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Full name Mark Andrew Vermeulen
Born March 2, 1979, Salisbury (now Harare)
Current age 28 years 317 days
Major teams Zimbabwe,Mashonaland A,Matabeleland
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm offbreak
Relations Brother - RD Vermeulen
Batting and fielding averages
Mat
Inns
NO
Runs
HS
Ave
BF
SR
100
50
4s
6s
Ct
St
Tests
8
16
0
414
118
25.87
836
49.52
1
2
55
2
6
0
ODIs
32
32
4
583
79
20.82
840
69.40
0
4
81
1
9
0
First-class
66
126
4
4626
198
37.91
11
18
64
0
List A
77
76
6
1762
105
25.17
1
12
21
0
Bowling averages
Mat
Inns
Balls
Runs
Wkts
BBI
BBM
Ave
Econ
SR
4w
5w
10
Tests
8
1
6
5
0
-
-
-
5.00
-
0
0
0
ODIs
32
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
First-class
66
887
467
15
3/26
31.13
3.15
59.1
0
0
List A
77
36
34
0
-
-
-
5.66
-
0
0
0
Career statistics
Test debut
Zimbabwe v Pakistan at Bulawayo, Nov 16-19, 2002 scorecard
Last Test
Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka at Bulawayo, May 14-17, 2004 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut
Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe at Sharjah, Oct 21, 2000 scorecard
Last ODI
Zimbabwe v England at Bulawayo, Dec 5, 2004 scorecard
ODI statistics
First-class debut
1997/98
Last First-class
Western Province v Zimbabwe Under-23s at Cape Town, Nov 10-12, 2005 scorecard
List A debut
1998/99
Last List A
Western Province v Zimbabwe Under-23s at Cape Town, Nov 13, 2005 scorecard
Mark Vermeulen's life and career changed forever on January 20, 2004, when he was struck a sickening blow on the head by Irfan Pathan. during Zimbabwe's VB Series campaign in Australia. Two-and-a-half erratic years later, in October 2006, he was arrested after setting fire to the offices of the Harare Sports Club and the National Academy, but pleaded not guilty at his subsequent trial in January 2008, on the grounds that he had been suffering psychiatric problems, including partial complex epilepsy, ever since the injury. During his career he was attacking and naturally athletic, and was first drafted into the Zimbabwe team for the second Test against Pakistan in November 2002, at the expense of Guy Whittall. At his most comfortable against pace bowling, Vermeulen was a back-foot player by inclination, particularly strong on the cut, pull and hook shots, although he was also a sweet timer of the ball through the covers. A former captain of Zimbabwe's Under-19 team, Vermeulen had a desire to succeed that - even before his injury - could spill over into petulance and worse. In 1996 he was banned from representing his school, Prince Edward High in Harare, for walking off with the stumps after receiving a poor lbw decision and locking himself in the changing room. That was a sign of things to come. He was sent home during the second Test of the 2003 England tour when, after becoming only the 13th man in Test history to record a pair on the same day of a match, ignored a management instruction to travel with the rest of the squad on the coach, instead choosing to leave the ground on his own. He had earlier refused to stop a ball at Hove because "it was too cold" and had also had run-ins with the team manager. On the pitch he made a few decent scores in one-day internationals and played three matches in the 2003 World Cup. He was an excellent slip fielder, an occasional offbreak bowler, and a former national junior javelin champion, but will sadly be remembered for what followed off the field.
Andrew Miller January 2008
