Zimbabwe Cricket to restructure, hire new coaches after Board accepts findings

Harare, Feb 11 (IANS) The Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) Board has adopted the comprehensive report presented by a Committee of Inquiry that was established to probe Zimbabwe’s World Cup qualification failures as well as to review its cricket affairs structure.

Zimbabwe had failed to qualify for the 2023 Men's ODI World Cup despite being the hosts of the qualifying tournament in June last year and even missed the opportunity to grab a place in 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup, to be held from June 1-29 in the USA and West Indies, which led to the resignation of head coach Dave Houghton.

Walter Chawaguta, who coached Zimbabwe in 2008, had taken over as interim head coach for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka last month. The three-member Committee, chaired by renowned lawyer Lloyd Mhishi, presented its report to the Board after gathering input from various stakeholders, both internal and external.

After deliberating on the findings in a meeting held late on Saturday, ZC said its Board resolved to adopt the report in its entirety and to immediately implement the Committee’s recommendations.

The key points in that report include: 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, to restructure the coaching set-up at first-class level, to establish a National Academy; and to set up indoor training facilities in all the five first-class provinces.

ZC added that 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.

During the meeting, the Board also confirmed Walter Chawaguta as the substantive head coach of the Zimbabwe senior women’s national team, while Prosper Utseya’s resignation from his position as head coach of the Zimbabwe Under-19 men’s national team was accepted.

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