Dave Houghton Named New Zimbabwe Head Coach

Former Zimbabwe captain Dave Houghton has been named the new head coach of the national team by Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) on June 14, 2022. He is set to take charge ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2022, starting in the month of June.

Houghton will take over from incumbent coach Lalchand Rajput of India, who will now assume the role of Technical Director of the Zimbabwe cricket team. Earlier, Zimbabwe also roped in former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener as their batting coach after the veteran ended his stint with the Afghanistan national team.

Rajput’s coaching contract was extended recently in March by Zimbabwe Cricket, but the board has now revamped the support staff.

Dave Houghton To Begin His Second Stint As Zimbabwe Team Coach

This will be the second time Dave Houghton will be the head coach of the Zimbabwe Team. The 64-year-old former keeper-batter had previously coached Zimbabwe in the late 90s, and was at the helm during their memorable run to the Super Six stage of the 1999 World Cup in England, following memorable group-stage wins over India and South Africa.

He had also captained Zimbabwe in their inaugural Test against India in 1992 and scored a century in that match as well. It was the first of four that he made in 22 Test matches, scoring 1464 runs in total at an average of 43.05. His 266 against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo in 1994 remains Zimbabwe’s highest individual Test score.

He also played 63 ODIs, making 1530 runs with one century and 12 fifties to his name.

“We are delighted to be bringing in Dave and we count ourselves fortunate and privileged to be able to appoint such a vastly experienced and highly respected head coach at a time we are looking to improve our on-field performances,” current director of cricket at ZC, Masakadza said in a media statement.

“With Lance having also bounced back as batting coach, we believe we now have a formidable technical team that can push for World Cup qualification and ensure our players put in consistently competitive performance. I would also like to thank Lalchand who has been in charge of the team for the past four years, an incredibly challenging period for our cricket,” he added.

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