ECB under fire for Zimbabwe concession

Morgan and Lamb: under renewed fire © Getty Images

The England and Wales Cricket Board came under fire again last night after it was revealed that it had agreed to England playing an extra one-day international against Zimbabwe in October.

News that England would play five matches was announced by Ehsan Mani, the ICC's president, during its executive board meeting at Lord's. "The ECB announced yesterday at our board meeting that they will be going and will be prepared to play more matches than originally agreed," Mani said. "They were originally playing four and now say they may play five. It's very encouraging."

The ECB immediately came under fire, but Tim Lamb, the outgoing chief executive, denied accusations that this was a concession to the Zimbabwe board.

"It's not an extra match, it's the reinstatement of the original fifth match," he said. He explained that the original itinerary had been for two Tests and five ODIs, but that this had been trimmed as it was felt to be to onerous on the players. "In the time frame available it was too heavy a workload," he added. "Now that the reason for the reduction has gone away - no Test matches - space has been freed up for us to reinstate the fifth match.

"If the reason for reducing from five to four was because of the political process they might have a legitimate argument. But it wasn't. We shouldn't see the reinstatement of an originally agreed match as in some way endorsement of the Zimbabwean regime."

But Mike Soper, chairman of the First Class Forum, was unimpressed, and was especially angry that David Morgan, the ECB chairman, had told the ICC about the extra match seemingly without clearing it with the board's management committee. "I am alarmed to hear this apparent confirmation," Soper said. "I am urgently contacting my colleagues on the management committee. As far as I knew no decision was being taken until the next board meeting. He is talking out of turn."

Soper, who has been a vocal critic of the way the ECB has been run of late, is expected to oppose Morgan when he stands for re-election in the autumn.

"If we have to go to Zimbabwe than we should minimise our presence there," Soper continued. "The cancellation of the Tests was a godsend. Now all we have to do is stay in South Africa and fly in and out. We shouldn't be giving any succour to Zimbabwe's regime."

And Richard Bevan, the players' representative, was also not convinced. "I know it's getting closer to October but the Zimbabwe issue is far from sorted," he said. "We still need to finalise a number of issues."