A funny idea of mediation

The dispute between the Zimbabwe Cricket Union and 15 of its contracted players has been bubbling for some time now. A couple of days ago there seemed to be a ray of light at last: the players had dropped their demand for binding arbitration in the dispute, and had agreed to mediation instead.

One big happy family again, then? Think again. Yesterday the ZCU sacked all 15 of the rebel players, claiming they were in breach of their contracts, and told them to hand in their car-keys. A press release to the outside world condescendingly claimed that the board would consider some of them for selection again "subject to their commitment, form and fitness". The players, however, were informed of the decision by a curt letter, reportedly couched in far less conciliatory language.

Richard Bevan, the managing director of England's Professional Cricketers' Association, was gobsmacked by the latest development. "This is unbelievable," Bevan - who is also England's representative on FICA, the international players' association - told The Times. "It is the opposite of everything that was being planned. It is ludicrous. I am speechless."

He's right: no-one told the ZCU, but the idea of mediation is that you keep the channels open and talk to each other. That doesn't normally include sacking them in the middle of the process. The players have announced their intention to sue the board, and the board says it's going to take the players to court too, so this one could run and run. The trouble is, even-handed discussions and decisions are not a feature of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Grant Flower, Zimbabwe's most-capped player, has emerged as the rebels' spokesman during the dispute. He said yesterday: "It means that this is the end. I don't know what happens now. All I know is that we are fired." Sean Ervine, the 21-year-old allrounder who scored his maiden one-day hundred in Australia recently, immediately announced his retirement. Heath Streak, the former captain whose demands kick-started the dispute, admitted: "What they mean is they don't need our services. We are going to get legal advice."

Actually, the ZCU does need the services of Streak and his not-so-merry men. Players like Ervine and Andy Blignaut - talented, exciting, box-office - are exactly the type of players Zimbabwe need if they are to compete at international level (it's a hard enough struggle with the so-called rebels, given such a small player-base in a poor country). They are also the sort of players who will excite and entice the sponsors - sponsors whose goodwill (and good cash) will very soon disappear if they are force-fed too many of the humiliations that inevitably await Tatenda Taibu and his raw team.

Much Masunda, the local businessman who had been prepared to act as mediator between the disaffected players and the board, was touted as the "only international mediator in Zimbabwe". The board's idea of industrial relations soon showed why Mr Masunda is on his own. His doomed efforts sound like the synopsis of a book along the lines of that best-selling series on Botswana's one and only ladies' detective agency - only without the humour.

In an ideal world the ICC would now weigh in and bang a few heads together, to get the two parties speaking again. But, since the ICC so publicly sided with the ZCU last week, slamming the players for "walking out on their team-mates on the eve of a Test match" - it seems they hadn't noticed that an entire one-sided one-day series had already streaked by without Streak - without apparently bothering to ask the rebels for their point of view, there doesn't seem to be much chance of that. That means a stalemate, one in which international cricket is cheapened as Zimbabwe's talented but hopelessly over-promoted youngsters are subjected to regular morale-sapping thrashings.

On Saturday week (May 22) Zimbabwe play a Test match against Australia at Harare. The spectacle of arguably the best team of all time taking on probably the worst one ever assembled will be one to watch from behind the sofa.