Photo Credit: Zimbabwe Cricket
The Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) Board has accepted Dave Houghton’s resignation from his position as Head Coach of the Zimbabwe Senior Men’s National Team with immediate effect.
He will, however, remain with ZC as the Board looks to re-assign him to a new role within the organisation.
In his resignation letter, which he tendered on the eve of Wednesday’s Board meeting to review Zimbabwe’s failure to qualify for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 after losing to Namibia and Uganda at the recent regional qualifying tournament, Houghton said he had “lost the changeroom” after 18 months in charge and felt that a “new voice” was needed to take the team forward.
This also followed the team’s loss in a limited-overs series against Ireland over the past fortnight.
After the Board accepted his resignation, ZC Chairman Mr Tavengwa Mukuhlani said: “Dave will always be a legend of our game and it is with regret that he felt the changeroom needed a new voice.
“While the past few months have been disappointing as we failed to qualify for both the 50-over World Cup and the T20 World Cup, they should not obscure all the work he has done over the past year to rebuild the foundations for long-term success.
“Dave leaves the team with our sincerest thanks for his tireless efforts and we are looking forward to working with him in a different role as we seek to change our on-field fortunes.”
Commenting on the development, Houghton said: “I have always had Zimbabwe cricket at heart and, though my coaching of the national team comes to an end, I would love to be involved in other areas.
“The talent base in Zimbabwe is enormous. How we move players from talented to performing well on the international stage is a great project to be involved in.”
With Houghton gone, an interim technical team to be announced in due course will be in charge of Zimbabwe during their tour to Sri Lanka in January for a white-ball series.
During its meeting on Wednesday, the Board appointed a three-member committee chaired by Mr Lloyd Mhishi to probe the World Cup qualification failures as well as to review ZC’s cricket affairs structure.
The committee, whose other members are Mr Godfrey Nyadongo and Mr Blessing Ngondo, has been given three weeks to accomplish the tasks.
Zimbabwe Cricket is the governing body for cricket in Zimbabwe. A full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), ZC oversees the national team and organizes international Test, ODI, and T20 matches. It also manages domestic cricket competitions such as the Castle Logan Cup, Coca-Cola Metbank Pro50 Championship, and Stanbic Bank 20 Series.
