Another respectable face departs

The departure of Vince Hogg as the Zimbabwe Cricket Union's managing director is another blow to its attempts to maintain a veneer of credibility - but in fact the only surprise is that he hung around so long.

The genial Hogg, who represented Zimbabwe as a fast bowler in the 1983 World Cup, has been a marginalised figure for some time, although when he quit a successful business career early in 2002 to take over the role, he was full of high hopes. His original remit was to oversee the development and smooth running of the game in Zimbabwe. He had a large staff and a multi-million-dollar budget. But as the government's influence grew and the board became increasingly politicised, Hogg's power waned and his position grew marginalised - he was recently described by one observer as "little more than a pen-pusher".

By the time the Heath Streak crisis broke, Hogg was a peripheral figure, reduced to presenting a public - and white - face to the media as well as trying to broker deals with the rebels. It was evident that his task was nigh-on impossible when his conciliatory offer to extend a deadline to the players early on in the dispute was brusquely overturned by Ozais Bvute, nominally his junior in the ZCU but, as a political appointment, one of the board's real controllers.

Even as he resigned, Hogg maintained that the board was not politically motivated and that the rebel players were wrong to do what they did. His reason for stepping down, he explained, was that the last few months had been "really strenuous" and that he was no longer enjoying the job. Throughout this dispute Hogg has limited himself to the occasional public comment, and steered clear of becoming embroiled in the media war of words. It remains to be seen whether he speaks out once he is formally relieved of his responsibilities.

Hogg will officially end his tenure at the ZCU's annual meeting on August 8, but in the meantime his involvement will be almost negligible, and he will not travel to Lord's for the ICC's executive board meeting later this month. It will therefore be the ever-smiling Peter Chingoka who will try to persuade the international delegates that all is well within the ZCU.

But Hogg's departure leaves the ZCU with one fewer face to parade before a sceptical world as evidence that things are all fine and dandy. Given the ZCU's current leanings, the top job really ought to go to one of the Board's hard-liners - Bvute himself or Max Ebrahim, perhaps. But they seem to prefer to orchestrate from above, so the search for a pliable and respectable puppet starts now.