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Chawaguta upbeat about Zimbabwe's future

Zimbabwe coach Walter Chawaguta has said that the recent tournament in Canada has flagged some major issues that need to be addressed in the coming months

Cricinfo staff
22-Oct-2008
Zimbabwe coach Walter Chawaguta has said that the recent tournament in Canada flagged some major issues that need to be addressed in the coming months.
Zimbabwe turned in some good performances in Toronto, but they were overshadowed by a tie against Canada (which Zimbabwe won on a bowl out) and subsequent defeats by Kenya and, most embarrassingly, Uganda, in Nairobi.
"I can't say that I'm excited, but at the same time, I'm not disappointed," Chawaguta told the Independent . "There is a lot of hard work to be done, and fortunately for me, it's all got to do with the mentality of the players. We have had some success, but we have some issues too. Our batting is still an issue, we have had two or three guys, guys like Hamilton Masakadza and Tatenda Taibu coming through but not getting the necessary backing.
"Our pace-bowling is improving although I'm not entirely happy. But our spinners Ray Price and Prosper Utseya have been outstanding, and Timmy Maruma is also coming up pretty fine.
"We are focusing more on this process where we will build on the positives and work on our weakness, which we are doing at the moment and I'm happy with how the players have been responding and I am pretty confident we can only move forward as a team."
After Tuesday's washout, Zimbabwe need to beat Kenya tomorrow to ensure they get through to Saturday's tri-series final. From there, they fly home and straight into a five-ODI series against Sri Lanka. Although a return series is planned in 2009, aside from that there is little cricket on the horizon for Chawaguta's players.