Taibu in line for Zimbabwe comeback

Tatenda Taibu: ready to resume © Getty Images Enlarge

Cricinfo can reveal that Tatenda Taibu, the former Zimbabwe captain, is talking to the board about a possible return to the Zimbabwe team.

Taibu walked out of Zimbabwe cricket in November 2005 after falling out with the Zimbabwe board - in particular chaiman Peter Chingoka and managing director Ozias Bvute - over player welfare and governance issues. He also claimed his family had been threatened.

He had stints in the UK and Namibia, where he never really established himself, and has periodically returned home. However, in the last month, Taibu has been training with the Zimbabwe team in Harare and looking very much involved in the thick of things, although at first he was said to be practicising to stay in form.

"There are talks going on between him and Zimbabwe Cricket in a bid to try and get him back," Givemore Makoni, the team manager, told AFP. "I think he wants to play. I can't disclose much, but at the moment he is with us to try and maintain form. He is also n camp and he is training. Negotiations are still in progress at the moment. If he makes himself available, obviously selectors will be looking at picking him."

It is said Taibu has received support from most of the players who want him to be reinstated as captain, but it is unlikely anything will be decided until Chingoka and Bvute return from an ICC meeting in London.

Aside from the personal differences with the pair, Taibu is owed tens of thousands of dollars in back pay and is unlikely to do anything until that is handed over.