Former board president slams Chingoka regime

Dave Ellman-Brown, the former president and later chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, has added his voice to those criticising the current Zimbabwe cricket leadership which opponents claim has taken the game to the blink of oblivion.

Ellman-Brown, who is now the re-branded ZC life-president, said the game in Zimbabwe has continued to sink since the interim board was given the reins in January.

"I am extremely disappointed with what has happened since the SRC decided to appoint an interim committee which had question marks," he Cricinfo. "Now they have disbanded old provinces and set-up new ten ones. I don't believe what happened was legal. The provinces are affiliated to ZC but they are independent associations with their own assets. But by the stroke of a pen ZC, went ahead and disbanded them. We are still to see genuine forensic audit of Mashonaland. We won't see that because they no longer exist. That to me is very depressing."

Ellman-Brown expressed reservations about the source of funding for the new provinces at a time the national association is in a deep financial crisis. "Who's going to fund these provinces? Where is the money going to come from? I can't see it."

He said the former administrators had not been consulted by the Peter Chingoka-leadership since the problems in cricket worsened. "I have never been consulted by Chingoka," he remarked. "We've asked if we could meet with him to discuss matters of general concern. He refused to meet us. We were worried about matters of general issues, about the captaincy, about players leaving, and about other issues. It was in the best interest of cricket why we wanted to see him."

Ellman-Brown added that if the present leadership stays on for two more months, he believes Zimbabwean cricket will be damaged beyond restructuring.

"I believe they have been successful in destroying the game in Zimbabwe. You can't blame it on anything. You can't say its racism. You can't say its elitism. You can't say all those people who have left, both black and white, do not have genuine grievances."

The elimination process by ZC, Ellman-Brown said, had reached a point of no return. "ZC is just manipulating so that they will have people around them who won't criticize them. Anyone with different views to Chingoka and Bvute will go. I do not think the ICC has been strong enough. They have to step in and put corrective measures."

Ellman-Brown also slammed the new format which will domestic cricket run from January to the penultimate months of the year. "In the southern hemisphere, we play in summer. In winter we tour, or players go overseas. For what good reason has this format been introduced?"

He concluded: "I think this regime has got to disappear. They no longer have the respect of anyone. The sponsors have deserted them. In our days we had a lot of corporate support because the sponsors believed in the administration. Cricket is in the hands of people who are not worthy administrators."