Streak and his rebels head for court

The ongoing trauma in Zimbabwean cricket looked certain to be heading to the courts after the board and the rebel players began legal action against each other yesterday.

The group of rebel players, which has now increased to 15 after Charles Coventry and Gavin Ewing joined the gang, were accused of a breach of contract by the board for not making themselves available for selection for the one-dayers against Sri Lanka in protest. However, the players have responded by taking legal action of their own and now both parties have 21 days to settle their differences. If that doesn't happen, the situation will be dragged into court.

Matters were made worse when Heath Streak and his rebels failed to turn up, as ordered, to a training session in Harare yesterday morning. The message was loud and clear, and Vince Hogg, the managing director of the board, confirmed the inevitable. He said, "The next stage is letters to the individuals asking them to remedy their breach [of contract]."

The session was in fact washed out, but one of the players revealed that they were initially going to turn up for further discussions until they received a letter that morning. "We were going to pitch up at the practice, not to practise, but to walk into Vince Hogg's office and have a discussion," the player said. "We were going to act in good faith to try and solve the crisis. But we received the letter at 8.45am saying that if we didn't arrive at 10am we would be in breach of contract. Our lawyer called their lawyer, who said the ZCU were not going to budge on any of our demands. So what was the point of us going there? They have closed the door on us."

As a result, a plea on behalf of the rebels came yesterday from the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA), which voiced its "extreme concern" about the situation. Richard Bevan, of the English PCA, and who is also a member of FICA, said, "We are urgently requesting support from the ICC on this issue." He added, "We consider it a major crisis for the world game. We are in daily contact with Heath Streak and are offering legal and other help. We are trying to get a neutral organisation in Switzerland to mediate."

However, the ICC has so far been reluctant to get involved in the situation, something which Bevan feels should stop. "ICC member countries have a contractual obligation for ICC tournaments not to field a second-grade side," Bevan said. "While this would not apply to Zimbabwe's next home series against Sri Lanka and Australia, it would do for the ICC Trophy in England this September. India thought about putting out a second-grade side last year when they were in dispute with their players and had to back down."