Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) suffers a major blow as the entire 13-member of the national board have faced suspension.
On Friday (21st June), Zimbabwe’s Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) has suspended the entire Zimbabwe cricket board. Givemore Makoni, ZC’s acting managing director, has also faced suspension from his post.
SRC is a government body which last week ordered to not hold ZC’s elections for the leadership positions until a thorough investigation. According to SRC, ZC officials are involved in fraud and mismanagement of money, including the ICC loans.
However, the ZC didn’t follow that order and conducted the Annual General Meeting where the members re-elected Tavengwa Mukuhlani as the chairman of the board for the next four years.
But the latest suspension has put the national cricket board in jeopardy. SRC has also formed an interim committee to run the present national cricket. David Ellman-Brown, Ahmed Ibrahim, Charlie Robertson, Cyprian Mandenge, Robertson Chinyengetere, Sekesai Nhokwara and Duncan Frost are in this interim committee.
David Ellman-Brown was the former chief executive of the Zimbabwe Cricket. Meanwhile, Ahmed Ibrahim was the former ICC match referee as well as the former President of the ZC.
ICC can suspend the Zimbabwe Cricket
On the other hand, this decision has put Zimbabwe Cricket in more danger as now the International Cricket Council (ICC) can suspend their membership. In the past, the ICC took this kind of massive action after the government’s interference in the national cricket board.
If ICC suspends the ZC, the Zimbabwe national cricket team can’t continue the international cricket.
The men’s national cricket team is currently busy in the Netherlands tour for the international series. In the two-match ODI series, the Netherlands beat Zimbabwe by the 2-0 margin. They will now also play the two-match T20I series in this tour.
After this tour, Zimbabwe has another international tour in Ireland. Zimbabwe Women’s cricket team will also travel in Ireland for the international series.
But all these series are now under the dark cloud after the latest suspension. ICC’s reactions on this are yet to come.
Both the men’s and women’s cricket teams will participate in their respective global qualifiers for the next T20 World Cup tournaments. According to the schedule, they will play these qualifiers in the late this year. But if the ICC cancels their membership, both teams can’t play in these qualifiers.
So, due to the same reason, Zimbabwe can also miss the 2020-22 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League.