An umbrage too far

The ICC has found out what anyone who has opposed the Zimbabwe board already knew: if the going gets tough, then the ZCU just pretends that all is well and carries on regardless. But its decision to snub Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, after he had flown specifically to Harare to meet with its board of directors, has probably meant that Zimbabwe has finally pushed the international cricket community too far.

The ZCU knew what was coming. The Australian board had requested that the two schduled Tests be stripped of their Test status given the abject performance of the below-strength Zimbabwe side against Sri Lanka. Pressure was mounting on the ICC to act, not particularly because of any sudden discovery of morals by its members, but because the television companies and sponsors were starting to kick up a fuss about the devaluing of their product. And so when Speed arrived, the ZCU board headed for the hills, leaving the chairman Peter Chingoka and Vince Hogg, the chief executive, to face the music.

The ICC's anger was quite obvious, although the reaction was couched in diplomatic language. "The decision by the ZCU to withdraw its invitation to Speed was unfortunate," said Ehsan Mani, the ICC's president. "Unfortunate" in this context means that it was completely out of order. Sir Humphrey Appleby - the smooth-talking civil servant in TV's Yes Minister - would have approved of the ICC's choice of words; but he wouldn't have been in any doubt of their real meaning. Zimbabwe's Test status is now on the line.

It would seem that that the ZCU hardliners won control of the board at the meeting eight days ago when they sacked the 15 rebel cricketers. But they overplayed their hand. As international criticism mounted at the board's handling of the affair, it offered a hollow concession of extending the deadline for the rebels to return to the fold. Hollow, because what was being offered was an even worse deal than the board had originally put on the table (the offer of mediation was high-handedly withdrawn), and also because it was probably forced on the board because of the bungled way it had handled the dismissals. The farce that was the Bulawayo Test - Sri Lanka helped themselves to 713 for 3 and won by an innings and 254 - finally meant that that the ICC had to act, but it could hardly have expected to be treated so dismissively.

And so Friday will decide Zimbabwe's short-term future. It would be a surprise if the ZCU is able to find the support of the three other Test-playing countries on the ICC's executive committee which it needs to reject the motion. Until now the ZCU has been largely battling England, but Australia have clearly changed tack, and there are reports from India that its board was instrumental in pressurising the ICC to act.

And so the ZCU has managed to alienate its international allies almost as effectively as it has pulled the rug out from under its own national side. Rarely can an official body willingly have embarked on a course of action so seemingly hell-bent on self-destruction.