HARARE – In a high stakes game of brinkmanship, the Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC) has blinked first after lifting its suspension of the Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) board.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended Zimbabwe’s membership in June, accusing the Zimbabwe government of interfering in the management of the sport in breach of its rules.
The ICC gave Zimbabwean authorities until early October to unconditionally restore the ZC board or risk expulsion.
The suspension has frozen millions of dollars in ICC funding to Zimbabwe Cricket and the country is banned from all ICC events.
Following talks between Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry and the suspended ZC board, SRC chairman Gerald Mlotshwa – a son-in-law of President Emmerson Mnangagwa – wrote to the ZC board on August 7 announcing that their suspension has been lifted.
The SRC also dissolved an interim board it had appointed to run cricket.
Mlotshwa wrote: “This letter serves to officially and formally communicate to ZC the following: The SRC hereby revokes its suspension of the entire board of the ZC that was elected on June 14, 2019.”
Zimbabwe cricket players and ZC’s employees had petitioned Coventry demanding that she reigns in the SRC. The players said they did not recognise Mlotshwa’s interim board and ZC staff refused to return to work.
Mlotshwa said the SRC had also reached a deed of settlement with the ZC, which had gone to the Administrative Court challenging its suspension.
The SRC’s decision paves the way for Zimbabwe’s suspension to be lifted at the ICC board’s next meeting in October.
