Selector accused of not fielding enough black players

With the Zimbabwe selectors expected to name their squad to take on England in five one-day internationals on Friday, it has been claimed that Macsood Ebrahim, the chief selector, was involved in a heated exchange with Elvis Sembezeya at the weekend.

The alleged incident took place during the Zimbabwe A v Namibia match at the Old Georgians club in Harare on Saturday. While it is unclear what triggered the incident, eyewitnesses said that Sembezeya, one of the founder members of Takashinga, an all-black club based in the Harare suburb of Highfield, accused Ebrahim of not picking Takashinga players and preferring whites in the Zimbabwe A side that they were watching at the time. That team contained four white players, and was captained by Gavin Ewing.

Some of the eyewitnesses also claimed that Sembezeya threatened to dig up the pitch ahead of the England matches if the situation continued. Such threats have been attributed to others within Zimbabwe cricket in the past.

There is a certain irony in the row. Last May, Ozias Bvute, who has been identified with Ebrahim as being at the core of the unrest within Zimbabwe cricket, had an almost identical face-off with Stephen Mangongo, Ebrahim's predecessor, over the same issue - the number of white players in the side. On that occasion Mangongo allegedly ended up in an armlock.