
Vermeulen returned to the international scene two months later. But his disciplinary problems resurfaced, notably so when playing club cricket for Lancashire side Werneth in 2006.
In a match against Ashton, he threw a ball at the crowd and then got into a scuffle with supporters, receiving a 10-year ban from all cricket in England for ‘ violent and dangerous actions’, later reduced to three years on appeal.
‘There was some guy heckling me in the crowd and I threw a ball towards them,’ he explains. ‘It was at a time when everything was falling apart and I just let it get to me and I exploded. It was another heat of the moment thing.’
Worse was to follow when he returned home to Zimbabwe that year. His country had just lost their Test status and, in his anger at the way the sport was being run, he stormed the official residence of Robert Mugabe, the controversial president and patron of Zimbabwe cricket. It backfired.
‘I remember his minders took me to the central police station, down into the dungeons and interrogated me for a couple of hours,’ says Vermeulen. ‘Eventually I wrote a letter which they said they would pass on to him.
‘Whether he ever got it or not, who knows.’
Depressed and feeling he had nowhere else to turn, Vermeulen was ‘ready to end his own life’ and drove 11 hours to Victoria Falls to sit and sleep in the water.
‘It was a combination of things,’ he explains. ‘The cricket was falling apart, my life was up in the air, not knowing what was going to happen next. I was in a negative space. It was not a good place to be.’
Vermeulen survived that episode but then hit the self-destruct button in a different way. First, he tried to burn down the pavilion of the Harare Sports Club, the headquarters of the country’s cricket board. After that arson attempt was unsuccessful, the next night he set fire to Zimbabwe’s cricket academy instead.
‘I was in total despair and I just wanted to make a statement that would say, “We need help in Zimbabwe”.’
T HE building was severely damaged and Vermeulen was arrested and charged. He stayed three nights in a cell and spent the next 18 months on bail.
However, he was cleared and spared prison in January 2008 on the grounds of mental illness after medics proved that the head injuries he suffered earlier in his career were responsible for his behaviour.
‘When we did the EEG scan, they found a misfiring in the left hemisphere of my brain, due to all the frontal lobe impacts I had received from cricket,’ he says. ‘ The result was temporary insanity.
‘It was definitely a relief not to have to go to prison, especially in Zimbabwe. You don’t want to be going to any prisons there. I don’t think many people get out.’
Against all the odds, Vermeulen was picked to play one- day cricket again for Zimbabwe in 2009, and then even more remarkably he made a Test return in 2014.
‘It felt great, it was nice from the administrators’ part to give me another chance,’ he admits.
But his Test comeback was a one- off and he was banned again after making a racist comment on Facebook. Vermeulen returned to English shores in 2016 when he signed as the overseas player for Cornish club side Newquay, but his only cricket involvement now is as a coach in South African schools.
‘I always wish some things could have been better and some things could have been different,’ he adds. ‘ But that is the way life goes. It is not always a bed of roses.’
At least it hasn’t been for one half of that now noteworthy act all those years ago at Lord’s.
The unique Test summer is over. england have two series victories and Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson have their 500th and 600th Test wickets. But what have we learned? Sportsmail’s experts have the answers…
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST PLUS THIS SUMMER?
NASSER HUSSAIN: First-innings runs. Bowlers win you games but big totals set it up for them. The emergence of Zak Crawley at three has added to that.
PAUL NEWMAN: Crawley. he just looked the part as soon as he came into the side. Big tick to the selectors for picking someone averaging 30 in county cricket.
LAWRENCE BOOTH: Crawley. They began without an established No 3 and have unearthed a player who can bat there — or open, if needs be — for years.
DAVID ‘BUMBLE’ LLOYD: Two series wins! They achieved what they set out to do. england need to win at home and they’ve done that against West Indies and Pakistan.
BIGGEST FLOP?
LLOYD: I’m looking ahead to the tours of India and Australia and I’m not confident in Rory Burns and Dom Sibley. I can’t get away from their unorthodoxy. Surrey’s Alec Stewart is full of knowledge, known to both of them and could
provide them with a little re-think.
