ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC) has retained Gery Brent and Dave Houghton as the head coaches for the women and men’s senior national cricket teams respectively.
The decision to retain the two former Chevrons players as the national teams’ gaffers was made during a ZC meeting in Victoria Falls on Saturday.
Both Brent and Houghton joined ZC last year.
Brent was announced as the Lady Chevrons head coach in March last year, replacing Adam Chifo while Houghton took over the Chevrons’ reins from Lalchand Rajput in July 2022.
The duo have been celebrated for bringing excitement to the men and women’s cricket in the country.
The re-appointment of the duo come at a time when there are two major events coming up which ZC has placed so much emphasis on.
The Lady Chevrons are set to compete in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier set for Uganda in December while the Chevrons will take part in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier in Namibia in the next couple of weeks.
The Chevrons will be hoping to be one of the two teams that will progress to next year’s extended T20 World Cup which will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).
At the meeting, ZC leadership expressed deep concern and disappointment over the Zimbabwe Senior Men’s National Team’s performance during the recent T20I series in Namibia.
The country’s flagship cricket lost the series 3-2, their second successive series defeat against the Eagles.
In the Lady Chevrons set up, Mary-Anne Musonda will remain the skipper in Brent’s team and will be assisted by Josephine Nkomo.
All rounder Sikandar Raza was named the new T20 captain for the Chevrons, taking over from Craig Ervine who will double up as the One Day International (ODI) and Test skipper.
Trevor Garwe and Prosper Utseya were named as the women and men’s Under-19 teams mentors respectively.
Houghton was also named in a three- men selection panel for the Chevrons alongside Elton Chigumbura and David Mutendera (convener).
The Lady Chevrons selection panel is made up of Julia Chibhabha (convener), Emily Njinjika and Thando Mlilo.
The Under-19 Men’s selection panel will constitute of Chigumbura (convener), Jestinos Gwatiringa, Pollock Mubhobho, Kyle Jarvis and Leslie Makirimani.
Chibhabha was also named convener of the Under-19 women’s selection panel and will be working with Garwe, Trevor Phiri, Chipo Kanjanda and Nonhlanhla Kamuteku.
The ZC Board also announced a Cricket Committee that will be chaired by Blessing Ngondo, who will work with Hamilton Masakadza, Kenyon Ziehl, Russell Tiffin, Chibhabha, Houghton and Elton Chigumbura.
The meeting came after the ZC Annual General Meeting (AGM) which was held in September in Bulawayo where Tavengwa Mukuhlani was re-elected as the chairperson.
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