Concerns remain among rebels

The ICC has given Zimbabwe's rebel cricketers until Wednesday to agree to go to arbitration with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, and while they are likely to do so, serious concerns remain among them about the process.

Their biggest worry - as it has been since the idea was first mooted - is that the ZCU will simply ignore the findings of the arbitration should they go against its entrenched policy. Talking to the players, the names of Ozais Bvute, Max Ebrahim and Tavengwa Mukuhlani are regularly mentioned as being the major obstacles to a resolution to the dispute - all three are seen as intransigent perpetrators of entrenched hardline policies.

The other concern is that the whole process could become very expensive. Neither side has bottomless pockets, but given that the ZCU does receive substantial funding from the ICC, it is probably in a better position to get involved in a drawn-out legal battle than the players.

The rebels' attitude to the board has been hardened by reports that the ZCU has approached some of the younger players and offered them large sums of money to return to the fold. One of them said that this was little more than an attempt to bribe them to come back, and so to enable to board to claim that their return was proof that all was well inside Zimbabwe.

They stress, however, that this is not the case. And concern at the ZCU's attempts to take over all aspects of cricket in Zimbabwe grows. While the ZCU has been publicly quiet in recent weeks, behind the scenes it has been maneuvering to repress regional boards who have been opposing it. Earlier this month we reported how Mukuhlani had effectively hijacked the Mashonaland annual general meeting to prevent the election of officials less supportive of the ZCU.

The constitution of the ZCU board remains a major stumbling block in a satisfactory resolution of the dispute. The players feel that has effectively become a self-electing elite, unaccountable to anyone.

The rebels reiterate that they are against all forms of discrimination, which includes the stipulation of numbers representing each race in the team, in the board itself, and at every level of the game. They believe in selection on merit in every area, and black domination - eventually, and on merit - is both inevitable and desirable.

Chris Venturas, the players' lawyer, has spent the last few days in England collecting his clients' opinions, and he is expected to go back to the ICC shortly before the 1600GMT Wednesday deadline.