Butterworth named Man of the Series

Ryan Butterworth has won the National League Man-of-the-Series award for his consistent batting performances in the competition. Butterworth, the former Mashonaland and Zimbabwe Cricket Academy allrounder, opened the batting for Old Hararians, although he sometimes dropped down the order. He made 300 runs at 75.

He also proved versatile with the ball: although normally a medium-pacer, he bowled some useful off-spinners in the competition and took a number of wickets. A brilliant close fielder and occasional wicketkeeper to boot, he showed his class, scoring a blistering 86 in a losing cause against arch rivals Harare Sports Club in the league semi-final.

With no bowlers in contention for the award, it was left for the batsmen to fight it out. Finalists Harare Sports Club's Tinotenda Mawoyo was the strongest rival to Butterworth with 284 runs, at an average of 56.5. Other notable batsmen in the league were Sikander Butt of Alexandra Sports Club and Johnson Marumisa of champions Takashinga Cricket Club.

Although the national league is a Premier Club Tournament, the standard is as high a level as most local first-class players can hope for this year, with many of the national players turning out for their clubs some of the so called 'rebels' such as current Worcestershire spinner Ray Price made surprise appearances.

Last year's Zimbabwean first-class competition, the Logan Cup, may have been cancelled and there were poor performances in the country's domestic limited overs competition, too, but the National league was a success.