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‘Utseya witchhunted’

By Tinashe Kusema

NATIONAL cricket coach Walter Chawaguta has refused to be fazed by mounting criticism levelled against Prosper Utseya’s continued captaincy, describing it as an “unwarranted witch-hunt”.

Questions of Utseya’s ability to lead the national team have been subject to debate following a string of poor results over the past few years with the latest being the embarrassing 1-4 series defeat to Bangladesh a fortnight ago.
Critics have been unanimous in pointing the finger at skipper Utseya, highlighting his poor decision-making, indifferent persona on the field and inability to read the game.
Chawaguta, however, said despite the disappointment of losing the series to the their Asian counterparts, he believed that Utseya was not to blame for the entire result as each player had a part in all the defeats.
“A captain is only as good as his team and in that regard I think it’s not right to blame Prosper for the bad form the team has exhibited over the past couple of years and in particular during the Bangladesh tour. There are a number of reasons why we lost to Bangladesh and none of them had anything to do with the captain as an individual” said Chawaguta.
He went on to defend Utseya for all the criticism that the captain has been receiving particularly from sections of the media and analysts.
“I will have to admit that Prosper is not the most animated person on the field of play as has been stated by most of his critics, but I think that is a merit since he remains level-headed in all situations as he never shows his emotions.
“He is by far the best man for the job at the moment as I have personally witnessed his growth on and off the field the past few years he has been captain. He is the first man to the pitch before practice and the last man off as testified by his improvement in all aspects of the game particularly batting. ”
When asked on some of the reasons for the defeat, Chawaguta pointed to the failure of the batsmen to perform, fingering Chamunorwa Chibhabha as among the culprits who contributed to the defeat of the hosts by Bangladesh.
“Going into the series, we sat down and came up with a game plan in which we would concentrate on the batting. As the Queens wicket is predominately batter friendly we decided to go in with seven batters, two seamers and two spinners.
“In the first two ODIs, Chibhabha, as an all-ounder, was an integral part of this strategy providing cover in both the bowling (seamers) and batting, but when he did not perform we had to adapt and reshuffle the players.
“This is not to say that he was solely responsible for the loss but he and the other batsmen did not do their jobs, falling short of our four centuries target we had set for them from the onset.
“The whole team did not help themselves with their fielding which was pathetic to say the least. We spent most of the time prior to the series going through the basics and they went on to do the opposite dropping crucial catches that could have changed the complexion of the match in all our defeats,” went on the gaffer.
As the country now goes through the wreckage of their disappointing series, they will have to go back to the drawing board and come up with new strategies, as they seek to recover lost pride when they tour Bangladesh again in mid October.
Chawaguta has opted to remain optimistic, relying on some of the positives from the recent series.
“At the moment we have decided to put the past series behind us and concentrate on the upcoming tour to Bangladesh again, after the Champions Trophy.
“With the coming on board of Heath Streak, as the bowling coach, and some new faces we have been looking at, we expect to fare much better against the Asians and hopefully win this time” said Chawaguta.
Admire Manyumwa, Trevor Garwe and Christopher Mpofu are among some of the faces expected to feature this time around.
The three seamers were dropped during Bangladesh’s visit, as the Queens wicket was not pace-friendly.
They featured in the ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Afghanistan in Mutare with Garwe scoring his maiden century to rescue the hosts from defeat.
The match ended in a draw.

zimfan1 wrote:

When asked on some of the reasons for the defeat, Chawaguta pointed to the failure of the batsmen to perform, fingering Chamunorwa Chibhabha as among the culprits who contributed to the defeat of the hosts by Bangladesh.
“Going into the series, we sat down and came up with a game plan in which we would concentrate on the batting. As the Queens wicket is predominately batter friendly we decided to go in with seven batters, two seamers and two spinners.
“In the first two ODIs, Chibhabha, as an all-ounder, was an integral part of this strategy providing cover in both the bowling (seamers) and batting, but when he did not perform we had to adapt and reshuffle the players.
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