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Bit of a random story here, i was at an Apple training course for my work this week and it turned out that the person taking the training course was Alan Butchers Nephew.

Obviously once i found this out the conversation turned to Allan's time in Zimbabwe and his Nephew explained how his biggest frustration was that he was never allowed the team that he and Brendon Taylor wanted. The main reason for this is that ZC would overrule the requested squad that the captain, coach's and the senior players wanted.

A big example of this was the New Zealand tour where Butcher and Taylor wanted Ed Rainsford and Greg Lamb in the side but the board ignored this request instead deciding to select Masakadaza Junior and Forster Mutizwa. I was slightly surprised at this as i didnt think ZC were still interfering in selection.

Other things that came out of the conversation was the Alan believed that things would never improve with the current board in charge, he felt the talant was there but without investment in the infrastructure no significant progress will be made.

So there it is the board is blocking Ed Rainsford

I'm really annoyed by this. I kind of thought this might be going-on in the back of my mind, with the selectors having their favourite players, that they're not willing to drop. Really disgusting because this could of kept Lamb in the game, plus given Rainsford the opportunities he deserves. There's bound to be other players that were ignored because Zimbabwe Cricket weren't interested in them. Shows very little respect for players that work hard, and want to represent their country.

Yeah clearly the players who stay loyal to the board are favoured when it comes to selection e.g. Utseya

Well if they were pushing for Rainsford over Masakadza Junior and Lamb over Mutizwa when those two incumbents were in the form of their lives, then all the more reason why they were overruled and why Butcher eventually lost his job. Poor decision making by captain and coach.

I mean, lets face it Brendan Taylor is not the cleverest of people - we have seen it now - nor the most analytical. As for Butcher, the less said the better. The man didn't take the team ANYWHERE!! No discernible improvements while he was in charge, which took Steven Mangongo exactly two matches to do so!!

what did Mongongo do ???

Beat Bangladesh ??

Pretty sure Butcher done that plus he never lost a test to them like Mongongo did .....

Harsh on Butcher; I think he did pretty well. The tri-series in 2010, the series against Bangladesh in 2011, the tri-series victory against South Africa A in 2011 (?). 2010-11 had a few moments to be proud of, in the grand scheme of things it was a bit of a purple patch for Zimbabwe.

S Masakadza gets a wicket

brmtaylor.com admin wrote:Harsh on Butcher; I think he did pretty well. The tri-series in 2010, the series against Bangladesh in 2011, the tri-series victory against South Africa A in 2011 (?). 2010-11 had a few moments to be proud of, in the grand scheme of things it was a bit of a purple patch for Zimbabwe.

S Masakadza gets a wicket

And no game plan that time at the T20 world Cup in New Zealand...??? Those aborted chases in T20 matches. Or we gonna blame that on Prosper? It is absolutely the horrid decisions - like Shaun Pollock's captaincy - that define a coach before we start with the good he has made - which should be HIS job - then afterwards we talk about EXCELENT decisions - which defines ordinary to GOOD?

I have always told myself the way to judge a good striker - sometimes poor striker - are the kind of chances he misses... Cue Benjani. I digress but I hope you get my drift.

And it seems by introducing Steve Mangongo's name I have managed to divert from the original topic. MY apologies!!

I think most things can be blamed on Propser and Matsi (when he is the team).

Well, if this has continued, then it is not about who was right and who was wrong on those individual calls, it is about who takes ownership of those decisions. It can very easily become blame game when things go wrong, and we'll miss the point entirely. Sad.