Zimbabwe Cricket Downsize on Tests

Zimbabwe to scale back on Test cricket at home.

Firdose Moonda and Osman Samiuddin.

Cricinfo.

Saturday, 4 November 2017.

PTG 2296-11604.

Hosting fewer Tests and scaling down operations may be the way forward for Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) as it navigates a changing cricket structure and tricky financial waters. Zimbabwe will not be part of the new Test league that is set to start in July 2019, and are happy with the development. They do not intend to stop playing Tests altogether, preferring in future to play them away from home. Instead they will shift focus to limited-overs cricket.

In one way it is a formalisation of the status quo, in which Zimbabwe are already playing a greatly reduced number of Tests. "What we quickly realised was that hosting Tests is something that costs us a lot of money, and that is a commodity we do not have at the moment - in fact we owe people a lot of money”, said ZC's recently appointed managing director Faisal Hasnain (PTG 2291-11583, 28 October 2017).

"As things stand, it costs us money because we get almost negligible amounts from our current TV rights and sponsorships, and these continue till 2019. So if we were in a formal Test league, where we were forced to play Tests at home, we just would not be able to sustain it financially, unless we get substantial help from the International Cricket Council (ICC) or from some other source - and the ICC Test fund no longer exists and other funding sources are few and far between”.

"Obviously, we will continue to play Test cricket, but in our current circumstances we will try and play them away from home, primarily to save costs. We will concentrate on playing more One Day Internationals (ODI) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20I), home and away, under the ODI league and the T20I open format, which will hopefully enable us to cut expenditure and potentially generate greater revenues”.

Zimbabwe have just finished hosting a two-Test series with the West Indies, which has cost them somewhere in the region of $US1 million ($A1.3 m, £UK764,585). For an organisation in as much of a financial battle as ZC, that is an unnecessary strain. There is a possibility that, in discussion with Afghanistan and Ireland, Zimbabwe will formally ask the ICC for certain relaxations from the full requirements of the strict playing conditions - conducting matches without the decision review system for example. They may also ask for leniency in TV broadcast requirements for international cricket. This could ultimately make it more affordable to host Tests, and ZC has already taken up the matter, informally, with the ICC.

Crucial to their quest to better financial health is income from the ICC, in the form of distribution and World Cup participation fees, which makes qualification for the 2019 event even more important. With that in mind, Zimbabwe has embarked on an ambitious project to convince certain players who had left the country to return, but the flipside of that has been the toll it has taken on their finances.

In addition to employee and player salaries being part-paid at the end of October, and because of the financial challenges their board faces, Zimbabwe's players have yet to receive their match fees for the Sri Lanka tour that took place in July. A proposed increase in player allowance for this season's domestic matches has also not come to pass.  ZC is attempting to stabilise its operations and finances under Hasnain and chief financial officer Feroza Shariff, though given the country's ongoing economic crisis and the limited opportunities to raise money that will not be easy.

Zimbabwe Cricket Credit Crunch Again!

Zim cash crunch set to affect player, match officials salaries.

Firdose Moonda.

Cricinfo.

Friday, 27 October 2017.

PTG 2290-11583.

Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) has again been hit by a financial crunch which could affect salaries for all employees, including players and match officials. In a memo circulated within the board, Nesta Vaki, ZC's head of Corporate Affairs and Human Resources, informed the staff that they will only receive half their October salaries at the end of this month and that the organisation will "do its best to rectify the situation by end November 2017”.

No reasons have been given for the cash-flow problems.   ZC has confirmed that the "decision to withhold part of the staff salaries was in order for ZC to balance its strained cash flows, and this course of action was advised to staff after ZC had exhausted all other possible alternatives”.  The board also noted in a statement its displeasure that "confidential internal correspondence has been deliberately leaked to the media". It said: "The situation is no different to any other company that is experiencing severe cash flow difficulties, and ZC's own legacy financial issues have been well publicised and are in the process of being addressed".

Though ZC's structure of corporate governance has improved significantly in recent months, it has also incurred some hefty costs. The ongoing two-Test series against West Indies in Bulawayo is set to be the board's biggest expense this month, and it has also spent money on hosting domestic competitions and upgrades for grounds to host the 2019 World Cup Qualifier next March.  The issue, however, has not as yet had any effect on cricket in Zimbabwe. Last season, the Logan Cup, the country's first-class competition, was delayed several times after players opted to strike when salaries went unpaid (PTG 2025-10251, 16 January 2017).