iCC suspends Zimbabwe Cricket.

The Zimbabwe cricket fraternity is in shock following the International Cricket Council’s decision to suspend Zimbabwe from all ICC related activities for at least 3 months. The decision came out of the ICC’s conference held in England yesterday where one of the main decisions was to suspend Zimbabwe as a member of the ICC.

In a statement issued out by the ICC in the aftermath of Thursday’s conference Zimbabwe were slapped with a 3 month suspension which could be reversed if the Sports and Recreation Commision reinstates the suspended Zimbabwe Cricket Board led by David Mukuhlani.

The interim Zimbabwe Cricket board which was installed by the SRC and is led by veteran cricket administrator David Elman Brown gave submissions to the ICC on Wednesday with the suspended ZC board led by David Mukuhlani also accorded with the same opportunity. Following lengthy deliberations the ICC passed a decision to suspend Zimbabwe cricket citing government intereference as the main reason. According to ICC statutes governments have no right to interfere with domestic cricket matters.

The saga involving Zimbabwe cricket and the Src first emerged when ZC was ordered not to hold an elective annual general meeting which was sheduled for the Victoria falls. Despite the SRC’s prior warning ZC went ahead with the meeting and elected a new board. The board was subsequently suspended by the SRC resulting in the suspended ZC board clamouring for the ICC’s intervention, citing government interference. With the matter tabled at Thursday’s ICC conference the SRC has been given 3 months to reinstate the suspended ZC board failure of which Zimbabwe will be expelled as a member. In the 3 month period given by the ICC Zimbabwe will be ineligible to receive any funding from the ICC with the Zimbabwe women’s cricket teams hopes of participating at the global t-20 qualifiers dashed.

The SRC will now have to decide on whether to oblige with the ICC or ignore the global cricket governing body and have Zimbabwe expelled from the international cricket arena.

The cricket saga has drawn the attention of cricket faithfuls with Chevrons player Solomon Mire announcing his retirement from internation cricket. Brendan Taylor has also taken to social media questioning the ICC’s decision to suspend Zimbabwe in a move that could leave hundreds of players jobless.