Taibu talks of the threats which drove him into hiding

Tatenda Taibu: his family remain in hiding © Getty Images

Tatenda Taibu has spoken of the threats made against him and his family last Thursday which forced him into hiding.

Taibu, who earlier that day had fronted a press conference where the Zimbabwe players lambasted the performance of the board, explained that he was in a meeting with representatives of the Sports and Recreation Commission at a hotel in Harare when he was called by Themba Mliswa. Mliswa is well known in Zimbabwe as a Zanu-PF activist, and he has recently surfaced as chairman of the newly-created Mashonaland West province.

Mliswa introduced himself and asked whether Taibu knew who he was - Taibu replied that he had only heard about him. Mliswa then accused Taibu of being "a black boy being used" at which point Taibu interupted. Mliswa went on to say: "I know where you live and I will come there and beat you up." At that, Taibu hung up.

Mliswa called back soon after, but as Taibu was on another call, the phone diverted to his wife, who was in the car outside the hotel waiting for her husband. Mliswa, Taibu explained, immediately started shouting at his wife.

When he returned to the car and discovered what had happened, Taibu called a contact in the state security who advised him to go and report the matter to the police, which he did. The individual from state security then called Mliswa and warned him not to call again.

Given that Mliswa was arrested and charged with assault in 2003, the decision was reached to take the threats seriously, and Taibu, his wife, and his three-week old baby were taken to a nearby hotel for the night. Although Taibu has since returned home, his wife remains scared and is staying with friends.

Asked about a column in yesterday's Herald in which Mliswa launched a bitter attack on him, Taibu said that the truth had not been printed by the local media which had given Mliswa free rein to criticise him. He added that his view, and that of the other players, remained the same - namely that Peter Chingoka, Ozias Bvute and people like Mliswa were not good for the game, and while they remained, the players would seriously consider a strike.

"I told the truth about the crisis in cricket and nothing was written in the local press. Now a guy threatens a national captain and gets to say whatever he wants and that gets published, I just wonder how that works. Usually I am a quiet guy who doesn't usually like to get involved in a lot of things, but when these guys [Chingoka and Bvute] started to put the race issue as the major cause of problems in cricket, I just felt I had to make a stand and tell the truth. It's simple as it can be, cricket is not being run properly.

"There is no worse thing as captain than going to practice and issues being discussed by the players have got nothing to do about the game but are all about governance issues," he said. "It just shows that the players are not concentrating."