Peter Roebuck on Zimbabwe Cricket
Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:15 pm
I love this guy, he always has something positive to say about Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean cricket (heavy sarcasm there). I met him years ago when he came to coach at my old school and he was considered a bit of an idiot back then. Still I guess it is a point of view. Maybe most of us on this forum see the recent developments in Zimbabwean Cricket with slightly too rose tinted spectacles. As with most things the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
PETER ROEBUCK
February 27, 2010
"Beyond the facade lie the same despots
Everything and nothing has changed in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Cricket. Of course, the two are inextricably connected. The links between the senior ranks of ZC and the ruling party are close and not to be denied by idle remark. ZANU-PF has often used ZC's broadcasting bus in its election campaigns. ZC bigwigs have allies and business partners in the upper echelons of the beaten but still ruling party. ZANU-PF and ZC alike have fed greedily upon the carcass of the country and game they are supposed to care about. Greed, selfishness and bullying have been their trademarks, and it'd be folly to assume either has changed merely because the times dictate a softening of tone. Survival is their aim. They are playing tricks, exploiting the hopes of the optimists and the goodwill of the unknowing.
On the surface, Zimbabwe and its cricketing body have come a long way. Trounced at the last election, fearing a backlash from African leaders, no longer glibly able to blame the West for the starvation, sickness and bankruptcy that have blighted their land, and desperate to gain access to bulging oversees accounts, ZANU-PF entered into a unity government with the popular, respected but divided MDC. Of course it was a ruse. MDC knew it but lacked any other means of saving the people.
Under the deal, ZANU-PF retained its grip on the things that matter to them, power and money, and allowed the winning party to run schools and hospitals and so forth. Just to make sure the MDC did not get above itself, the despots put their own men in charge of the legal and financial offices whereupon they continued to fleece the nation and to confirm there is one rule for loyalists and another for the rest.
Inevitably, the ZC bigwigs have likewise concentrated on retaining their own positions so as to continue their activities unhampered. To that end, they have created a facade of friendliness, a strategy intended to prove they were genuine and able to lead ZC away from bitterness and towards tolerance. And never mind that they created the bitterness in the first place.
To that end, ZC has appointed whites to senior positions. It is part of a charm offensive. Alistair Campbell, a former captain and least impressive of all the previously disenchanted players, has accepted a position as chairman of selectors. Heath Streak is assisting with the bowling. In a few months, Grant Flower will take charge of the batting. Neil Manthorp, former journalist of no little distinction, is working as the team's media manager in the West Indies. Now Alan Butcher, formerly of Surrey and England, has been chosen to coach the national side.
On paper it looks good, almost sincere. It is designed to ease the pressure on ZC, to make them acceptable to the wider cricketing community, and to ensure that Zimbabwe recaptures its Test status so the money keeps rolling in. But the money is the problem. Where has it all gone? Suddenly, ZC can afford to hire batting and bowling coaches and appoint a foreigner to replace a local as team coach. Suddenly, there is enough dosh in the books, or anyhow in the safe in Ozias Bvute's office, to lure an established media entrepreneur from his business. Previously, they could not find a mower to cut the grass, and the players were paid a pittance. When Tatenda Taibu dared to ask for more, he and his wife were threatened and fled the country. That is all common practice. ZC tries to scare off critics by spreading little stories about their foibles (a game two can play), even publishing them in tame little newspapers that omit to mention torture camps, rape, corruption, money wasted on large contingents of loyalists taken to conferences on $US5000 a day and the hundreds of millions of dollars and diamonds stolen under the noses of people desperate for food and medicine. Can there be normal sport in an abnormal society?
Already, Manthorp has written one piece praising the new guard at ZC. But the new guard is the old guard dressed in better clothes. Meanwhile, Peter Chingoka and Bvute retain their grip on power in ZC as surely, tightly and as cleverly as their odious political masters retain their grip on the levers of political power.
Chingoka and Bvute are extremely wealthy men with properties in London, New York, Cape Town and Zimbabwe, and children attending expensive overseas colleges. Chingoka has not worked for years, and his fellow manipulator arrived from Botswana with a trail of debts. Both have prepared for all eventualities. Bvute is keen to obtain his US green card. Both are angry about the freezing of their overseas accounts and travel restrictions.
