Zim Cricket’s battles

AN article published on ESPNcricinfo today (yesterday), March 3, 2014, makes some very damaging accusations that the Zimbabwe Cricket leadership “misused” a US$6 million loan from the International Cricket Council and used the funds to “enrich a bank on whose board they sit and ignored a key condition of the loan.”
The authors of the article, Tristan Holme and Liam Brickhill, whose hostility towards the ZC leadership is well documented, go to lengths to make wild and unsubstantiated allegations that the impasse between the game’s leaders and their players, over remuneration, has its roots in the alleged mismanagement of the ICC loan.

Once again the issue of ZC leaders, in this case chairman Peter Chingoka and vice-chairman Wilson Manase, and the portfolios they occupy at MetBank is used as a rallying point to support the wild allegations of questionable corporate governance systems employed by the ZC leaders and the bank.

Of course, these allegations are not new and only last week the Government went to lengths to address the same issues, in the august house of Parliament, where the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture made a comprehensive presentation and, crucially, cleared ZC, its leadership and MetBank of any wrong-doing in the transactions conducted.

But there is a reason why this article had to be published today (yesterday) on ESPNcricinfo.

The ICC chief executive, Dave Richardson, arrived in Harare today (yesterday) and those who design the shadowy grand plan, which uses the international media as a huge weapon to try and destroy the ZC leadership, a battle that has been raging on for 10 years now, decided the time was ripe to run such a damaging and unsubstantiated report.

The idea is to give Richardson an impression that the administrative structures at ZC have been collapsed by a questionable leadership that hasn’t only abused the ICC’s loan facilities but has run down the game to such an extent that it doesn’t deserve the support of the ICC leadership.

That the ZC is facing financial challenges is a matter of public record but to try and suggest, as ESPNcricinfo did in their article today, that this is all a result of an ICC loan, and its subsequent abuse as they allege, is not only frivolous but clearly agenda-setting as part of this shadowy movement that has always used the international media to damage the reputation of the ZC leadership.

For the record, the real reason why the ZC finds itself in this financial quagmire is because of a number of factors, the majority of which have nothing to do with the competence, or lack of it, of the management in charge of cricket in this country.

SANCTIONS AND THEIR EFFECT
It’s very clear that Zimbabwe Cricket has been the sporting victims of the sanctions, imposed on this country by some Western nations, and the decision by England and Australia, who guarantee box-office earnings in television rights to those who host them, not to tour Zimbabwe in the past 10 years, has inflicted a massive blow on the game’s earnings.

The accumulated losses, in terms of projected earnings that could have been realised if all the incoming tours had been fulfilled based on the ICC Future Tours principle of reciprocity, with England and Australia coming to Zimbabwe within that period, run in excess of US$30 million. England and Australia would have toured Zimbabwe FOUR times each, had the schedules not been bowled out by this political impasse in which politicians have had a say in barring the teams from coming to this country, and with one England incoming tour to Zimbabwe earning the ZC an estimated US$5 million in television rights receipts, and one Australian incoming tour generating about US$3 million, the losses for the ZC are clearly significant.

When an organisation as small as Zimbabwe Cricket is deprived of earnings (an estimated US$20 million from four England incoming tours had they gone ahead in the past 10 years and another US$12 million from four Australia incoming tours had they gone ahead, for a combined total of about US$32 million), it leaves a huge hole on its funding base.

In a country where sponsorship has been limited, with companies also bearing the brunt of the damage inflicted by the sanctions, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, for an organisation as small as the ZC to keep its head above the waters and that a media organisation like ESPNcricinfo, which is expected to be both authoritative and balanced in its coverage, can deliberately ignore these factors, and the damage they have inflicted on the financial base of the organisation, is certainly very unfortunate.

Two weeks ago a Member of Zimbabwe Parliament, Tapiwa Matangaidze, asked the ZC leadership to engage the European Union, whose delegation was due in Zimbabwe, to voice their concern and try and find a resolution to the political impasse that has kept the England cricket team away from Zimbabwe for the past 10 years.

Matangaidze’s Contribution in Parliament on the Debate
“It is imperative that ZC should take advantage of the visiting EU delegation to lobby for the removal of sanctions that have affected the game and its leadership,” said Matangaidze.

“The International Cricket Council should take a leaf from other sporting bodies like Fifa and IOC, who in spite of all the negativity over Zimbabwe, continue to engage us as a sporting nation.

“So Australia and England players should not be denied the chance to play their Zimbabwean counterparts at instigation of politicians.”

