Zimbabwe board admits to player approaches

Zimbabwe Cricket has issued a statement denying reports that Max Ebrahim, its chief selector, had been luring players away from Takashinga, one of the country's leading club sides. But, in a remarkable about-turn, it admitted that it had been doing so all the time.

Ebrahim had been accused of telling Takashinga players that if they remained at the club then they would not be considered for national selection, a charge he angrily denied. But now it emerges that the switching of players has been happening as part of a policy decision made by the board and that Ebrahim was acting on orders.

"For a number of years, we have had this provision in every player's contract that they are subject to such movement in their best interest of continuing to play at the highest possible level and in the interest of the quality and standard of the league," Peter Chingoka, the ZC chairman said. He added that the move had resulted from Takashinga's boycott of the national league in support of Mashonaland's dispute with the board. "It was imperative therefore that [the players] remained competitive," he added, insisting that it was only ever going to be an interim measure.

Takashinga and Old Georgians stood firm in the dispute with ZC over its expensive rebranding exercise. Stephen Mangongo, Takashinga's chairman and Ebrahim's predecessor as chief selector, has been engaged in an increasingly bitter war of words with the ZC and there is every indication that ZC's action is aimed at undermining Mangongo as well as acting as a thinly-veiled threat to any other clubs considering joining the revolt.

The statement refers to a deployment exercise, but it is strange that this has only come to light now after many players reported they had been approached in a less than official way. Cricinfo has been contacted by witnesses to players being contacted by ZC officials, and this explanation is far too convenient. If it was a genuine policy decision, then why wasn't it made public at the outset?

Whatever the whys and wherefores, Takashinga ended its dispute over the weekend and so, ZC stated, all the players who had been moved elsewhere would be returned to it.

So ends a bizarre and unsatisfactory fortnight. The players are back where they started and the Zimbabwe board has sent out a clear signal that anyone not toeing the party line will face similar Draconian action.