Reserving a seat on the ICC gravy train

Zimbabwe have dropped out of the ICC Test rankings, leaving the ICC in the embarrassing situation of being controlled by ten Test countries when only nine are officially listed, writes Malcolm Conn in The Australian.

The International Cricket Council's latest rankings no longer include Zimbabwe, yet its administrators continue to ride the gravy train of elite status and all the money and control that it entails. Zimbabwe's players often complain they are not paid on time, if at all, and a recent financial report by ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed was damning. But Speed's hands are completely tied because of an ICC board dominated by the Afro-Asia bloc, which is more interested in good mates than good cricket. An attempt to take Zimbabwe's future out of its own hands was disgracefully rejected by the ICC board, so now Zimbabwe is painted as making the magnanimous gesture of standing out of Test cricket for the good of the game.