Zimbabwe Board to be suspended?

Man I hope so

They've been a blight on the sport and have killed the game in the country. I can't believe they've still gotten funding and support for all these years.

Oh no, please don't tell me poor Zimbabwe are going to disappear again.

jimmy101 said:

Oh no, please don't tell me poor Zimbabwe are going to disappear again.

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They disappeared over a decade ago

***** said:

Man I hope so

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You kidding me? It would be awful if they're no longer full members. Zimbabwean cricket would completely collapse. $94m over 8 years > $8m over 8 years would cripple anyone.

What the ICC is proposing is so much better. If the 30% haircut is taken it's going to be reciprocated by the ICC and leave them debt free. They'll finally be able to use majority of the annual funding for domestic cricket instead of paying off loans.

The individuals who put them in this financial position need to be eradicated.

Daemon said:

You kidding me? It would be awful if they're no longer full members. Zimbabwean cricket would completely collapse.

What the ICC is proposing is so much better. If the 30% haircut is taken it's going to be reciprocated by the ICC and leave them debt free. They'll finally be able to use majority of the annual funding for domestic cricket instead of paying off loans.

The individuals who put them in this financial position need to be eradicated.

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That's not going to happen as long as the ZCB exists. They're going to leach from it's rotting carcass for as long as they can.

ZCB need to be shut down and time must be given for new leadership to emerge from the rubble. Bit grim, but really how long can we carry on like this? It's been a decade now hasn't it? Tens of millions of dollars lost lining the pockets of corrupt administration.

Plus I'd like the ICC to come down hard on incompetent boards to send a signal to the others to get their **** together or lose the funding they're getting. I know this is counter-intuitive to the 'grow the sport' philosophy, but if you want to grow the sport then don't limit the WC to 10 teams, give more funding to the competent and well run Associates, and just give them more cricket to play against the big boys. Propping up the ZCB isn't the only way to grow the game. It is increasingly feeling as a political move to keep the ZCB vote on the table.

No more Prosper, Blessing, and Goodluck?

I wouldn't mind a plan where after the 30% cut and dissolution of debt is affected, ZC are given decreased funding year on year, to free up that money for other more deserving countries. At least cricket would still survive there.

To suddenly cut 90% of funding would be disastrous.

I mean look at how the ICC responded to the mess that is the USA Cricket Association. Straight up kicked them out from the ICC, and is now working with them to put together a new administration in place:

ICC appoints panel to select USA Cricket independent directors - ESPNcricinfo

I'd be in support of trying something similar with ZCB - the politics in Zimbabwe makes it a lot harder tho. Which is why we should probably stop using ICC money to fund corrupt politicians and instead cut them out till they have their own **** sorted out.

***** said:

I mean look at how the ICC responded to the mess that is the USA Cricket Association. Straight up kicked them out from the ICC, and is now working with them to put together a new administration in place:

ICC appoints panel to select USA Cricket independent directors - ESPNcricinfo

I'd be in support of trying something similar with ZCB - the politics in Zimbabwe makes it a lot harder tho. Which is why we should probably stop using ICC money to fund corrupt politicians and instead cut them out till they have their own **** sorted out.

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Cricket in the US was still in infancy when they were suspended. They weren't a full member. They barely had any infrastructure, no domestic leagues, no full time professional players, coaches, staff etc.

It's not the same.

Destroying the game in Zimbabwe to send some sort of message to other boards is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Eh what's the worse that happens? The infrastructure is still all there. I'm sure the private clubs and schools that operate without ICC funding in Zimbabwe will continue to exist and produce talent, and will just organise their own leagues. The grounds are probably government or privately owned. If not. they will end up in government or private hands once funding is cut, so good chance atleast some of them will be maintained and can be used.

The corrupt administration isn't going away as long as there is ICC money to be had.

TheJediBrah said:

They disappeared over a decade ago

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It was a hard pill to swallow then, and it would be a hard pill now.

There were some highlights since their readmission to Tests in 2011. Wins over Bang, NZ & Pak, plus they were robbed a win against SL.

Ruh roh. I just read in that article posted by brockley that ZU are losing support from its traditional Asian heavyweight backers.

Zim are doomed.

Daemon said:

Destroying the game in Zimbabwe to send some sort of message to other boards is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

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It isn't really. The resources put into ZCB can be put into growing the game into other markets. Look at Nepal, Scotland, Netherlands. Don't you think they all would benefit immensely by increased ICC funding and opportunities to play against other top teams? Or maybe re-distribute that funding into the other African nations? Encourage Zimbabwean cricketers to start playing for their neighbours if possible - Uganda, Tanzania, Namibia, etc.

IDK. I don't have the answers, I just don't think the solution is to keep putting money in ZCB. What are we hoping changes there? Are we waiting Bvute pass on? Are we assuming whoever takes his place isn't as equally corrupt?

If Zimbabwe's funding goes from 80 odd million to 8 million. Where does that extra 70+ million go?

I think ***** is making compelling points here.

