Dispute with Mangongo reportedly keeps Williams out

A dispute with head coach Stephen Mangongo is understood to be the reason behind Sean Williams' exclusion from the Zimbabwe squad to tour Bangladesh. Williams, who scored two half-centuries and took seven wickets during the ODI series against South Africa and triangular tournament which also included Australia, was not considered for selection after interruptions in his involvement in a training camp and an aborted disciplinary hearing.

The Herald, a Harare-based daily, reported that Williams asked for family-responsibility leave during the Zimbabwean squads training camp in Harare and arrived three days before the players were due to leave for Masvingo for their practice game. Mangongo wanted Williams to travel for that match, subject to a hearing to look into the reason for his absence for the bulk of the training.

Williams was unhappy that an official process was put in place and threatened to quit the squad but later spoke to Mangongo and apologised. That came too late and ESPNcricinfo has learned he was since not considered for selection.

"We can't have special conditions for one player and Sean is not in the team because he was not there when his team-mates were putting a lot of hours and days to prepare for the tour," Givemore Makoni, the convener of selectors, told the Herald.

This is not the first dispute Williams has had with ZC. He made himself unavailable to play in a Test against Pakistan last year because of a pay dispute. He later signed a contract with ZC and has since performed well with both bat and ball. Williams' middle-order mettle kept Zimbabwe together in the early stages of their limited-overs fixtures against South Africa, and his left-arm spin was a sound addition to their attack.

In Bangladesh, it would have come in handy especially as Zimbabwe are without Prosper Utseya, who has been suspended after his bowling action was found to be illegal. Instead, Zimbabwe have a youngster in Wellington Masakadaza in addition to offspinner John Nyumbu and legspinner Natsai M'shangwe, which should still give them adequate variation.

The Williams incident is the latest example underlining Mangongo's reputation as a tough taskmaster. During the triangular series, Tinashe Panyangara was suspended for sharing a YouTube clip with his team-mates which showed Mitchell Johnson bowling at the England batsmen's heads on the eve of Zimbabwe's match against Australia. Panyangara's actions were deemed to be detrimental to team morale. He has since been recalled to the squad and will travel to Bangladesh.

Mangongo and Makoni have also shown a strong hand when it came to players performances. They dropped Brendan Taylor during the South Africa series, after two low scores, and benched Vusi Sibanda for poor form as well. Sibanda was sent on the Zimbabwe A tour to Bangladesh prior to this series. He scored a half-century in a first-class match and two fifties in List A games to show readiness for the upcoming series, which will be Zimbabwe first three-Test tour in more than a decade and their only ODIs before next year's World Cup.