http://allafrica.com/stories/200905200096.html
(Report originally from the Herald)
Zimbabwe: Cricket Bowls Out ZOC
Robson Sharuko
20 May 2009
Harare — ZIMBABWE Cricket has pulled out of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee amid a glut of simmering boardroom battles believed to be part of a grand plot to re-ignite the fierce power struggles, which rocked the sport, whose ultimate aim was to overthrow the domestic cricket leadership.
The ZC leadership has been disturbed by a ZOC report, which appears to question its management style, and is now being used as part of the ammunition by those who have been fighting to unseat the game's principal leaders - Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute.
There is growing belief within the ZOC leadership that the forces that waged a fierce battle to try and topple the game's leadership - leading to a paralysis in operations and internal fights that sucked in players and compromised the quality of the game - are gathering for a fresh assault.
There appears to be a feeling of unease growing within the ZC board - sparked largely by a position taken by the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart -- which seems to suggest that there could be a problem of transparency within the game's leadership.
Last Thursday, Coltart -- speaking on ZTV's weekly magazine programme, Talking Business With Supa -- appeared to question the ZC leadership's management style and raised a number of issues that came up in the rebellion that rocked the game.
Coltart said he believed the game had taken too many steps backwards and, in the battle to take it back to its place in the elite group of Test-playing nations, there was need to address concerns about the ZC leadership, especially the key issue of the game's accounts.
He used former captain Tatenda Taibu as a symbol of the players who had fallen out with the ZC leadership and had, in turn, been frustrated by a system that appeared hostile to scrutiny even to the extent of compromising the playing standards of the national team.
Coltart used the ZOC report -- especially the part where it touches on lack of financial discipline in a number of organisations, including Zimbabwe Cricket -- to question the commitment of the game's leadership to a regime characterised by transparency.
The ZC leadership argues that it had advised ZOC that it would not take part in its audit because cricket felt that it had already completed a similar process, including providing its audited financial accounts, to the International Cricket Council and the Sport and Recreation Commission.
The general feeling within the ZC leadership was that given they had already completed a tougher and exhaustive exercise with both the ICC and the Sports Commission, with a lot of emphasis on their audited accounts, the ZOC programme was a mere duplication of processes.
The ZC leadership was also disturbed that while the ICC had earlier adopted the organisation's audited financial report -- undertaken by chartered accountants KPMG South Africa and KPMG Zimbabwe -- and found no irregularities in the manner that funds had been used, ZOC still went ahead and produced their damning report.
The ICC Audit Report And Its Findings
Last year ZC was cleared of any misuse of funds by the ICC -- in a high-profile case that was well publicised around the world -- after allegations that the association's financial books were not in order and that Chingoka and Bvute were diverting funds for their personal use.
The ICC declared that a report it had commissioned into the ZC accounts had cleared the organ of any wrongdoing and the forensic audit of the accounts showed that no money had been misappropriated by the leadership of domestic cricket.
The report by KPMG was able to "highlight serious financial irregularities, but found no evidence of criminality and that no individuals (within ZC) had gained financially."
ZC reported to the ICC board that it had taken substantial remedial action to correct those irregularities and would continue to do so and revealed that the procedural irregularities in accounting were due partly to a shortage of staff in that department.
The report by KPMG, which absolved Chingoka and Bvute of any wrongdoing, resulted in ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed -- who had pushed a hostile agenda against the domestic game's bosses -- being asked to leave the international organisation prematurely.
Speed was accused of leaking an unofficial document of ZC accounts that, however, differed significantly with what was eventually presented at the ICC board meeting.
In the leaked report, Speed mischievously suggested that the ZC accounts had been deliberately falsified to mask various illegal transactions from the auditors and the Government of Zimbabwe.
It was established that Speed's actions had led to a fundamental breakdown in his relationship with the majority of the board members of the international organisation mainly because of his handling of the Zimbabwe issue.
Speed subsequently fell out with the then ICC president Ray Mali after the international organisation decided not to take any action on Zimbabwe following the independent report by KPMG which absolved Bvute and Chingoka from any wrongdoing.
"The ICC president Ray Mali and the chief executive officer Malcolm Speed have agreed that Malcolm Speed would be on paid leave from April 30 2008 until the end of his contract term on July 4 2008," read a statement from the ICC.
"This change of plan is the result of a fundamental breakdown in the relationship between the chief executive officer and a number of the board members over a variety of issues, including Zimbabwe."
ZC versus ZOC
ZC bosses believe their affiliation to ZOC has added no value to cricket and they had simply turned into a tool for the Olympic body that was only being used at annual meetings to cast its vote for certain members who wanted to get into office.
The ZC leadership is also unhappy that ZOC went ahead and included cricket in their report of national associations -- painting the organisation as one characterised by poor corporate governance, non-existent developments plans and the death of provincial structures.
