Making a mockery of sport

There was a tragic inevitability about the proceedings at the Harare Sports Club today as Zimbabwe's New Model Army was shown up for the club side that it is - and a pretty poor club side at that. Bowled out for 35, it was like watching a train crash that was inevitable to all but those running the railway.

One feels for Tatenda Taibu and the youngsters he has been asked to lead into battle. Taibu, a thoroughly likeable 20-year-old who has done some rapid growing-up in the last fortnight, has shown that he is capable of leading by example. In the first two matches of this series he had scored more than a third of Zimbabwe's runs, as well as captain the side, keep wicket and bowl. So reliant have his team become on him in such a short time that his dismissal for a first-ball duck triggered a domino-like collapse which ended with Zimbabwe recording the lowest one-day score ever.

And, it has to be remembered, this was against a Sri Lankan side which rested three of its first-choice XI, including Muttiah Muralitharan. Taibu must be concerned about what the next few months have in store. After the final two ODIs in this series, Zimbabwe have two Tests against Sri Lanka which, on today's evidence, could be over fairly quickly. One really fears what might happen when Australia arrive. Last week Ricky Ponting told reporters that "the Australian team is not really noted for going easy on any opposition". Brian Lara might not hold on to his world record for all that long.

This series might be officially sanctioned by the ICC, but Namibia's three-day game against Uganda taking place 1000 miles to the west is a far more meaningful contest. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the row between the Zimbabwe board and its players, games such as the one witnessed in Harare today devalue the record books and make a mockery of the sport. The ICC cannot sit by and pretend otherwise.

Even the locals, in desperate need of some diversion from the daily slog of life, stayed away. The attendance was a few hundred at best, and the handful who did bother to come along watched in almost funereal silence. Perhaps they realised they were watching what might be the last rites for Zimbabwean cricket. It is unlikely that many of them will bother to come back for the last two games this week.

After this debacle, it might occur to those responsible for some of the decision-making in Zimbabwean cricket - whether they be board or government officials - that this kind of farce does not reflect well on the country. If that doesn't, then the reports that several sponsors are on the verge of ending their association with the team might.

But then again, under Robert Mugabe, if things go against you, you just arrange for the truth to be rewritten. "I guess the scores will be seriously adjusted when they are handed over to Mugabe's election assessors for checking," one local wryly observed. "I'll let you know what margin they adjudge Zimbabwe to have won by!"