Battle for power within the ZCU

It looks as if cracks inside the ZCU are now beginning to widen.

The policy of slowly increasing the number of non-white cricketers, which few people had serious objections to, would have allowed a gradual transition within the side. But the Streak situation gave the political enforcers within the board the golden opportunity to make the changes in one go.

Anyone with common sense could have seen that the secondand third-string players weren't yet up to it and, that disaster would result. Sure enough, humiliation on the field followed, but still the reality didn't hit home to some. After Zimbabwe were routed for 35 on Sunday, one senior board member was apparently heard to yell that the groundsman had deliberately sabotaged the pitch to "make our black boys look bad". He no doubt believed that the groundsman - a former national player - had then carried out mid-innings corrective surgery, as Sri Lanka didn't find any demons when they batted.

Even hardliners found the result hard to stomach, and realised that worse was in store in the Tests against Sri Lanka and Australia. Most worryingly, the ICC started to take notice. So the board started to make overtures to the rebels, with a view to shoring up the side in time for the first Test next Thursday. But there remain a few ZCU officials who are so blinkered that they believe that any setback is an opposition plot designed to undermine the government. The spat at the Harare Sports Club made that public.

So the hitherto united front of the ZCU is beginning to crumble. There are reports this weekend that one member of the new selection panel has resigned in frustration at the continuing attempts to bring pressure on them to follow the party line.

The next few days will show who controls Zimbabwe cricket. If concessions are made to the rebels, and the side on Thursday contains four or five of them, then there remains a little hope that those with a genuine interest in the game remain an influence. But if the ZCU line hardens, then the hard-liners will have taken control and the situation can only deteriorate.