Zimbabwean cricket in turmoil

JUST A few months ago, the Zimbabwe Cricket Union embarked on an ambitious project. A ten-member Integration Task Force (ITF) was handed down a mandate by the ZCU to ``ensure the full, equitable, and sustainable nationwide integration of Zimbabwean cricket in the shortest possible time with the least possible reduction in individual and team performance.''

Everything in no time. The Zimbabwean administrators were engaged in a race against time. So much to be achieved in so less a time. The result was a turmoil that exposed the ugly side of the cricketers. And the administrators too. What was seen as a rapid evolution of cricket in Zimbabwe left the game severely wounded. It was rank indiscipline that the team threatened a boycott on the morning of the match. But then they had no other option.

Zimbabwe cricket has ambled along all these years on the strength of the whites in the country. True, the blacks are taking to the game now but it remains a sport which is still the domain of the whites. And there lies the problem.

It was nothing but the selection of Tatenda Taibu as the wicketkeeper in place of an injured Andy Flower that triggered off the war between the players and the administrators. The players wanted Daniel Campbell, younger brother of Alistair Campbell, and the selectors insisted on blooding Taibu, who had been projected as the best advertisement for the promotion of cricket in Zimbabwe. The ZCU floated a mission statement that was aimed at highlighting its commitment to manage cricket to enable all the Zimbabweans benefit. The Task Force drew its plans and so did the officials. They were concerned that the players might gang up and pull the rug from under their feet.

That is precisely what the players did on the morning of the limited overs international at Harare. The ZCU was embarrassed but the players had scored a point by making an issue of selection matters. If Taibu was playing, he was doing so on merit, and it was unfortunate that he was becoming a victim of the needless friction between the players and the Board.

These were supposed to be good times for cricket in Zimbabwe. Two home series were expected to generate decent revenue for the game to make a substantial progress this winter. Fixtures against India and the West Indies meant that the Zimbabwean cricketers were to be busy and were to earn a platform for them to show the world that they were worthy of the place granted to them in international cricket. Until greed crept in and made inroads into their cricket, threatening to shake the very structure of the game in Zimbabwe. A shame it was that the players had decided to adopt the rough path to make their point. The soft ZCU got gradually sucked into the trap, if one could call it.

For quite some time, the players had been holding the ZCU at ransom. Everytime they needed a raise, the players would threaten a strike. The ZCU would oblige, only to face a similar situation when the greed returned to provoke the players. It was not a healthy sign and the officials in the ZCU have repented having made the first submission years ago.

The players know the best time to strike. During the series. ``Pay now or we won't play,'' has been the policy. Right or wrong, the players had been getting away with their demands - some outrageous, some deserving.

Frequent rise in allowances have not satisfied the desires of the players, allege some ZCU officials. The players, on the other hand, constantly complain that they have been under-paid. The players resent the fact that some of the selectors have been projecting a wrong picture by portraying the whites as racists. The accusations that cricket in Zimbabwe has not made the expected progress because of racial bias are growing. The Asian origin Zimbabweans and the blacks have been distancing themselves from some of the ZCU policies which they see as detrimental to the promotion of the game. The whites see the formation of the task force as a tool to keep them under threat.

The ZCU finds itself in a no-win situation and everytime the players threaten it ends up with one more compromise. The players, said one official, have driven away many blacks and Asian-origin players with their racial attitude. A charge which is denied emphatically by the senior players in the Zimbabwe team.

The players' demands have been growing. When the team decided to go on strike, leaving the ZCU embarrassed, there was a move to sack the side and blood eleven players from the CFX Academy. The ZCU was reportedly in favour of this move which would have finished off the tussle between the players and the officials. The bone of contention was not selection of policies. Money was an important item on the agenda of the players.

Even as the players protest at weak structure, one gathers each receives adequate support from the ZCU. Every contracted player is entitled to a car, cell phone, 150 litres of petrol a month and even a golf kit. All this in addition to match fee and the contract money. It sounds lucrative no doubt.

A temporary truce before the series against the West Indies is not a guarantee that the Zimbabwean players would not strike. They have won a few major points like getting the captain and coach co-opted in the selection committee and gaining more representation and say in the cricket matters of the Board. The ZCU needs direction at the moment and there can be few better qualified men than Dave Houghton even though he was the first victim of the player-ZCU war. Houghton was sacked as coach when the players revolted against him during the team's tour to the West Indies. The ZCU needs someone who can act as Director of Cricket Affairs - handling the problems of the players and acting as a liaison between them and the Board. If not Houghton, the ZCU can seek the services of any qualified individual but the need to have a person who understands the players and the officials better is greater than ever before.

Zimabwean cricket has to emerge from the dark shadows of unending threats to the game from the very people who draw their livelihood from it. The players understand the need of the hour is to integrate and work towards making Zimbabwe a steady cricket nation. It is a beautiful country with the right climate to allow youngsters to hone their skills in the best possible conditions. The players are not villains and the cricket officials have to realise this. Zimbabwean cricket cannot afford to be rocked with accusations of bias and racial discrimination. The Task Force may have some valid reason to back its case but no force should be allowed to promote indiscipline in the ranks in the name of spreading the game to the masses. Players going on strike and demanding pay hikes time and again does not give the team the right image.

VIJAY LOKAPALLY

recently in Harare

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