ZOC, in their report, gave an impression that the ZC leadership had resisted attempts to submit audited accounts and had not co-operated with the Olympic organisation during the process to ascertain national associations' compliance to the ZOC constitution.
The ZOC report noted that cricket did not submit both the declaration of citizenship and the audit questionnaire despite numerous reminders.
The same report also noted, in a key part of its findings, that the ZC leadership believe is being used as ammunition by those ganging up against them, that:
Most national associations have not had audited or unaudited financial accounts for the entire period under review (four years). For others, there was no evidence of audited or unaudited accounts having been presented during their AGMs.
In a sense, all these associations do not qualify to be registered under the Sport and Recreation Act, which states that for an association to be registered, it shall be made up of clubs at district level and provincial boards elected by the clubs and finally at the top.
The Zimbabwe Cricket Response
Last month Bvute wrote to ZOC chief executive Robert Mutsauki advising him of cricket's decision to pull out of the Olympic organisation.
"This letter serves to advise you that at its meeting on 3 April 2009, the board of directors of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) carefully considered its affiliation to the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC).
The ZC board noted that:
-When ZC initially joined ZOC, it was under the impression that after some reasonable time, cricket would become one of the Olympic sports and thereby affording ZC an opportunity to participate at the Olympics as was the case at some point with the Commonwealth Games.
-The members of the ICC recently agreed not to participate in the 2014 Games in Scotland. As you might be aware, Zimbabwe is one of the full members of the International Cricket Council.
-Having considered the above, the ZC board agreed that, in the circumstances, it was better to withdraw its membership from ZOC for the time being and review the situation when cricket becomes a fully-fledged Olympic sport. It is hoped that this will not be in the too distant a future.
-The ZC board acknowledges the achievements of ZOC -- especially under the current leadership."
ZOC's Acknowledgement of Withdrawal
Minutes of the ZOC executive meeting held in Harare on April 22 show that the organisation's president Admire Masenda drew the attention of the board to the decision by ZC to withdraw from the Club.
"The President drew the attention of the Board to the letter that Zimbabwe Cricket had sent to ZOC withdrawing their membership," read the minutes.
"Board members expressed concern that Zimbabwe Cricket had decided to withdraw their membership without discussing such an important matter with ZOC.
"The President informed members that he would discuss the matter with Peter Chingoka, the President of Zimbabwe Cricket.
"The board noted, however, that the issue of membership was voluntary and a prerogative of Zimbabwe Cricket and in this respect officially took note of the membership withdrawal and agreed to table it for noting at the 2009 General Assembly."
A Tale Of Contradictions
The ZC leadership noted that they found it ironic that ZOC should produce a damning report -- which appeared to question the way funds were being handled in cricket -- when the Olympic body's treasurer Thabani Gonye had highlighted problems faced in producing audited accounts for the 2008 financial year.
Minutes of the ZOC executive meeting on April 22 show that Gonye, in his treasurer's report, advised his board that:
The 2008 audited accounts had just been received (and) there had been a delay due to the auditors' slow pace as well as the evaluation of the equities which had to be looked at from different angles.
The AUDITED ACCOUNTS FOR 2008 WERE OF NO VALUE TO MOST COMPANIES AS THE NUMBERS MEANT NOTHING.
A Return To Innocence
The ZC leadership has revealed that it has remains concerned by what it believes are attempts to re-ignite the battles that marred the game in the recent past and how alliances appear to be ganging up ready for war.
The domestic cricket bosses believe that domestic cricket has slowly been drifting back to normalcy and a number of key factors point to that including:
- The decision by the ICC board to adopt the audited accounts, as produced by KPMG, and absolve the leadership of any wrongdoing in the organisation's financial transactions.
- The decision by the ICC that Zimbabwe retains its full membership of the international organisation despite fierce lobbying by powerful groups for the country to be booted out of the Club.
- The gradual return of players and other officials who had left the game, probably in protest, at the height of differences that had split it apart along racial lines (Dave Houghton is set to return as director of national coaching).
- Improved results on the field.
A Message From Andy Flower
Last year Andy Flower, who is now the England coach, admitted that he felt guilty over the squabbles that left Zimbabwe Cricket on the brink of collapse.
"There was a lot of blame on both sides," he told the Wisden Cricketer.
"Cricket was a sport run by whites and not enough black cricketers got exposure. But when Peter Chingoka got involved, he and his fellow administrators tried to impose selection and it got the hackles up of the whites.
"THE WHITE PLAYERS AND ADMINISTRATORS -- INCLUDING MYSELF -- SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE WILLING TO COMMUNICATE OPENLY AND ATTEMPT A SERIOUS AND MATURE INTEGRATION OF MORE BLACK CRICKETERS.
"IT'S REALLY SAD THAT WE DIDN'T FIND A BETTER COMPROMISE AND I TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THAT. BUT THE ADMINISTRATORS SHOULD TAKE MORE OF THE RESPONSIBILITY AS THEY WERE OLDER AND MORE EXPERIENCED."