Election for new ZCU board at AGM

The long-awaited Zimbabwe Cricket Union's annual general meeting takes place at Harare Sports Club tomorrow, and top of the agenda for the meeting will be the election of a new board of directors to run Zimbabwe cricket for the next two years.

The outcome of the elections should have had a huge impact on Zimbabwe cricket, but Wisden Cricinfo learned this week that the entire board, barring Kevin Arnott who has stepped down for personal reasons, will be retained, having been re-elected unopposed by the provincial associations and the integration committee, which is lead by Ozais Bvute. Peter Chingoka and Ahmed Ebrahim, the chairman and vice-chairman, Bvute, Clive Barnes, Nick Chouhan, Macsood Ebrahim, Terrence Nicolle, Mike Moyo and Allan Welsh were all nominated by the provincial associations and the integration committee at their meeting almost two weeks ago, as stipulated by the ZCU constitution.

Tavengwa Mukuhlani, the Mashonaland Cricket Association's chairman, and his Matabeleland counterpart, Ahmet Esat, automatically become ZCU board members. All the names that have been put forward by the provincial associations and the integration committee will be considered by the selection committee, which is headed by Alwyn Pichanick, the ZCU's life president, but any rejections are highly unlikely.

Zimbabwe cricket has been in a major crisis since the board announced that it had accepted Heath Streak's resignation from all forms of cricket in Zimbabwe on April 2, after Streak had presented the board with an ultimatum containing a number of demands at its quarterly meeting. Fourteen other senior players refused to make themselves available for selection, and Zimbabwe were forced to field a weakened side against Sri Lanka and Australia. The rebel players were subsequently fired by the ZCU for breach of contract.

Both the ZCU and the players have since agreed to the ICC's proposal to set up a three-man tribunal, whose decision will be "final and binding", but the continued presence of Bvute and Ebrahim on the board will make a compromise hard to achieve.