One-day competition moved from Bulawayo

The last domestic tournament on the Zimbabwe calendar, the Faithwear Cup, starts in Harare on Tuesday.

Matches in the one-day competition was moved from Bulawayo at short notice. Officially, the reason given was that there was no electricity at the Bulawayo Athletics Club ground, but a source told Cricinfo: "The borehole pump at BAC broke down last year and has not been repaired and it has made it difficult for the ground staff to water the outfield, they use a hosepipe to water the centre wicket."

It was also suggested that it had been done because of financial concerns at the costs of transporting teams to the city. "If the matches were held in Bulawayo, it meant Zimbabwe Cricket paying for accommodation for players from Easterns, Northerns, Southerns plus umpires. However, in Harare, ZC will have to accommodate only Westerns players since players from the other provinces have homes in Harare."

Although there will be monetary savings by hosting all games in one centre, there is the risk of mounting social unrest following March's presidential elections.

"To motivate the sides and raise the level of competition, we decided to award bonus points," Lovemore Banda, the board's media manager, explained. "Effectively, each match has a bonus point on offer. If the side that wins the match does so with a run-rate that is a set percentage higher than that of the losing team, it gets the bonus point.

"However, if the losing side keeps the margin between it and the winner to less than that percentage, it gets the bonus point. What that means is that, on one hand, a team doing well is encouraged to go for victory emphatically while, on the other, the one struggling is encouraged to minimise the margin."