adminHARARE. — For two weeks now, The Herald has been running articles on Zimbabwe Cricket.
Now the ZC have given the official response.
ZC have refrained from comment on the articles that have been appearing in the media over the past fortnight.
We did not wish to be involved in the debate, moreso because of its genesis. However, the situation now is such that we need to come in with some facts for the benefit of the reading public.
First: a bit on the structure of the ICC. It’s business wing is called the IDI.
It is this IDI Board, which is the decision-making body on matters commercial.
It considers recommendations from its Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA) and makes decisions at its own unfettered discretion.
Secondly, the genesis of the debate which made us reluctant to comment.
The debate began after an F&CA discussion paper was leaked and appeared in the media like a public document yet it was strictly confidential and for the internal discussion purposes of the F&CA only, as will be noted that there were various offers on the table which were apparently from individual members of the committee after the ZC and ICC management had agreed on a framework.
It is regrettable that this initial F&CA discussion paper was leaked in its raw form. Be that as it may, it came to our attention before the F&CA meeting of the 8th of April 2014, that the paper had been leaked.
Our chairman, Peter Chingoka, who attended the meetings in Dubai, immediately notified and registered a protest to the ICC president/IDI chairman, Alan Isaac, and also to the chairman of the F &CA over the curious leak.
Interestingly. back home, on the 7th of April one of our staff members received a query from a member of the local private media to the effect that the position of an “ICC-appointed ZC administrator” was now a fait accompli.
This was peculiar because it could only have come from someone who had seen the leaked paper, or been told about it!
Turning to the debate itself, we want to also put it on record that ZC currently has a balance on an outstanding loan with the ICC.
Towards the end of last year, we were faced by a cash flow hitch following the shortening of the India tour to Zimbabwe because of the demands on their tour schedule, which led to a reduction in our revenue from that tour.
We, therefore, needed financial assistance to help us bridge the gap to our next income which would be proceeds from the ICC World Twenty20 (ICC WT20) tournament in Bangladesh earlier this year.
Against that background, in October we asked the ICC for a loan of 19.1 million United States dollars. It was felt that the amount was quite large. We were advised to apply for an advance of six million United States dollars, to be repaid after the ICC WT20 tournament. In the light of that application for the advance, the ICC then resolved at its January 2014 meeting that the ZC and ICC management should sit down and do a business plan, which would be a comprehensive exercise covering the period up to 2016.
In the interim, in order to ensure our un-interrupted participation in the ICC WT20, the IDI Board availed to us 2.5 million United States dollars as the second loan, for our working capital.
The loan is to be repaid in 2015.
Flowing from that is the leaked F&CA document.
We were invited to participate in part of that committee’s 8 April meeting and made our input. The committee then held further discussions on its own, after exchanging ideas with us.
Thereafter, it took its recommended position to the IDI Board for consideration.
The IDI Board made three unanimous resolutions:
That it would roll over the 2.5 million dollar repayment of the first loan which was due May 2014 to mature after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, so that we would then repay it with proceeds from that tournament;
That it will release the full 8.6 million dollars, being our distribution from the ICC WT20 tournament; and
That no other conditions were imposed.
Against this background, the ZC continues refining its business plan. — Zimbabwe Cricket.
Online Reporter