Thank you and goodnight

While the hard-liners on the board will privately celebrate today's valedictory statement from 13 of Zimbabwe's rebel cricketers, no doubt claiming it as a victory, it is one that has been achieved at the cost of cricket's future in Zimbabwe.

The hard-liners' determination to further the government's cause has left Zimbabwe cricket in ruins. It epitomises life under Robert Mugabe in 2004.

Most of the best players have already gone, and the statement signals the end for the remaining few who could have helped Zimbabwe survive on the international stage. Behind the scenes, coaches and enthusiasts are also quitting in droves.

Almost all of Zimbabwe's sponsors, the life blood of modern cricket, are understood to be reconsidering their positions, reluctant to be tarnished by links with a board which is blatantly political and is widely accused of being racist too. And as other countries start to shelve plans to play Zimbabwe, fearing that they might be tainted by association and that their own sponsor and media relations might suffer, things will get progressively worse.

So, just as Nero fiddled while Rome burned, many now running Zimbabwe cricket will see today as a day to celebrate. It could, however, be a short-lived party.

And the statement should also cause a few tinges of embarrassment within the ICC. At first it steadfastly refused to be drawn into what it repeatedly insisted was a domestic issue. Alone in the cricket world the ICC could have made a real difference - but only belatedly got involved when it was realised that the "integrity" of Test cricket was under threat as Zimbabwe continued a club-standard team with only a couple of players of remotely international class. Until then, the ICC seemed to accept the official line peddled by the ZCU, and thus became an unwitting tool of the government's propaganda machine. The ICC only changed its tune when its chief executive was invited to Harare to talk to the ZCU - which then put up the shutters and refused to meet him.

This whole series of events - and it was only two months ago that Heath Streak's sacking set off the chain reaction, even thought it might feel like two years - has left world cricket much the poorer.

Last year Andy Flower and Henry Olonga started this particular ball rolling with their black-armband protest about the "death of democracy" in Zimbabwe. Maybe it's time for more black armbands, to mark the death of cricket there too.