No domestic invite to Zimbabwe claims SA board

The South African board (UCBSA) has scrambled to clarify a claim attributed to its president, Ray Mali, that it had agreed that Zimbabwe's national team should play in South Africa's domestic competitions.

The East London Daily Dispatch reported on Wednesday that Mali had made the claim in an interview with the newspaper. "Mali said that his board and that of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, as well as the International Cricket Council, have been in touch with each other over the last four weeks over the crisis that is threatening Zimbabwe's international Test team status," the paper reported. "Mali said in order to assist young cricketers in Zimbabwe, his board felt that the Zimbabwean national team should be entered in the South African domestic competition as a separate team. The UCB has full consensus about that," Mali was quoted as saying in a South African Press Association version of the report.

But by Wednesday afternoon that was no longer the case, if it had ever been. "Gerald Majola [the Board's chief executive] has clarified a statement attributed to ... Mali regarding the possible inclusion of the Zimbabwe cricket team in the South African domestic competitions," said a UCB statement.

"I have spoken with the president today, and he confirmed that the general council of the UCB has given him a mandate to offer assistance in seeking a solution to the current problems facing Zimbabwe cricket," Majola said. "There has definitely not been a decision taken to invite the Zimbabwe national team to participate in any of our domestic competitions."

The release said Mali and his Australian, Indian and Zimbabwean counterparts would "discuss the Zimbabwe situation" at a meeting in Dubai on June 10.

The ICC will discuss Zimbabwe's Test status on June 27.