Zimbabwe Cricket Union expenditure doubles

The Zimbabwe Cricket Union should spend about $15 million during the 1997-98 cricket season, which is more than double last year's budget of just over $7 million.

The chief executive of the ZCU Don Arnott confirmed that the union was going to raise its budget this year but said that the final figures were yet to be finalised with the finance committee of the union. "I can confirm from the top of my head that the expenditure is going to be about $15 million and we are expecting an income of $9 million which leaves us with a shortfall of $6 million and we will cover this with the surplus we made last year.

"If we do that, we will still have a shortfall of about $3 million. We have two options: either to prune our programmes for this year or to find other ways of raising money," said Anortt.

Last year, the ZCU made a net profit of $4,7 million of which $1 million has been set aside to form the seed money for a development fund. The ZCU made a total tours surplus of $8 million largely due to the successful English tour.

This season, however, the union is not likely to raise the large amount as TV rights may not be secured for the New Zealand and Pakistan incoming tours this season.

At the ZCU annual general meeting early this year, the union's president Peter Chingoka said his union continued to be beset by cash-flow problems "which could have been far more severe without the television revenue during the tour of England to Zimbabwe".

ZCU also still needs to secure sponsorship for the national team. "This is the major portion of our budget which will now increase further as our squad of retained players grows from nine to 12 for the year 1997-98," said Chingoka at the AGM.