Cricketer faces 25 years in arson case

Former Zimbabwe Test cricketer Mark Vermeulen, who played in the Lake Garage Central Lancashire League, has admitted setting fire to Zimbabwe Cricket headquarters.

But the 29-year-old batsman has pleaded not guilty to arson on the grounds that he was suffering from psychiatric problems at the time.

At the start of his trial in Harare, Vermeulen entered a not guilty plea to charges of arson at the ZC offices at the Harare Sports Club in October, 2006, and a similar attack that gutted the national training academy the next day.

Vermeulen was professional for Werneth in 2006 but left that September amid intense media coverage after a bizarre incident while playing for Werneth in a CLL match at Ashton.

He had to be restrained by officials after throwing a cricket ball at the crowd and threatening to take further action against spectators.

Vermeulen was banned from cricket for 10 years, but that was subsequently reduced to three — two of them suspended.

In court, Vladimir Rajkovic, a private psychiatrist in Harare, said Vermeulen was not disputing he had carried out the attacks.

But he went on to say that his client had suffered from partial complex epilepsy and impulsive behaviour disorder after he was hit and injured by a cricket ball during a match in Australia.

“The illness causes loss of impulse control and compromises anger-management,” he said.

“Mark needs lifelong medication to prevent any stressor causing an epileptic discharge because of that injury.”

Mr Rajkovic added that the cricketer had shown significant improvement since starting treatment six months ago and had matured from being a spoiled, arrogant young man.

Government psychiatrist Munyaradzi Madombiro said the condition could only be controlled by medication and not cured.

If convicted, Vermeulen faces 25 years in prison with hard labour. The judge adjourned the trial until Wednesday, January 30.