Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Participate in discussion with your fellow Zimbabwe cricket fans!
sloandog
Posts: 9843
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:28 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Manchester UK

Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by sloandog »

I'm reaching out to the gents on ground zero here.

For a man who has been in and around Zimbabwean Cricket for the best part of 15 years, Utseya has been a polarising figure.
At the beginning of his career he was used very much as a containment option in ODI cricket (of which he was very successful), going at now more than 3.9 rpo, bettered only by Ray Price.
If anything, towards the end of his career, he began taking wickets for fun in the limited over formats and appeared to be peaking, until he was called for throwing.

Ok that's his career in a nutshell, but what I want to know is what is he like as a bloke. His captaincy, like Chigumbura's, was dull and uninspiring. When he spoke, I had to stop myself from falling asleep and his personality was, well there wasn't any.
Then I hear that he is a ZC snitch, and gets a blowy off Makoni every now and then in exchange for some of the dollar he recieved from the 2015 CWC..
This being the same bloke who has wormed his way into the selection panel, and is choosing players for the national side who no longer fit the bill.

What's he really like as a bloke? Is he an arrogant guy who is gliding on his overbloated ego, or he is he a quiet guy who's been misunderstood? I don't know, I'm asking the lads on the ground who would have either played or worked with him.

Jimmy, maybe you worked with him on the physio front, googly maybe you've overheard conversations about him..? I don't know, but I'd be intrigued to know.

Googly
Posts: 14197
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 5:48 pm

Re: Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by Googly »

Ya I don’t know him personally. He was a good cricketer, I know that.

User avatar
The Robot
Posts: 619
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2016 12:17 pm
Supports: Mountaineers

Re: Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by The Robot »

Utseya's partnership with Mark Vermulean was one of the greatest record for Zimbabwe in international cricket.
Robo to rule :oops:

User avatar
eugene
Posts: 7653
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:31 pm
Supports: Matabeleland Tuskers

Re: Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by eugene »

For an extremely inexperienced player Utseya did well in international cricket quite quickly.
Neil Johnson, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), Grant Flower, Dave Houghton, Guy Whittall, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Eddo Brandes

User avatar
kudet
Posts: 342
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 10:05 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Harare, Zimbabwe

Re: Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by kudet »

this article by Tristan Holme on Prosper might help you a little bit about his personality etc.


http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/ ... to-prosper

Googly
Posts: 14197
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 5:48 pm

Re: Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by Googly »

It would be good to see the letter Prosper wrote about Campbell. 18 pages is a lot of shit on your liver :lol:

jward
Posts: 263
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:00 pm
Supports: MidWest Rhinos

Re: Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by jward »

I can only speak of my personal experience of Prosper. I speak to him briefly now and then still, and I have always found him a quiet, unassuming, pleasant guy.

Googly
Posts: 14197
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 5:48 pm

Re: Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by Googly »

Thst was an insightful and well written article. Tristan Holme is a good sports journalist for sure.
Pro clearly has a chip on his shoulder and has the ear of the chairman and the previous ones. I’d suggest it’s because he was one of the stalwarts that helped Zim cricket through the post rebel era. It’s clear Campbell took a dislike to him, which you simply can’t do as that’s discriminatory :lol:
With the reintroduction of white players and staff the chairman and various board members would and will always ask for feedback from the established black guys as to how it’s going and right there is the problem. You have to back those people regardless and you can’t be going below them because the insecure guys will use that immediately. I don’t think even someone of Andy Flower’s reputation would be able to make the changes he deemed necessary without that old magic card being pulled. Prosper summed it up when he said he’d do anything to protect his livelihood, that pretty much applies to a lot of people that shouldn’t be there and they’ve all got an unwritten understanding amongst themselves to do just that. The fact that a lot of them don’t have alternatives plays into the hands of the guys behind the scenes clearly holding the reins. You either bin them en masse or you get them out over an extended period, which I don’t think is possible and we don’t have the luxury of that time-wise. They want to be guaranteed sheltered employment now and after their sell-by date.
Smart guys like Tino have made plans, others would rather go down with the ship as they really don’t give a shit about cricket and view ZC as theirs.

ZIMDOGGY
Posts: 6645
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:40 pm
Supports: MidWest Rhinos

Re: Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by ZIMDOGGY »

Who gives a shit what makes this little toadstool ticks. He ain’t worth the fame.
Cricinfo profile of the 'James Bond' of cricket:

FULL NAME: Angus James Mackay
BORN: 13 June 1967, Harare
KNOWN AS: Gus Mackay

'The' Gus Mackay.

Hero.
Sportsman.
Artist.
Player.

**
Q. VUSI SIBANDA, WHERE DO YOU HOP?

A. UNDA DA ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE*

jimmylesaint
Posts: 791
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2014 12:51 pm
Supports: Mashonaland Eagles

Re: Prosper Utseya - The man, the myth, the bottom feeder?

Post by jimmylesaint »

He got snitch money from WC $75k
Whenever he bowled he'd try do it with long sleeves to hide his chucka action which he knew about and so did zc for ages.
Just looking at his hatrick against sa he clearly is bent by about 40degrees.

Can Ben Johnson be happy with winning the gold whilst cheating?

Post Reply