On Tuesday, the Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) has once again sought the financial help from the International Cricket Council (ICC) to complete the overdue salaries of the players and staff. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the little bit worried about the repeated funding.
A senior BCCI official told CricketNext about this context, “Zimbabwe Cricket has been in dire straits on account of bad governance decisions that has left them debt ridden. They found themselves in a situation where any income was only being expended in paying the interests for the debt. The political and economic atmosphere in their country was also not conducive to revenue generation. The weakening of BCCI left them without an influential friend to help them in their time of continuing need.
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“The BCCI had needed 4 votes to stem the governance and financial changes in the ICC and Zimbabwe had been India’s friend. However, these conditions were too tempting for the ICC governance brass to ignore and therein started the process of offering Zimbabwe greater revenue and such decisions have always been proximate to meetings where an important decision is taken.
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“What it says for the principles and policies of the ICC is not very flattering. If you will notice, this decision had been taken on the same day when the decision to change the format of the Champions Trophy was considered.”
Talking about the loan provided by the ICC, the BCCI official explained, “It is interesting to note that as per the ICC Financial Statements of 2017, loans to full members stand at US$10,609,000 and though the details have not been given in the statements, the members here would definitely include Zimbabwe and West Indies. Post that, another loan is being advanced.”
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After the annual conference in Dublin on July 2, ICC chairman Shashank Manohar announced that ZC will get financial assistance that will help them to get back on track.
Manohar said, “I am satisfied we have mapped out a way forward to enable Zimbabwe Cricket to get back on track. It will require significant change to their financial, managerial and cricketing operations, along with support from the ICC, but we saw the latent potential of cricket at the recent ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe and this gives us the opportunity to build on that.”
Recently, ZC has failed to fulfil their commitment to complete the outstanding dues of the players and staff.
