The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
More Zim players get the sack | 12/04/04 |
Cricket crisis goes into tailspin
Cricket365
The crisis facing Zimbabwean cricket has worsened, with four players reportedly sacked a week after former skipper Heath Streak’s demise.
Streak was stripped of the captaincy after making demands on the way he believes the national team should be run, and now Craig Wishart, Ray Price, Travis Friend and Sean Ervine have also been dumped, according to CricInfo. The quartet did not play for Mashonaland in the Zimbabwean domestic competition at the weekend after being given permission to miss the game by Cricket Union Chief Executive Vince Hogg. But that decision was later reversed, and ZCU member Ozias Bvute is then believed to have told the four they will not play in this weekend’s first Test against Sri Lanka. The dismissal of Streak from the squad may also result in the remaining white members of the team also quitting, with Grant Flower and Andy Blignaut to tell the ZCU on Tuesday what the players’ response is to the situation. The ZCU did receive a boost though with the news that England Cricket Board head David Morgan has announced England is likely to go ahead with its upcoming tour of Zimbabwe, unless there is a dramatic turn of events. "The only way that I can see us not fulfilling the tour is either because of government directive or because of safety and security," Morgan told The Independent on Sunday. "And let me emphasise we don't see them as being issues at the moment." Morgan also admitted that the ECB’s willingness to travel to Zimbabwe stems from new International Cricket Council regulations that state that countries refusing to honour tour commitments can be heavily fined or suspended from competition. "I have little doubt that if without acceptable non-compliance we decided not to go, the members of the ICC would find it necessary to ensure that we paid an appropriate financial penalty," Morgan said. |
England will tour Zimbabwe in
October unless the government or security fears dictate otherwise, the England
and Wales Cricket Board chairman David Morgan confirmed yesterday.
The ECB will not follow the recommendation of its board member Des Wilson,
the former Liberal party president whose report said moral issues should be
taken into account when considering whether to go ahead with the tour.
"I am certain that the ECB must not take a political or moral stance," Morgan
says. "It is for government to do that."