Torn between a desire to assist those genuinely seeking to liberate Zimbabwe and its cricket and a desire to thwart the black tyranny that replaced arrogant white rule, cricket countries concerned are in a tricky position. For now it is best to retain sanctions, cricketing and otherwise, and to remember that leopards don't change their spots."
PETER ROEBUCK
February 27, 2010
"Beyond the facade lie the same despots
Everything and nothing has changed in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Cricket. Of course, the two are inextricably connected. The links between the senior ranks of ZC and the ruling party are close and not to be denied by idle remark. ZANU-PF has often used ZC's broadcasting bus in its election campaigns. ZC bigwigs have allies and business partners in the upper echelons of the beaten but still ruling party. ZANU-PF and ZC alike have fed greedily upon the carcass of the country and game they are supposed to care about. Greed, selfishness and bullying have been their trademarks, and it'd be folly to assume either has changed merely because the times dictate a softening of tone. Survival is their aim. They are playing tricks, exploiting the hopes of the optimists and the goodwill of the unknowing.
On the surface, Zimbabwe and its cricketing body have come a long way. Trounced at the last election, fearing a backlash from African leaders, no longer glibly able to blame the West for the starvation, sickness and bankruptcy that have blighted their land, and desperate to gain access to bulging oversees accounts, ZANU-PF entered into a unity government with the popular, respected but divided MDC. Of course it was a ruse. MDC knew it but lacked any other means of saving the people.
Under the deal, ZANU-PF retained its grip on the things that matter to them, power and money, and allowed the winning party to run schools and hospitals and so forth. Just to make sure the MDC did not get above itself, the despots put their own men in charge of the legal and financial offices whereupon they continued to fleece the nation and to confirm there is one rule for loyalists and another for the rest.
Inevitably, the ZC bigwigs have likewise concentrated on retaining their own positions so as to continue their activities unhampered. To that end, they have created a facade of friendliness, a strategy intended to prove they were genuine and able to lead ZC away from bitterness and towards tolerance. And never mind that they created the bitterness in the first place.
To that end, ZC has appointed whites to senior positions. It is part of a charm offensive. Alistair Campbell, a former captain and least impressive of all the previously disenchanted players, has accepted a position as chairman of selectors. Heath Streak is assisting with the bowling. In a few months, Grant Flower will take charge of the batting. Neil Manthorp, former journalist of no little distinction, is working as the team's media manager in the West Indies. Now Alan Butcher, formerly of Surrey and England, has been chosen to coach the national side.
On paper it looks good, almost sincere. It is designed to ease the pressure on ZC, to make them acceptable to the wider cricketing community, and to ensure that Zimbabwe recaptures its Test status so the money keeps rolling in. But the money is the problem. Where has it all gone? Suddenly, ZC can afford to hire batting and bowling coaches and appoint a foreigner to replace a local as team coach. Suddenly, there is enough dosh in the books, or anyhow in the safe in Ozias Bvute's office, to lure an established media entrepreneur from his business. Previously, they could not find a mower to cut the grass, and the players were paid a pittance. When Tatenda Taibu dared to ask for more, he and his wife were threatened and fled the country. That is all common practice. ZC tries to scare off critics by spreading little stories about their foibles (a game two can play), even publishing them in tame little newspapers that omit to mention torture camps, rape, corruption, money wasted on large contingents of loyalists taken to conferences on $US5000 a day and the hundreds of millions of dollars and diamonds stolen under the noses of people desperate for food and medicine. Can there be normal sport in an abnormal society?
Already, Manthorp has written one piece praising the new guard at ZC. But the new guard is the old guard dressed in better clothes. Meanwhile, Peter Chingoka and Bvute retain their grip on power in ZC as surely, tightly and as cleverly as their odious political masters retain their grip on the levers of political power.
Chingoka and Bvute are extremely wealthy men with properties in London, New York, Cape Town and Zimbabwe, and children attending expensive overseas colleges. Chingoka has not worked for years, and his fellow manipulator arrived from Botswana with a trail of debts. Both have prepared for all eventualities. Bvute is keen to obtain his US green card. Both are angry about the freezing of their overseas accounts and travel restrictions.
Torn between a desire to assist those genuinely seeking to liberate Zimbabwe and its cricket and a desire to thwart the black tyranny that replaced arrogant white rule, cricket countries concerned are in a tricky position. For now it is best to retain sanctions, cricketing and otherwise, and to remember that leopards don't change their spots."
