He backs his men to shine in future

ZIMBABWE Under-19 cricket coach, Prosper Utseya, has backed the bulk of the players in the team he took to this year’s ICC Under-19 World Cup to one day play for the Chevrons.

Despite finishing as the 11th best team, out of the 16 which took part at the tournament, Utseya believes some improvement was being made.

Calls have been growing for the likes of Wesley Madhevere and Milton Shumba to be drafted into the Chevrons for this month’s tour of Bangladesh.

The two all-rounders, who bat high up the order and also bowl spin, went for their third Under-19 World Cup, having made their debut at the youth tournament at the age of 15.

“I believe we are making progress, this group, if look at the number of players we brought here, I am quite positive most of them will go on to play for the national team,’’ said Utseya.

“I don’t think they will play for more than four years without us seeing them breaking through into the national team.’’

Having beaten South Africa and New Zealand in the build up to the Under-19 World Cup, Utseya feels what transpired in the actual tournament was not a true reflection of where Zimbabwe are at Under-19 level.

New Zealand made it to the Super League semi-finals.

“If you look at the build-up to this tournament, us beating New Zealand and South Africa, I don’t think in terms of the gradings, they are the accurate ones,’’ said Utseya.

“We don’t get to play everyone, it also depends if you are lucky to get a decent group, as you can see New Zealand are in the semi-finals.

“The way we played against New Zealand, I thought we dominated them but they find themselves in the semi-finals.

“Same with South Africa, they find themselves playing for sixth position.’’

Utseya feels that they were unfortunate to be drawn in the same group with Bangladesh and Pakistan. The two Asian countries, who beat Zimbabwe in the pool stage of the tournament are in the last four of the tournament, still in with a chance of being crowned champions.

For the next Under-19 World Cup in West Indies, Zimbabwe are starting all over again, with Emmanuel Bawa the only one eligible from the 15 who were at this year’s edition.

“From this group, there is only Bawa who qualifiers for the next World Cup, we had Samuel Ruwisi who pulled out, he is another one who qualifies.

“The selection process starts during the April holidays,’’ Utseya said.