Simmons call on the ICC to investigate Zimbabwe finances

Phil Simmons: 'Where's all the money gone?' © Getty Images

Former Zimbabwe coach Phil Simmons has spoken out about the state of cricket in country and called on the ICC to take action to investigate allegations of mismanagement.

Simmons, who takes charge of Ireland after the World Cup, told cricket365.com that there were many things that needed looking into, with the most pressing being the unanswered questions about the whereabouts of the millions of dollars poured into the board in the last few years.

"Where's all the money gone? Because there's no new infrastructure, no new grounds have been built. Where has the money gone?

And he warned things were only likely to get worse. "If things aren't run properly, it's the players that you lose. They've lost so many players over the years and they're going to lose a lot after this World Cup. A lot of these youngsters are disillusioned with what's happening and they're going to lose a lot of them straight after this World Cup because they're fed up with all sorts of things.

"I think that the ICC should get a full independent audit team to go in and go through all the books and find out where all this money went before they decide to pay the millions they're meant to pay them now. Because all that's going to happen is that those funds are going to disappear too. They should also make sure that everyone who they owe money is paid before any money is given to the organisation."

Simmons is owed more than US$100,000 by the board following his dismissal as coach in 2005, and several other players, including Heath Streak and Andy Blignaut, are believed to be claiming more than US$200,000. It is the manner of his removal that grates as much as the money. "Even before they told me that they were re-assigning me, Kevin Curran [the current coach] was down there to take over so it must have meant that they had spoken to him before they decided to re-assign me. They seemed pretty eager to get rid of me because players were still coming to me for advice.

"They even tried to ship me out to Kenya, saying that Kenya wanted someone to run their academy. If you look now a lot of players are still coming to me and asking for advice."

Referring to reports that shortly after his dismissal almost all the Zimbabwe players had signed a petition asking for his recall and saying they did not want Curran, Simmons told cricket365.com: "Well, if you sign a petition saying that you don't want someone as your coach it means you don't have any confidence in him. And as far as I've heard from the players nothing has changed since then."