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Flower named Midwest Rhinos coach PDF Print E-mail
Wednesday, 22 August 2012 00:00

From Lovemore Zigara in Gweru
Midwest Rhinos Cricket franchise has appointed former Zimbabwe top order batsman, Grant Flower to coach the Kwekwe — based cricket side ahead of the forthcoming season due to start in early September. Flower, who has been the senior national team batting coach, takes over from Australian bowling legend, Jason Gillespie, who vacated the post at the end of last season to take charge of English County Cricket outfit, Yorkshire.
Rhinos’ area manager, Admire Marodza, confirmed the developments and said Flower had committed himself to the job until the end of the season.
“Midwest Rhinos is pleased to announce the appointment of Grant Flower as our new head coach for the forthcoming season.
“He brings a wealth of experience from his previous coaching jobs at Mashonaland Eagles and most recently as batting coach with the senior national team and we are very confident that his experience will add value to our ambitious side,” Marodza said.
The Kwekwe-based franchise side will be hoping that the 42-year-old former right handed batsman will wave his magic wand to bring glory to a Rhinos side which is awash with talent but has no silverware in its trophy cabinet since 2010.
Rhinos boast of national team skipper Brandon Taylor — the highest ranked Zimbabwean batsman on the ICC Test and ODI rankings, Malcolm Waller and seamer Richard Muzhange who was recently named in the 15-member team to take part at the fourth Twenty20 ICC World Cup in Sri Lanka next month.
The Midlands and Mashonaland West franchise side recently announced that they had retained the services of the British duo of Gary Ballance and Solomon Mire who have been part of the team since 2010. Ballance and his counterpart left for their motherland at the end of last season to play county cricket.

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?optio ... Itemid=142

The Midlands and Mashonaland West franchise side recently announced that they had retained the services of the British duo of Gary Ballance and Solomon Mire who have been part of the team since 2010. Ballance and his counterpart left for their motherland at the end of last season to play county cricket.

"British" duo?

Solomon mire plays county cricket?

Where do these journo's get their accreditation? The weet bix box?
Microsoft paint?

Thot Mire was based in Australia!?

Fantastic news for all Rhino supporters

It needed a major personality with considerable experience to fill the boots of Jason Gillespie and i think Rhinos management have done the job here, obviously we're swapping a bowler for a batsman, but i doubt Flower will have any problem getting a bowling coach to join him in Kwekwe, mmmmmm, i wonder, initials HS perhaps

As for the British duo, i seem to remember Harare is just down the road from me, sort of between London and Brighton, so that confirms they're both as British as Zambezi beer

Nice to see a name associated with Rhinos, Admire Marodza, i think i'll drop him an email, well ok, SOMEBODY might answer one day

And which county does Mire play for...
I'm not even aware of him playing club cricket in England.

I think ZC need to accredit these so called cricket correspondents.

Thanks to zimfan1 for posting the Rhinos preview from ZC, that thread seems to have drifted rather so I thought we might go back to this one as a MidWest Rhinos thread to look at just the Rhinos coming season

The squad appears to be,

Brendan Taylor, Vusi Sibanda, Malcolm Waller, Graeme Cremer, Ed Rainsford, Richard Muzhange, Simon Mugava, Mike Chinouya, Remembrance Nyathi, Neville Madziva & Nyasha Mayavo are all from last seasons squad

Jaik Mickleburgh, Alex Smith, Mark Vermeulen & Steve Trenchard are new to the squad

Gary Ballance, Riki Wessels, Ian Nicolson, Roland Benade, Bothwell Chapungu and Steve Marillier are all reported to have left

No mention of Solomon Mire or Justin Lewis and we're unlikely to hear of any 'B' team players


All sides are affected by international selection obviously, but bearing in mind the lack of availability last season of Taylor in particular, not a single Logan appearance, while Sibanda, Waller, Cremer and Muzhange could well be unavailable, then it looks like a long and difficult season

It's too awful to remember that Ballance and Wessels scored 8 hundreds and 6 fifties between them in the Logan out of a team total of 10 hundreds and 10 fifties, Mickleburgh appears to be an up and coming batting talent, Smith is a total unknown, Trenchard seems to be a run of the mill replacement for the run of the mill Marillier, while Vermeulen is as reliable as the toss of a coin. I'll be only to happy to eat my words if Trenchard and Vermeulen are top of the averages at seasons end, naturally

The bowling seems more than adequate to me, Rainsford, Chinouya, Madziva, Nyathi and Mugava should do well with Cremer, Muzhange and Waller when available while the U19 keeper Mayavo appears more than adequate back-up for Taylor



All in all it's going to be a tough season but then the other 4 sides aren't exactly overflowing with talent either, so probably quite a fairly balanced season on the horizon to look forward to

Trenchard is a fair replacement for Marillier.

So i guess Riki Wessels playing for Zimbabwe is a bit far-fetched at the moment then?