adminZIMBABWE Cricket must be left astonished as to how else they can get national players motivated after a $600 000 incentive offered to them if they had progressed through to the second round of the International Cricket Council World Twenty20 in India failed to work.
National cricketers could not make it beyond the qualifying stage of the ICC World Twenty20 after losing their last pool match by 59 runs to Afghanistan which means they are now following the rest of the tournament which is underway in India on television.
Sunday News has gathered that an agreement was reached between ZC and representatives of the players before the team left for India that should Zimbabwe make it past the qualifying stage, the 15 members of the squad who made the trip would share $600 000 which translated to $40 000 per player. Now that Zimbabwe bowed out before the real tournament started, the players will have to contend with $10 000 each on top of their match fees.
“We don’t know how else to motivate these boys, they were going to share $600 000 had they made it to the second round of the ICC World Twenty20, now they are getting $10 000 each plus their match fees,’’ said a source familiar with the arrangement.
ZC chief executive officer Wilfred Mukondiwa said he could not speak much about the issue of incentives as they were still waiting for the cricket committee to meet and review the technical team reports on what really transpired in India.
He did, however, confirm that the arrangement entered into took into consideration the qualifying stage and post that phase.
“We negotiated in good faith with the players so it is unfair to discuss what was agreed, we are still in the process of considering reports from the technical team on the performance in India. As far as the issue of incentives is concerned, we sat down with players’ representatives, Zimbabwe Cricket agreed on match fees for the World Twenty20 that is a normal process that was in place, the frameworks of the agreement is that we considered the qualifying stage and post the qualifiers.
“As to the details as to why the performance was dismal the cricket committee will meet and advise the board, we have received the reports and the committee is meeting anytime from now. Had they progressed the incentives would have been obviously higher. We try our best to look after our players, we continue to do that and we hope they will reciprocate that with good performances on the field of play. We cannot divulge the quantum we agreed as parties so it is not good for one party to then disclose,’’ said Mukondiwa.
As for how much ZC will receive from the tournament, Mukondiwa explained the ICC had done away with paying out money at the end of a big tournament but there is now an even allocation which is done at certain times during the year.
“ICC are no longer paying after a major event, there is smooth distribution where they are done at certain times during the year,’’ Mukondiwa said.
Last year, the country’s national cricketers, the 15 who went as well as the non travelling reserves shared
$650 000 for taking part in the 50 over World Cup staged in Australia and New Zealand in a deal that was sealed by their former representative Eliah Zvimba. The players, however, went on to fire Zvimba as their agent and also proceeded to squabble over how to share that money.
Online Reporter