Mashonaland's problems hurting cricket

The infighting in Zimbabwe Cricket has taken a vast toll on the country's domestic game. Three months into the new domestic season, no cricket worthy of talking about is being played in Mashonaland, the country's biggest province.

Cyprian Mandenge, whose disputed chairmanship of the Mashonaland Cricket Association won him a position on the split ZC board, dismissed six top clubs from the province in August for taking a stance against the national board. Mandenge proceeded to restructure the provincial leagues, filling them up with development sides, all dominated by students and school-leavers. There are no top coaches at the clubs, and they have no experienced senior team-mates or opposition to learn from.

Already, plans are underway to pick a "development" side from these clubs to represent Mashonaland in the Logan Cup, Zimbabwe's premier first-class competition.

While Zimbabwe's top players have again put pressure on Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute to leave office in the aftermath of Tatenda Taibu's resignation and retirement, there is no sympathy whatsoever coming from the pro-ZC Mashonaland leagues.

The lack of sympathy is a result of selfishness. The players in the heavily-depleted leagues have been told that they will be picked to play for Zimbabwe if the professional players continue challenging the ZC leadership. The youngsters have swallowed the promises, which if allowed to pass, will effectively bring the dearth of Zimbabwe cricket. Where can Zimbabwe get another side when they have shown in the past months that they are clearly in dire straits and in need of quality player injection from somewhere?

The professional players, meanwhile, have been playing club cricket in a splinter league that was formed after they were expelled from the MCA. But games have not been of as high a quality as they would have wanted. The intensity and competition is no longer the same, as the players have been told that they will not be considered for the province's first-class side.

Mandenge is still withholding funds from ZC disbursed to the clubs two months ago, and ZC has stopped helping with grounds maintenance at their grounds. But the clubs are trying to arrange everything for themselves, and they maintain that they will go ahead and chose their own side to feature in the Logan Cup.

Fortunately, the Logan Cup is not starting until April, and moderates in Zimbabwe cricket are hoping that the current situation will have been resolved by then.