Taibu speaks on Zim Test return, challenges

determined not to throw away the chance of making a big impression on the Test arena.
The veteran wicket-keeper batsman said the game was being hampered by funding challenges but this will not distract the players from flying their national flag.
ZC authorities have battled hard to keep the game afloat, with very little coming into their coffers from television rights during the period when they withdrew from Test cricket.
A new franchise structure, which has revived the quality of the domestic competition, has come at a huge cost and it has piled the pressure on the limited sources of funding.
The journey back to the Test arena hasn’t been an easy one for the ZC leadership who had to spice up their domestic competition, including bringing in foreign players, with minimal funding to foot the costs.
Ugly political battles, which saw Zimbabwe Cricket being virtually isolated from the rest of the world, did not help matters either and the game’s leaders even had to fight unsubstantiated claims that they had abused funds.
Taibu, who has clashed with the ZC leadership before, said for all the challenges they were facing, they had to soldier on.
“I can’t fault the coaching staff, they’ve worked really hard and I can’t falter the guys,” said Taibu.
“To see the guys running in and bowling and hitting a lot of balls in the nets it really shows that the guys have got the country at heart.
“It will be sad to see Zimbabwe cricket die, after all the people that have worked hard for us to get Test cricket back, I think it will be a waste if we let it die.”
Other observers feel it is a grand achievement, for the ZC authorities, just to be able to get the country back into the Test arena, especially given that the game was virtually on its deathbed just a few years ago.
The ZC leaders have embraced even some of their harshest critics, who torched the rebellion that led to the withdrawal from Test cricket, and a number of them have returned to take influential roles in the game.
But Taibu feels there are still a lot of grey areas.
He said the players, who are contracted to their franchises, who fall under the ZC, should have been contracted directly to the ZC.
“The guys (players) haven’t been paid their match fees from August last year up to now,” said Taibu.
“At the moment, I am sitting here without a contract, no one has got a contract; those are all things that the administration is struggling to deal with.
“It is two days before a Test match and no one has got a contract, no one knows what we will get paid, but the guys love their country and they can’t see cricket drop like that.”
“It’s hard for me as a player with the history that I’ve got in Zimbabwe cricket to go up and mention these things.
“We’ve tried to go through the right structures, the captain and the manager but nothing has been done to date.”