There has been a stinging attack on the way that Zimbabwe Cricket operates in one of the country’s state-run newspapers

Steven Price in Harare15-Apr-2008
‘The clubs used to get a club support fund and were given an option of getting equipment in lieu of the money but that is no longer the case… the clubs have to look after themselves’ © Cricinfo
While most people’s attention is on the never-ending saga of the state elections, there has been a stinging attack on the way that Zimbabwe Cricket is being run in one of the country’s newspapers. What makes the criticism of ZC surprising, and perhaps worrying for those running the board, is that the attack comes in the Sunday News, a pro-government publication.The criticism stems from the recent forensic audit carried out at the behest of the ICC which found that there were serious irregularities with the way ZC’s accounts were presented but then, after much heated internal discussion, announced that, in effect, nobody was to blame for the mess.The paper accused ZC of squandering the millions of dollars handed to it by the ICC. “Most of that money does not go into the core business which is the development of the game, maintenance of infrastructure and the players,” wrote Mehluli Sibanda. “Despite aid from the ICC over the years, public schools are struggling to keep the little there is of cricket going. ZC did put up artificial turfs at some of the schools in Bulawayo and Harare a few years ago and also provided the schools with equipment but the facilities have not been maintained.”As Cricinfo has reported on several occasions, SIbanda’s article pointed out that only the private schools were surviving and ZC’s much-publicised scholarship programmes have fallen away so much as to be almost irrelevant.”Club cricket is virtually dead,” the article continued. “Clubs are struggling to maintain their facilities and most of them do not have equipment. It is not surprising to see batsmen exchanging batting pads, gloves, helmets and bats at the fall of a wicket during a club cricket match. ZC used to import equipment that they used to sell to clubs and schools at low prices but they have not done so for two years. The clubs used to get a club support fund and were given an option of getting equipment in lieu of the money but that is no longer the case … the clubs have to look after themselves.”A chunk of the money goes towards maintaining a bloated administrationSibanda also confirms recent Cricinfo reports that many old-established grounds are now defunct – he cites Bulawayo as an example where six venues in 2001 are now down to two. Embarrassingly for Ray Mali, the ICC president who has been so vociferous in his support for ZC, one of those not in use is the Emakhandeni Ground, which was reportedly visited by Mali in 2007 at which time he supposedly pledged more money for its completion.Players are still owed money from games almost three years ago, and it is widely reported that former coach Phil Simmons is also out of pocket.It is when attention is turned to where the cash does go that it makes uncomfortable reading for ZC. “A chunk of the money goes towards maintaining a bloated administration … ZC have a huge number of employees who are probably more than the cricketers on contract.” At one stage, for example, it had a larger media department than any other major board despite playing less international cricket than even the leading Associates.”While many would expect the media department to provide an efficient service, bungling has become the order of the day with scorecards for first-class matches not being made available to the media on time despite the fact that the journalists are equipped with state-of-the-art laptops.” Sibanda alleged that critics of the board have been brought inside ZC as a way of dampening their attacks.Sibanda also pointed out that ZC has three separate offices in Harare – “the old offices at Harare Sports Club, the office in Highlands, where managing director Ozias Bvute operates from, and another office in Mount Pleasant where the media department operates from.”Given the support Peter Chingoka receives from within the ICC, and especially from South Africa, few inside the country expect any action to be taken. However, one senior administrator told me that some of the ZC hierarchy will be nervously waiting to see how the board’s patron, Robert Mugabe, fares in the coming weeks. That, he said, more than any financial or logistical questions, will probably decide the direction the board takes and the personnel involved in running the game in the near future.