It isn't difficult to get good ICC oversight of the funds going into Zimbabwe, not everyone is on Aus and Eng salaries. SA or NZ cricket admins or somewhere else where cricket finances are not an issues despite not being a big 3 nation who with experience could be offered jobs at fairly low comparative salaries to those in Aus and Eng, and whose primary focus is just to balance the books. You may only need one person full time on a reasonable salary who's sign off is required on the distribution of any ICC funds, employed and answerable to the ICC with the sole objective of advancing cricket in Zimbabwe as his or her indicator of success. As long as that person is not a crook, any ideas of corruption or negligent management are completely dissipated.

This person will not be in charge of Zim Cricket, just required to sign any cheques of ICC funds and answerable to the ICC ultimately not Zimbabwe Cricket. Because at some point, Afghanistan is going to say they deserve more of the ICC pie or at the least the same as ZImbabwe, because they contribute more to it. And as ***** indicates, Afg is not the only nation on the rise.

But I think people have to appreciate that ICC funds are just one drop in the bucket, India tours contribute just as much if not more to a host nation and are critical. Just ask the PCB.

***** said:

Eh what's the worse that happens? The infrastructure is still all there. I'm sure the private clubs and schools that operate without ICC funding in Zimbabwe will continue to exist and produce talent, and will just organise their own leagues. The grounds are probably government or privately owned. If not. they will end up in government or private hands once funding is cut, so good chance atleast some of them will be maintained and can be used.

The corrupt administration isn't going away as long as there is ICC money to be had.

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For starters nobody is going to be paid. There's probably going to be no more domestic competitions and professional cricketers will have to look elsewhere. I don't know enough about cricket in Zimbabwe to know all this in detail but it'll set them back a generation or two, maybe more imo.

I'm all for channeling this money elsewhere, but I hope it can be done in a way that is sustainable for cricket in Zimbabwe. It's the nation's 2nd most popular sport, would be a shame if it was taken away from them.

So I was just reading through what's been happening in Zim cricket over the last few years again, just to make sure my own recollection of events is correct. Apart from political and economic unrest in the country (completely out of ZCB's hands), there has been serious financial mismanagement, basically corruption, via Peter Chingoka (former ZCB president) and Ozais Bvute (current ZCB president)

This happened in 2014:

Zimbabwe Cricket mismanaged ICC loan | Cricket | ESPNcricinfo

It's a long article, but the nuts and bolts of it are this: Chingoka, Bvute and Wison Manase (then ZCB vice president, who received a 4 year ban on sports administration from the Zimbabwe Sports and Recreation Council for proceeding with the Zim tour of Pak in 2015) all sit on the board of directors of this bank called Metbank. They took out massive loans to finance ZCB from Metbank at extremely high interest rates - interest rates far higher than what the ICC was willing to loan them money on. In the meanwhile, ZCB cricket went from 10 million USD in assets as of 2002, to 19 million USD in debt as of 2012.

The ICC then loaned 6 million USD to ZCB on the condition that this goes directly to servicing this debt. What these men did was put that money into a non-interest-bearing account in Metbank for 5 months -all the while being charged 20-24% interest on their existing Metbank loan- before slowly paying off parts of the loan in small installments. They received the 6 million USD on 14 December 2011, they finished paying Metbank on 25th May 2012. It was estimated that as a result of this, ZCB incurred an additional USD 300,000 in debt while Metbank profited by about 600,000 USD.

So they basically used ZCB to enrich a company they were directly affiliated with. They then had the gall to seek a second 3 million USD loan from the ICC, in order to pay salaries to people they owed.

So then this happened:

Zimbabwe Cricket turns down proposed ICC bail-out | Cricket | ESPNcricinfo

The ICC basically offered to pay off all ZCB's debts, in exchange for ZCB restructuring it's administration

No surprises, Chingoka, Bvute and Manase all refused.

Eventually, in 2014, peter Chingoka stood down as President. Two months later he was named as 'Honorary Life President' Bvute took over his place and has been in charge since. I cannot find if Wilson Manase currently holds any role in ZC cricket.

In the meanwhile, ZCB have continued to fail to pay players and staff, and domestic cricket has suffered as a result:
ZC postpones domestic cricket amid cash shortage - ESPNcricinfo


One of their officials tried to get Graeme Cremer to fix a game, and an administrator straight up refused to co-operate with an ICC Anti Corruption investigation:
ICC suspends Zimbabwe official for 20 years - ESPNcricinfo
Another Zimbabwe cricket official charged with breaching ICC Anti-Corruption Code - ESPNcricinfo


It seems all this mismanagement was put on the backburner once Chingoka made the gesture of stepping down, and when ZCB put it sights on hosting the World Cup Qualifiers. However, now that's done and dusted, the same people are still running cricket, people still aren't getting paid, and they still have the loans they owe to the ICC and the other 19 million USD of debt that hasn't even had a dent made on it yet.

It's all very sad.

I genuinely don't have a solution to this - but I just offer this: these guys running Zimbabwe Cricket have already used ICC money to enrich themselves, and have already refused to co-operate with the ICC. Domestic cricket in Zimbabwe is already dying under their watch. Mass exodus of talent has already occurred under their watch. What do we hope to accomplish by continuing to give them money? Do we genuinely feel they will turn things around? Can that 80 million USD be put to better use?

I don't have the answer, I just lean more towards cut these guys out and focus on some other nations.

It's a horrible thing to consider, but you might just be right *****.