What Is Shortening

Former South Africa quick Charl Langeveldt has been appointed bowling coach of the Zimbabwe men's national team. Stuart Matsikenyeri, the former Zimbabwe batter who had been the side's interim head coach prior to the full-time appointment of Justin Sammons, remains part of the coaching staff as fielding coach.

Langeveldt and Matsikenyeri will join Sammons and newly appointed assistant coach Dion Ebrahim ahead of the five-match T20I series against India, which begins in Harare on July 6. South Africans Ravish Gobind and Curtly Diesel will also join the backroom as strategic performance coach and strength and conditioning coach respectively.

The appointments were approved by the Mhishi Committee of Inquiry, which was formed to study the team's failure to qualify for the recently concluded T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies.

A near full-strength Zimbabwe were pipped by Namibia and Uganda, who took the two available spots from the Africa Region Qualifier in November 2023. The setback prompted Dave Houghton's resignation as head coach, with the former Zimbabwe captain suggesting players were "not responding to my voice anymore."

In his absence, Walter Chawaguta had then taken over as head coach in an interim capacity, before Matsikenyeri stepped in to oversee the team's preparation ahead of their tour of Bangladesh in April.

Langeveldt's most recent stint with an international side was with Afghanistan until the end of last year's ODI World Cup in India. He has also been part of the coaching set-ups of Bangladesh and South Africa.