Presentation By The Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Thabetha Kanengoni-Malianga in the Parliament of Zimbabwe, Wednesday, February 26, 2014

KEY ISSUES DEALT WITH
◆ Allegations of misconduct, emanating from charges that there was “conflict of interest” for Peter Chingoka and Wilson Manase in their dealings at ZC and Metbank

◆ Parliament wanted to know why “the ministry had not taken action to correct the situation where several senior members of the cricket board in Zimbabwe hold senior positions in Metbank despite the conflict of interest’’.

◆ Where the transactions conducted by ZC and Metbank done above board, something that is a KEY issue of the article that was published on EspnCricinfo today?

The Honourable Deputy Minister’s Response:
“Messrs Wilson Manase and Peter Chingoka are not shareholders of Metbank. They are non-executive directors both at Metbank and ZC transactions were made at management level.

“Non-executive directors at ZC guide the organisation’s strategy and policy whilst operational issues, e.g. relationships with banks are for the management of the organisation. Non-executive directors are not signatories to ZC’s bank accounts.

“ZC has (or has had) relationships with five other banks locally, namely Ecobank/Premier, NMB Bank, CBZ, Interfin and FBC Bank and has an account with Barclays Bank.

“ZC’s relationship with Metbank goes back to several years. The account was opened with the explicit permission of the ZC board which at that time included a Supreme Court judge, Justice Ebrahim, and a well-respected (Prince Edward) headmaster Mr Clive Barnes among other notable cricket administrators.

“The issue of related party transactions was duly noted as far as Mr (Ozias) Bvute, the then acting managing director, was concerned, this ceased to be an issue once declaration of potential interest has been made. It should be further noted that the directors are not the ones who negotiated the facility. This is purely a management function.

“Again when the account was opened Mr Manase was not on either the ZC and the Metbank boards while Mr Chingoka was not yet on the Metbank board.’

“When Zimbabwe was under threat of isolation there was no one willing to assist. Metbank filled that void otherwise we would not be talking of cricket.

“Instead of condemnation, Metbank should be acknowledged for providing such support at a crucial stage of the development of the game.

“Metbank has continuously assisted ZC by extending loans to keep ZC afloat and these have been at prevailing market values. To get where the association is they have done so with their bankers.

“Without the relationship, there would be no cricket to talk about as evidenced by the current state of affairs where the banks are not lending. Related party transactions (Metbank/ZC) are well known by the ZC board, Sport and Recreation Commission and the International Cricket Council and as from the times Messrs Chingoka and Manase joined the Metbank board.

“This is well reflected in ZC board reports and ZC’s annual financial statements and as also passed on to the International Cricket Council.

“For the avoidance of doubt and from the foregoing, this obviates any thinking that pressure could have been brought to bear on the bank to assist ZC nor for ZC’s management to approach Metbank or, indeed, any other bank.

“Unlike other sporting associations ZC has not approached Government seeking assistance. They have a clear financial programme which will see them out of the current situation.”

CONCLUSION
Zimbabwe Cricket is indebted to its bankers, without whose support, in a crippling environment in which its funding base has been battered by the lack of box-office incoming tours, something that is very political and has no relation to the management, or lack of it, of the game, and it’s unfortunate that such a relationship, which has ensured that we remain with cricket in this country, is now the subject of attacks dressed with a lot of innuendoes.

We understand that the forces who have been fighting a 10-year battle to try and destroy cricket, simply because they don’t like the number of coloured people in management positions and who are now playing the game on the cricket fields across the country, are not slowing down on their mission and, sadly, the international media has taken sides with one group and has viewed the local game’s leadership as the villains.

And, so, they concentrate on a US$6 million loan, and dress it with a lot of toxic innuendoes, without even devoting just a paragraph to the fact that had the game not been a victim of politics and it had banked all its projected receipts from box-office incoming tours of England and Australia, which would show that projected innings of more than US$30 million would have provided the financial stability that would have made that loan unnecessary.

ZC has taken a battering in the past, and the international media has been used, but we have soldiered on and we won’t waiver on our mission to keep spreading the game to all parts and communities of the country and, having survived in the past 10 years, we see no reason why we should be cowed into our shells now.

We have worked well with the ICC leadership, who understand our case better than the media, and we are also happy that the Government appreciate the sacrifices that have been put by both the leadership and their bankers just to ensure that cricket remains alive in Zimbabwe.

◆ Zimbabwe Cricket, Harare, March 3, 2014.