‘I asked for help and I got it’

LEGENDARY football manager Bill Shankly famously once said: “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you it’s much more serious than that.”

For Henry Olonga, his sport and the decision he took really was a matter of life or death.

The brave stand taken by Olonga – Zimbabwe’s first black cricketer – meant he would spend the next few years anxiously looking over his shoulder and flee the country in which he grew up.

A devout Christian, Olonga describes it as “a long journey” leading to his political stand against the Mugabe regime, which was strongly motivated by his religious beliefs.

Zambian-born Olonga grew up in Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2003 and his passion for cricket came to the fore as a teenager, at about the same time as he discovered Christianity.

He moved swiftly through the ranks of playing the sport for his school, province and county, when he started rubbing shoulders with international players.

As a young man, he became aware of the political unrest in the country.

He said: “Over a period of time, we were perturbed about some things that were happening in the country.

“There was corruption, abuse and the use of youths recruited by the Government to do their dirty work.

“They often had their future stolen from them because they became mouthpieces for the Government and were treated and initiated in the most awful ways to beat people and commit rape and all sorts of things.

“I was asked to help raise some money for a project which pricked my conscience a bit about the way the Government treated vulnerable people in society.

“I am a Christian, so I believe that the Bible is a good book of life for us.”

It was a scripture in the Bible that prompted him to take decisive action against the Mugabe regime – a passage from Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

He met fellow international team-mate Andy Flower and what they did next caused a tidal wave of controversy.

The pair drafted a statement “mourning the death of democracy” and donned black armbands for the opening match of the 2003 cricket World Cup, which was being held in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

THE fallout was massive. It was reported that one of Mugabe’s ministers sidled up to Olonga and whispered to him: “Just wait until the World Cup is over...”

He said: “I got death threats and was dropped from the international side. We were expecting some kind of backlash. The way it came, we were not expecting.

“I obviously had to deal and wrestle with being outcast from the side. They wrote horrible articles about us in the press, which is never nice. I do not know how to explain it, but it is never nice when public articles are written about you for whatever reason.

“If you read our statement and what we stood up for, you will clearly understand the reaction from the Government was very much status quo of what Governments do.

“What we wrote was true and proven – there were abuses and people were killed. So it was sad when they did what they did.

“I had to leave the country very quickly. If it wasn’t for divine intervention... I was delivered from certain problems and trouble in Zimbabwe by two miraculous coincidences.

“That convinces me that we have a divine and benevolent guide who presides over affairs and I asked for help and I got it.”

Olonga came to England in 2003 and settled in London, where he still lives with his wife, Tara, and their baby daughter Talika.

He released a book in June, called Blood Sweat and Treason: My Story, which was rereleased in paperback this summer, and today he tours churches, universities and colleges across the country sharing his inspiring story and preaching.

HE met Lewis and Ruth Staley, from the Barnard Castle Christian Fellowship, at a harvest event in Cumbria last year and was invited to visit the North-East.

During his whistle-stop visit to Teesdale, he inspired fellowship members with his unwaivering faith and colourful history, delivered a message of hope to young prisoners in Deerbolt Young Offenders Institution and pupils at Barnard Castle School and appeared on Radio Teesdale.

He said: “I became a believer when I was 16.

I had Christian influences throughout my schooling from a young age. I recognised the need to be at peace with my creator. That changed my life and I decided that I wanted to live by the Christian will. I have done ever since. It has touched everything I have done in my life. The way I live is based on the premise that I believe in God.

“I think if I was not a believer, I would not have had any motivation to do what I did. I lost maybe a year and a bit of my cricket career. I have no regrets.”