A left-arm spinner who took wickets with guile and aggression rather than massive spin, Ray Price was Zimbabwe's most impressive spinner after Paul Strang, endowed with the tenacity and self-belief to compete against the best.

Price started on a high, with seven wickets in his second Test, against Bangladesh in Harare in 2001, and he acquitted himself well at Test level overall, with 80 wickets from 22 matches, including consecutive five-wicket hauls against South Africa and India in 2001-02 and 6 for 121 in Australia's first innings in Sydney in 2003. He almost bowled Zimbabwe to a remarkable victory in the first Test against West Indies in November that year, but was denied by the obdurate pair of Ridley Jacobs and Fidel Edwards. The 19 wickets he took in that Test and the one after, against West Indies, were a career high and capped a superb run of 33 wickets at 22.42 from six Tests.

Then came 2004, when Price threw in his lot with Heath Streak and the rest of Zimbabwe's rebel cricketers and found himself ostracised, following which he went to England, signing for Worcestershire in August 2004.

In November 2007, Zimbabwe Cricket offered him a new contract for their series against West Indies, and he returned to the fold, and though he didn't quite regain his former potency in the four Tests he played from then on, he established himself as a canny and economical bowler in ODIs. He took close to half his 100 ODI wickets in 2009, at 20.61, ascending to No. 2 in the ICC's ODI bowling rankings.