ZC hunt for national team coaches

Sport
The former Test skipper admitted he had lost the team's dressing room, prompting him to throw in the towel.

ZIMBABWE Cricket has begun the hunt for new coaches to fill the vacant posts in the Chevrons and U19 men’s national sides.

This follows the departure of Dave Houghton and Prosper Utseya, respectively.

Houghton left his Chevrons position in December after a horrible campaign last year in which the team failed to qualify for the ICC Men’s 50 overs Cricket World Cup in India and the T20 World Cup set to be co-hosted by West Indies and USA.

The former Test skipper admitted he had lost the team's dressing room, prompting him to throw in the towel.

He conceded that it was in the best interest of the country if a new voice were to come in.

Utseya, meanwhile, resigned from his role as the national U19 squad after guiding the team to the Super Six stage of the U19 World Cup in South Africa early this month.

Utseya, who is also a former Test captain, reportedly left to pursue another coaching job abroad.

ZC has since accepted his resignation.

At a board meeting this weekend, ZC also confirmed Walter Chawaguta as the senior women’s team head coach, taking over from Gary Brent, who resigned last year.

The board adopted findings from the Lloyd Mhishi-led committee of inquiry that was convened to investigate the senior men’s team failure to qualify for the World Cup.

“The three-member committee chaired by Mhishi presented its report to the board after gathering input from various stakeholders, both internal and external,” ZC said in a statement.

“After deliberating on the findings, the board resolved to adopt the report in its entirety and to immediately implement the committee’s recommendations, key among them; to restructure ZC’s Cricket Affairs department and its personnel, to restructure ZC’s domestic and development pathway, to advertise to fill the head coach positions for the Zimbabwe senior men's national team and the Zimbabwe Under-19 men’s national team.”

ZC management was given a month's turnaround time to come up with a proposed programme of action.

“Management was tasked to look at all the recommendations made by the Mhishi committee and present an action plan to the board within four weeks,” the statement read.

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