{"id":357922,"date":"2011-04-01T12:58:02","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T12:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/01\/zimbabwe-vermeulen-tries-golf\/"},"modified":"2011-04-01T12:58:02","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T12:58:02","slug":"zimbabwe-vermeulen-tries-golf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/01\/zimbabwe-vermeulen-tries-golf\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe: Vermeulen Tries Golf"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"80.322529644269\">\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/><!-- close google_banner_mid div ---><\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thezimbabweindependent.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/7f07f6c2ependent180.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)\" title=\"Visit Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- begin story layout piece here --><\/p>\n<p>Kevin Mapasure<\/p>\n<p> 1 April 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>FORMER Zimbabwe national team opening batsman Mark Vermeulen has retired from all forms of cricket to pursue a career in golf.<\/p>\n<p>Vermeulen has dumped the bat for the club at the brink of Zimbabwe&#8217;s return to the Test arena &#8211; a format his game suits well and one that he was looking forward to.<\/p>\n<p>The highly temperamental player leaves the game a bitter man citing lack of professionalism in the game as the major reason for his departure.<\/p>\n<p><!-- close google_inset_a div ---><\/p>\n<p>Having started promisingly, Vermeulen will be remembered less for the runs, the centuries and the half centuries but his disciplinary record in an international career of about a decade.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everyone has been holding me back &#8211; the administrators and the umpires &#8211; so I have decided I can do something better with my life,&#8221; said Vermeulen. &#8220;I dreamt of playing in the national team again and representing the country in the Tests but I am quitting to pursue a career in golf.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Vermeulen will have to gain professional status in the game by winning an amateur tournament, and his first shot is the Zimbabwe Amateur Tournament on April 22.<\/p>\n<p><!-- close google_inset_b div ---><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know I have to qualify for me to be professional and I am practicing now and fine-tuning myself for upcoming tournaments. I have confidence in golf because it is an individual game where nobody can hold me back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Vermeulen said he would miss the game he loves the most but he was left with no option as he felt that he was unwanted and was being treated unfairly compared with other players.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everything is a joke at cricket now; we have five teams yet considering the number of competitive players that we have, I think we should only have three teams playing first class cricket so that there is competition. Players are getting first class hundreds that they do not deserve facing schoolboys. Eighty percent of the players are a joke and most of the umpires are a joke.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!-- close google_inset_c div ---><\/p>\n<p>In the latest of his clashes with authorities, Vermeulen is reported to have angrily protested two umpire decisions in a first class match against Mashonaland Eagles last month, after being adjudged to have been trapped leg before on both occasions.<\/p>\n<p>His vitriol-filled reaction to the decisions saw him being banned for three matches and his franchise Mountaineers announced that they would not retain his services for next season.<\/p>\n<p>The decision by Mountaineers effectively ended Vermeulen&#8217;s career as a cricketer as he was dismissed by Tuskers last year over disciplinary reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Vermeulen has eight Tests and 43 One-Day-Internationals under his belt. He made his Test debut in 2002 against Pakistan, and ends his career with 414 Test runs and 868 ODI runs after earning his first cap against Sri Lanka in 2000.<\/p>\n<p>He has one Test century to his name and two half centuries in that format while his highest score in the 50-over format is 92 achieved against Bangladesh in 2002, to add to seven other half tones.<\/p>\n<p>The 2006 arson case in which he was charged for burning down the CFX Cricket Academy stands out among a plethora of incidents in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Three years earlier the former Under-19 captain had been banned in England after an altercation with a fan.<\/p>\n<p>He also suffered two head fractures with the first coming against India in Australia during an ODI during the 2003-4 season. The other was during a training session.<\/p>\n<p><!-- end story layout piece here --><\/p>\n<p><!-- close google_banner_subbody div ---><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><b>More News on allAfrica.com<\/b><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/7f07f6c2ependent180.jpg-150x25.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Read this article:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201104010719.html\" title=\"Zimbabwe: Vermeulen Tries Golf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zimbabwe: Vermeulen Tries Golf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Kevin Mapasure 1 April 2011 FORMER Zimbabwe national team opening batsman Mark Vermeulen has retired from all forms of cricket to pursue a career in golf. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - 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