Mark Hamilton Dekker (born 5 December 1969) is a Rhodesian born former Zimbabwean international cricketer. He played 14

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

and 23

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s for

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

in the 1990s. In December 2018 Dekker was appointed to be the head coach of Kent Women in England before taking a coaching role with the

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

Academy the following year.

Early life

Dekker was born at

Gatooma Kadoma, formerly known as Gatooma, is a town in Zimbabwe. Location The city is located in Kadoma District, Mashonaland West Province, one of the 10 administrative provinces in Zimbabwe. This location lies approximately , by road, southwest of ...

Mashonaland Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. Currently, Mashonaland is divided into four provinces, * Mashonaland West * Mashonaland Central * Mashonaland East * Harare The Zimbabwean capital of Harare, a province unto itself, lies entirely ...

in what was then

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

in 1969,Mark Dekker

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2018-02-03. his family having previously lived in South Africa. He grew up in Bulawayo and was educated at Christian Brothers College where he first played regular cricket.Ward J (1997
Mark Dekker: Biography
Cricinfo Zimbabwe, January 1997. Retrieved 2108-02-03. He played for the Zimbabwe under-15 team and for Zimbabwe schools.
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-02-03.

Cricket career

After leaving school Dekker played in England for Central Lancashire Cricket League side

Crompton Cricket Club Crompton Cricket Club are an English cricket team, based in Shaw and Crompton, Greater Manchester, England. The club plays its home games at Glebe Street and competed in the Central Lancashire League The Central Lancashire Cricket League (CLC ...

in 1988 and 1989 and by 1990 was playing in Zimbabwe for Old Miltonians and

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi r ...

before the province was given

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

status. He played for Young Zimbabwe against Pakistan B in a match later given declared first-class and in other matches against other touring teams and "scoring plenty of runs in domestic cricket" as an opening batsman when he was "surprised" to be included for the Zimbabwe national team to play a

(ODI) against New Zealand in October 1992. A

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

call up followed in December 1993 and Dekker went on to play 14 Test matches and 23 ODIs for Zimbabwe, his final international appearances coming at the end of 1996. He was the first batsman in Zimbabwe's history to carry his bat through a completed Test innings, scoring 68

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 1993. After retirement Dekker coached cricket at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. In 2017 he was appointed as a Community Cricket Officer at

Mark Dekker appointed Community Cricket Officer

, 2017-04-20. Retrieved 2017-11-30. and in December 2018 became the head coach of Kent Women.Former international cricketer to coach Kent Women

, 2018-12-17. Retrieved 2018-12-18. After leading the women's side to the

Women's County Championship The Women's County Championship, known since 2014 as the Royal London Women’s One-Day Cup,Min Patel Minal Mahesh Patel (born 7 July 1970) is a retired Indian-born English cricketer who made two appearances in Test cricket for the England cricket team. He was a right-handed batsman and a slow left arm bowler, who primarily played for Kent Cou ...

.Patel appointed Head of Talent Pathway
Kent County Cricket Club, 2019-08-29. Retrieved 2020-01-07.Hathrill appointed Kent Women Head Coach
Kent County Cricket Club, 2019-11-19. Retrieved 2020-01-07.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dekker, Mark 1969 births Living people Alumni of Christian Brothers College, Bulawayo Matabeleland cricketers Zimbabwe One Day International cricketers Zimbabwe Test cricketers Zimbabwean cricketers Sportspeople from Kadoma, Zimbabwe White Zimbabwean sportspeople