ICC prepares to rule on racism allegations

The dozen remaining Zimbabwe rebel cricketers have filed their official letter of complaint against the Zimbabwe board (ZCU) with Malcolm Speed, the ICC's chief executive. The findings of the aborted hearing in Harare are expected to be announced during the ICC's meeting which starts on October 16.

The letter highlights their concerns at the way the hearing was conducted. They say that they were assured that its remit was to listen to "questions of fact" and that there would not be "excessive cross-examination". However, it became clear from the start that Norman Arendse, the ZCU's laywer, intended to adopt a confrontational approach and proceedings were doomed to fail thereafter.

Two of the main objects of accusations of racism - Ozias Bvute, the ZCU's acting managing-director, and Max Ebrahim, the chief selector - were in the hearing and despite being asked to leave by the two-man ICC panel, refused to do so. With witnesses unwilling to speak in front of the pair, the hearing ended almost as soon as it started.

"We had 12 witnesses waiting, some who had travelled great distances," the letter to Speed stated. "The inquiry could still have proceeded with certain witnesses giving evidence in front of all the directors. They were never given the chance."

One Harare-based reporter told Wisden Cricinfo the feeling was that the ZCU had deliberately set out to scupper the hearing, fearing that the evidence against it would be overwhelming. He added that by holding the hearing in Harare, the ICC had unwittingly played into the ZCU's hands. "It would, " he said, "have been far harder for it to intimidate witnesses outside Zimbabwe."

Several newspapers over the weekend reported that the ICC would rule that it found no evidence of racism within the ZCU. "The ICC have often been a fragile alliance of the major cricketing nations," wrote Stephen Brenkley in The Independent on Sunday, "but any upheld suggestions of racism could undermine the way the game is run."