Zimbabwe rebels vow to expose corruption

Thirteen of the white Zimbabwean cricketers who were last week "sacked" by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union have vowed to expose the culture of corruption and malpractice within their governing body, in a last-ditch bid to get themselves reinstated.

According to a report in Tuesday's edition of The Times, the players concerned are fully aware that the move is likely to backfire, as the ZCU has long relied on a culture of fear to prevent its players from speaking their minds. But now they feel they have nothing left to lose, and are apparently determined to prevent Zimbabwean cricket from continuing its downward spiral towards destruction.

"The ZCU have called closure on us," said one of the 13 yesterday. "Thirteen of us are unaware whether we have been sacked or fired. The ZCU can only now accept what we are saying or fire us. But we feel that the international cricket world needs to know the situation." It is a move that has taken Vince Hogg, the chief executive of the ZCU, by surprise. He had imagined that only four or five rebels would put their careers on the line.

The players concerned have drawn up a five-page document, which apparently claims to chronicle in precise detail the various malpractices of the ZCU. Subject to ratification by the players' lawyers, it will be released in the next few days. According to the players, the ZCU is rapidly becoming a political extension of Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF ruling party, and meddling in selection is rife. On one occasion in the one-day series against Bangladesh, Hogg was apparently detained in his office until an additional player of colour had been included in the team, while one of the white players was offered double his match fee to stand down from an international.

How these revelations will impact on England's situation is not immediately clear. Last week the ECB was forced to admit that the tour will almost certainly have to go ahead, but there may not be much of a Zimbabwe team left to compete against, especially now that the ZCU has completely fallen out with its former captain Heath Streak - just about the only world-class player in the team. Streak had been prepared to grin and bear it for the good of the game, even though his father was thrown in prison after his farm was taken away two years ago.

For the 13 rebels, the future is unclear. When Henry Olonga and Andy Flower made their black-armband protests during the World Cup in 2003, they immediately feared for their lives and were forced to flee the country. "This will be a worrying time for the players," Olonga told The Times last night. "A lot of them don't know where they're going to go or what job they're going to do. But they're on a hiding to nothing now; now they have to speak up. There is no future for white cricketers in Zimbabwe, just as there is no future for white farmers."

Despite the escalating crisis, the ICC are adamant that they cannot get involved in what they still regard as a domestic dispute. "We are aware of the internal cricketing issues in Zimbabwe and I urge all parties involved to act in the best interests of the game," said Ehsan Mani, the ICC's president. "I believe that everyone involved in international cricket, from players to administrators, has a duty to act in the best interests of the game at all times. I hope in this current situation the stakeholders involved can use this unity of purpose to reach a sensible solution."