HUSSAIN: The slip fielding. With the bowlers england have, the cordon needs to be settled. Ben Stokes is a fabulous slipper but even he was sloppy this summer.
BOOTH: england will need to decide whether to stick or twist with Dom Bess, whose three wickets against Pakistan cost 78 apiece. Sri Lanka, India and Australia will be rubbing their hands.
NEWMAN: The rest and rotation policy. As soon as things went wrong in the first Test, and Stuart Broad exploded on Sky, future planning went out the window.
WHO DOES BEN STOKES REPLACE IN THE TEAM?
LLOYD: Jofra Archer. I still don’t know what his role is. he bowled at decent pace in this Test but overdoing the short ball is so predictable. his most lethal delivery is the occasional short one.
BOOTH: It depends on conditions. In england, he should replace a bowler — Archer, on this evidence. In Asia, a batsman, because england will need as varied an attack as possible.
NEWMAN: It has to be a bowler, particularly as Crawley is now undroppable and there is a case for Jos Buttler to play as a specialist batsman. This winter, if they play in Sri Lanka and India, it has to be Chris Woakes.
HUSSAIN: If he’s fully fit he comes in at five or six and a bowler misses out. And away from home it has to be one of Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad or Jimmy Anderson.
HOW DOES DAN LAWRENCE GET IN THE SIDE?
NEWMAN: he looks special and needs to play sooner rather than later to be an Ashes candidate. It’s hard to see where, unless england jettison one of the openers, and that would be harsh right now.
HUSSAIN: Crawley’s runs have put the openers under a bit of pressure and if they don’t go big, Crawley could move up and Lawrence come in at three. But let’s not get on the case of Burns and Sibley just yet. They have done OK.
BOOTH: he will need someone to get injured or lose form, unless england are so desperate to get him in that they leave out an opener and promote Crawley.
LLOYD: he gets in at three with Crawley replacing one of the openers. Lawrence is in the same category as Ollie Pope and Crawley when it comes to potential.
DOES BEN FOAKES KEEP IN ASIA THIS WINTER?
LLOYD: No. I accept Jos Buttler has work to do but he balances the team perfectly. he’s a player opposing sides are very wary of.
BOOTH: It’s tempting because Buttler is yet to take a Test stumping. But Buttler is now an integral part of the batting line-up, so bringing in Foakes means messing with an already delicate balance.
HUSSAIN: No, not just after Buttler became man of the series against Pakistan. he knows he has work to do on his keeping standing up and I understand the argument for Foakes, but I stick with Buttler.
NEWMAN: Yes. he was sensational in Sri Lanka in 2018 and has been desperately unlucky since. As soon as he was let out of the bubble this week, he scored a century for Surrey. This winter, at least, Buttler plays as a batsman.
WILL JONNY BAIRSTOW PLAY TESTS AGAIN?
HUSSAIN: he’s too good a player to write off either as a batsman or batsman-keeper. The cupboard isn’t that full with batsmen so if he gets a shedload of runs there will be another opportunity for him.
LLOYD: I hope so. We experimented with Jason Roy as a Test opener, why not Bairstow? he opens in one- day cricket and he’s got six Test hundreds! You want a radical change? Bairstow to open with Crawley and Lawrence at three.
NEWMAN: I’m a big fan of Bairstow and, like Foakes, he’s been unlucky. he was doing little wrong in the position he craves as batsmankeeper but suffered partly because Buttler is perceived as a better team man. Jonny will be back.
BOOTH: It looks as if he’s falling between two stools: Buttler is growing in stature as a batsman but if the selectors are fretting about his glovework, then Foakes appears next cab off the rank. And it’s hard to see how Bairstow gets in as a batsman at the moment.
AREN’T JACK LEACH AND ADIL RASHID BETTER SPINNERS THAN BESS?
LLOYD: I’m a massive Rashid fan and I do know that dialogue is ongoing. he’s a grand lad who can be a bit vulnerable but the last time I saw him bowl he was brilliant. he spins it both ways and I’d be moving heaven and earth to get him to play Test cricket.
