Zimbabwe board accused of 'divide and rule' tactics

Beatrice Mtetwa, the lawyer appointed by the Zimbabwe players to try to recover money owed to them by the board, has told a South African radio station that she believes that clear the interim committee running Zimbabwe Cricket has adopted a divide and rule tactic to get at players opposed to the Peter Chingoka-led regime.

Mtetwa, who is one of Zimbabwe's leading defence lawyers, said the blame for that lay with the Sports and Recreation Committee (SRC) for letting individuals destroy the sport.

"I cannot understand how you can put back into the interim committee, the very people that the players were complaining against," she said. "You say they must sort things out, when its quite clear they had failed to sort things out before."

Since the SRC appointed the interim committee - headed by Chingoka, the very man opponents claimed was at the heart of the old board's problems - the racial and political clearout promised by the SRC has been evident. A senior administrator said that almost anyone opposed to Chingoka had been ousted, and that few Asian or white people remained.

The ICC has faced tough questioning over the alleged racial and political cleansing but, to date, has done nothing other than ask Chingoka to report back to them in March.