NATIONAL cricket team off-spinner Prosper Utseya suffered an injury scare ahead of the team’s departure for the ICC Cricket World Cup tomorrow after missing yesterday’s practice session at Harare Sports Club due to a foot injury.
DANIEL NHAKANISO SPORTS REPORTER
The 29-year-old spinner sat out the team’s last training session on home soil due to a bruised foot having missed Mashonaland Eagles’ last Pro-50 Championship encounter against Mountaineers on Saturday.
Coach Davenell “Dav” Whatmore, however, expressed confidence that Utseya — Zimbabwe’s main spinner at the World Cup despite the ICC placing restrictions on his bowling — would recover in time for the team’s warm-up matches in New Zealand.
“I’m very happy with the way the preparations have progressed so far,” he said.
“The team spirit is good, everyone is happy and working hard. We’ve had just one injury scare with Prosper Utseya who was unable to train in the last two-and-a-half days because of a bruised foot, but we’re confident he’ll be OK. He’ll be returning to some form of work rate tomorrow (today). Apart from that we’ve utilised as much as we can every minute that was available.”
After recently cancelling their scheduled training camp in Dubai, the team will now head straight to New Zealand where they will play three practice matches against the Northern Districts before their official warm-up matches against New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
Whatmore, who oversaw a centre wicket practice session at Harare Sports Club yesterday morning, said he was going to give the players some rest until their arrival in New Zealand.
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“We’ve got three practice matches when we arrive in New Zealand, but it’s a long flight to get there, so the guys will have to get over some jetlag first,” he said.
“As a precaution, for the next three days the boys are not doing any work.”
The Australia-born coach welcomed the appointment of Walter Chawaguta and Andy Waller as batting and fielding coaches respectively in addition to Douglas Hondo, who was already the team’s bowling coach.
Whatmore allowed former national team spinner Ray Price to share his knowledge with the spinners during yesterday’s training session. “It’s definitely a boost to have those guys,” he said.
“What we are trying to do is to provide a service in our respective specialist areas in the squad. We have covered all the basics in that area and the guys who have come in have a very deep duty of care. The physical effort is very evident and the boys appreciate it very much.”
Zimbabwe, who were drawn in Pool B with South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, the West Indies, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates play their first pool match against the Proteas on February 15.
