da brdice： To the cash-strapped Zimbabwe cricket administrators, the current tourby the Indian team is expected to be a windfall
28-May-2001To the cash-strapped Zimbabwe cricket administrators, the current tourby the Indian team is expected to be a windfall.”It is good we have the Indians here this winter. It will be betterwhen they leave.” The statement attributed to David Ellmann Brown,President of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) and Dave Houghton,former Test player and incharge of the National Academy, may or maynot be true but it is doubtful if they would disagree with thesentiment.The ZCU is expecting a windfall of 450 million Zimbabwean dollars(approx US $900,000) from the television revenue in this series. Thecricket body has never had a bigger bite than this pie in theirhistory. And they can only earn it after the Indians are through withtheir fixtures and have boarded the home-bound plane.In a cricket set-up where there are no sponsors and only a fewhundreds play the game, the revenue is most welcome and would keep thegame going in the six provincial bodies and the Academy.The ZCU is so short of funds it has not been able to run a domesticone-day competition between the provinces. Apparently, the cost ofrunning two competitions and footing the accommodation and transportbill is overwhelming.Yet, the game is growing every day as reflected in the overflowingcricketing engagements Zimbabwe is managing for itself. In the lastseason, Zimbabwe team left for Sharjah in mid-October, went to India,New Zealand, Australia and then played hosts to Bangladesh.They played five Tests, winning two, losing one and drawing theremaining two. Of the 23 one-dayers, Zimbabwe won seven while losing16 ties.This winter, between May and September, they would play host to noless than four countries. After India and West Indies come and playtwo Tests each and a triangular one-day series with the hosts, SouthAfrica and England are scheduled the fill the second half of thewinter.Zimbabwe have so far won five games from 50 Tests in nine seasons, twoof them by an innings.Their top players, contracted in three different categories by the ZCUaccording to their seniority and experience, earn around one millionZimbabwean dollars (approx $80,000) a year.In a country where economy is declining by nearly 10 per cent and thegovernment has stopped repayments of all foreign loans, includingthose owed to the IMF, it is not an insignificant sum.Indeed, Zimbabwe is in need of serious help because Canada has imposedpenalties, Denmark has cut back and European Union is consideringsanctions.The government reportedly owes more than US $4.5 billion to severalmultilateral institutions and Western countries. In the past fouryears about 1.4 million young people have left school with only about100,000 finding some kind of work in the formal sector.So high is inflation that the ZCU and its provinces have problems inmaintaining facilities, keeping nets in condition or to employ staffand manage irrigation of grounds.The players’ condition though has improved after they forced theiremployers, the ZCU, in a corner in a pay dispute last year. The flashpoint to this simmering discontent was the incident involving its starplayer Andy Flower in a Asia Eleven vs Rest of the World match inDhaka last year.The Rest of the World side, led by Mark Waugh of Australia, namedFlower as its 12th man. Flower, quite the best batsman in Zimbabweancricket, was not unduly worried. “As far as I get my 5,000 US dollars,I am okay,” he said.It intrigued Waugh and on his asking, Flower explained the conditionsof Zimbabwean cricket and its cricketers to the star Australianbatsmen. “In that case, you shouldn’t be playing for Zimbabwe,” Waughis quoted to have said.It triggered a response among cricketers. The ZCU, worried at the lossof star players like Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin on account ofmoney, woke up in time to agree for improved conditions forcricketers.Brown, the ZCU’s president, is credited with ensuring enoughengagements for the national team to keep the game going in thecountry. At its helm since August 1998, Brown’s stroke of genius forZimbabwean cricket has been his achievement to ensure reciprocal tourswith other Test-playing nations.It has taken the load of guarantee money, to be paid to visitingteams, off ZCU’s shoulders. Australia, for instance, command a hugeguarantee money because of their star status.This is also the first time Zimbabwean cricket has opened itself tocricket in winter. There has never been any international cricket inthis country between May and September. It will assist Zimbabwe inmaintaining a viable financial organisation. The 10-year reciprocaltouring calendar which the ICC has made for Test-playing nations isalso most welcome for Zimbabwean cricket.Brown says the new programme will mean they would get at least one”icon” tour each season. Thus, Zimbabwean cricket can look ahead forstill better times in coming years.