adminRicky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
THE on-going Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) restructuring exercise has clipped wings of franchises, meaning that all decisions will now be made in Harare.ZC is downsizing as a measure to cut operational costs and they are doing away with some positions.
Already, Masvingo-based Southern Rocks have been disbanded leaving Matabeleland Tuskers, Mashonaland Eagles, MidWest Rhinos and Manicaland Mountaineers competing in the domestic league.
In an interview yesterday, Matabeleland Tuskers chief executive officer Stanley Staddon confirmed that measures taken by the financially bedridden ZC would see him taking the role of the Bulawayo-based franchise as an administrator.
“Everything will now be done from Harare and we have already started downsizing. The head office will control all franchises and the structure of those franchises will change. For example, instead of franchise CEOs, we will have administrators. There will be a secretary and development officer (formerly area manager) running operations of a franchise. There won’t be a need of an accountant because the books will be done in Harare,” Staddon said.
ZC is restructuring its organisation with a view to reducing expenses as it attempts to get out of debt.
According to ESPNcricinfo, ZC’s debts are in the region of $18 million and mounting. That was the primary reason ZC approached the International Cricket Council for financial assistance in January. Then, ZC applied for a loan of $19 million, which the ICC board did not approve. Instead, they supplied ZC with $3 million to end a player strike that had dragged on from December, restart domestic cricket in the country and adequately prepare the national side for the World T20.
In March, ICC chief executive officer Dave Richardson and chief financial officer Faisal Hasnain were also directed to visit Zimbabwe to assess the situation in the country and made several recommendations to reduce ZC’s expenses.
Besides substantial job cuts on the administrative side, ICC suggested that the number of contracted players across the board be reduced from 99 to 56 which is 14 per franchise.
Information has however surfaced that the number could be as low as 10 per franchise. Those contracts, which come up for renewal at the end of this month, would only run for the duration of the cricket season.
Only 15 players would be on year-round national contracts.
“Soon we will be starting to prepare for the next season and everything will be done in line with ICC recommendations. The decisions taken to save the sport might be drastic but to have cricket played competitively we have to restructure and everyone has started preparing for what is coming,” said Staddon.
Online Reporter