Speed casts doubt on Zimbabwe's Test future

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed has said that he is unsure whether Zimbabwe will ever be able to resume playing Test cricket.

Zimbabwe's self-imposed suspension was continued after the ICC annual conference at Lord's last week, but Speed said that he didn't know "if Zimbabwe will ever be able to come back to Test cricket ...but our duty is to help their cricketers to play cricket to the highest standard."

A confidential report by Speed and Faisal Hasnain, the ICC's chief financial officer, was leaked last week, much to the ICC's embarrassment and anger. In it, Speed made a series of stinging attacks on Zimbabwe Cricket's finances, concluding: "It is clear that the accounts of ZC have been deliberately falsified to mask various illegal transactions from the auditors and the government of Zimbabwe. The accounts were incorrect and at no stage did ZC draw the attention of the users of these accounts to the unusual transactions. It may not be possible to rely on the authenticity of its balance sheet."

But by the time Speed faced the media on Friday, that rhetoric was watered-down, and the ICC settled for insisting on a new forensic audit by an international firm. Even more surprising was that the ICC has decided to pay Zimbabwe the full sum outstanding to it from the World Cup, despite the lingering question marks over the board's finances.

One former senior administrator greeted this news with dismay. "At a time the ICC has an anti-corruption unit making sure that players stay on the straight and narrow, it chucks cash at a board whose conduct its own boss has slammed," he told Cricinfo. "What kind of message does that send out? Surely if you think something is amiss, you hold on until you prove it's all OK before giving it millions of dollars?"

Some leading Associates have also questioned why Zimbabwe received a total sum of around $11 million when it has not played Test cricket for almost two years and at a time they are playing more cricket than ever and receiving a fraction of that amount.

Speed himself admitted that was not ideal. "The assumption has always been once a Full Member, always a Full Member. But I think there would come a time, if they can't resume Test cricket, when that would be reviewed."