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Simmons: ICC must deal with Zimbabwe

As Zimbabwe prepare to take on West Indies in the sixth one-dayer at Trinidad on Saturday, Phil Simmons, the former West Indies all-rounder and coach of Zimbabwe, does not feel the country should be readmitted to Test cricket next year

Cricinfo staff
13-May-2006


Phil Simmons faces the media in Trinidad © The Nation
As Zimbabwe prepare to take on West Indies in the sixth one-dayer at Trinidad on Saturday, Phil Simmons, the former West Indies allrounder and coach of Zimbabwe, does not feel the country should be readmitted to Test cricket next year and has called on the ICC to take a much stronger stance.
"The ICC has taken it upon themselves to go to Australia to investigate racial things against South Africa [by the crowds]," said Simmons on Friday, "but yet you have a [Zimbabwe] board put in with all blacks and all the Asians and the whites were knocked off of the original board. Is that not racism too?"
Simmons was controversially sacked as Zimbabwe's coach last August, and replaced by Kevin Curran. However it was just a matter of months after Simmons backed Zimbabwe to retain their Test status in March 2005, after widespread calls - including from their former captain, David Houghton - that they drop out of Test cricket.
Simmons, who is taking legal action against two members of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, is calling on the ICC to conduct an investigation on the mismanagement of funds, and is adamant that the country don't have the class to compete at the top level.
"There is no fast-tracking of Test cricketers. Zimbabwe will not play Test cricket next year," Simmons told The Nation. "If they are allowed to play cricket with this team, there are going to be a lot of records. Brian [Lara's] record is going to be in danger.
"I heard a statement from the now convenor of selectors in Zimbabwe that from the players just beneath this team here, he can make a Test cricketer in 12 months. I've never seen a Test cricketer form in 12 months, other than people like Lara."
Despite support from his players - including a petition - he was sacked as coach in August. "The circumstances that led to my departure was that two people on the board decided they were not happy with me because I didn't play ball with them," he said. "They decided that they wanted to get rid of me.
"If you look back at some statements at the beginning of December, the then vice-president said the rest of the board were happy that I was doing a good job."
As again Zimbabwe have struggled to compete with a top-level Test nation in the ongoing one-day series against the West Indies, Simmons reiterated that the problems lie with the board's management.
"The biggest problem with Zimbabwe administration is that there are two people, [Peter] Chingoka and [Ozias] Bvute who have been accused of mismanagement of funds," he said. "You have nobody in Zimbabwe who can really touch them because of the fact that they have connections. So until the ICC decides that we are going to investigate all this mismanagement of funds, it's going to continue and the two people are going to stay there and nothing is going to happen."