BOOTH: Yes. I’d try to persuade Rashid to give Test cricket another go. england desperately need a spinner who can turn it both ways. In seven Tests in Bangladesh and India in 2016- 17, he took 30 wickets for goodness sake.
NEWMAN: Leach seems another victim of the rotation policy. I get Bess is learning but I just look ahead to Australia and shudder to think how he will go. Rashid is the best of them but I’m not sure he would relish being sole spinner.
HUSSAIN: My point on Rashid hasn’t changed: he has to convince the england management he wants to be a Test cricketer before he’s considered. Bess has still got a lot of work to do but we need to give him a chance to learn in sub-continental conditions.
IS IT RIGHT MAKING JOFRA ARCHER THE ENFORCER?
HUSSAIN: This winds me up. Archer’s role is to take wickets, whether that’s bowling fast or banging it halfway down. I hate the enforcer tag. We used to hear that with Broad too before he started taking wickets bowling fuller. The key for Jofra is that he or Mark Wood need to give england something different when it goes flat.
NEWMAN: Something has gone wrong with Jofra this summer. Whether it’s the management of him or the fault lies with the player,
I don’t know but he has looked nothing like the bowler of last summer. That’s still a big worry for me.
BOOTH: I don’t know about enforcer but short, sharp bursts seem sensible in the current set-up. He’s struggled this summer without the new ball. Once he gets that back, he’ll be fine.
LLOYD: If you’re a fast bowler, you need to bowl fast. I could give you plenty of examples. I don’t get how he can bowl 83mph one game then 93 the next.
DOES CHRIS WOAKES ONLY PLAY AT HOME?
LLOYD: I think of him as a genuine all-rounder and he could be very useful as a fourth seamer overseas. It’s unfair to just think of him as a home specialist.
HUSSAIN: The stats suggest that but Darren Gough thinks Woakes is improving away. Don’t pigeon-hole him just yet.
BOOTH: Mainly, yes, but there were signs over the winter that he had worked on his game with the Kookaburra. England shouldn’t give up on him overseas just yet.
NEWMAN: I’m intrigued by his improvement with the Kookaburra ball after working with Gough in New Zealand, but I’m afraid if we play three English-type bowlers in India and Australia we will lose heavily. So he misses out.
BROAD AND ANDERSON CAN’T BOTH PLAY IN THE NEXT ASHES CAN THEY?
BOOTH: It depends how fit they both are at the end of the 2021 summer. But you can imagine the headlines if England’s new-ball attack at Brisbane has a combined age of 74 — and struggles.
HUSSAIN: I’d be surprised. Jimmy will be nearly 40. But you never know with Anderson and he has proved plenty of people wrong over the years. Broad should still be around but it’s probably a bridge too far for Jimmy.
NEWMAN: Their quality, longevity and sheer force of personality ensured they both played five out of six Tests this summer and long may they reign — at home. History tells you if they run out together at Brisbane, England will struggle.
LLOYD: Absolutely they can! There are no signs either of them are losing their nip or fitness. If you want one who could come in with a wet sail — Ollie Robinson. All the England batsmen rate him, just as in 2003 they were all saying, ‘This bloke Anderson’s a handful.’
ARE YOU STICKING WITH YOUR ASHES XI FROM THE LAST TIME WE SPOKE?
HUSSAIN: Pretty much. I want Crawley in there and I’d like room made for Lawrence. The only big question for me is the spinner. Burns ( or Sibley), Crawley, Lawrence, Root, Stokes, Pope, Buttler, Bess (or Rashid), Broad, Archer, Wood.
LLOYD: What did we say last time? How about Crawley, Bairstow, Lawrence, Root, Stokes, Pope, Buttler, Broad, Rashid, Wood, Anderson.
BOOTH: Burns, Sibley, Crawley, Root, Pope, Stokes, Buttler, Rashid, Broad, Archer, Wood. Sorry, Jimmy, but England will need pace to win in Australia.
NEWMAN: Not too much has changed from the evidence of this summer. At the moment I’d go Burns, Crawley, Lawrence, Root, Stokes, Pope, Buttler, Rashid, Broad, Archer, Wood.