Zimbabwe - No team, no structure, no hope

In the Times, Michael Atherton says that on cricket alone, the situation in Zimbabwe is a complete disgrace. The first-class structure has fallen apart, wicketkeepers don't have enough gloves, there are no lunches or teas provided and there is no diesel to fuel the tractors and mow the outfields.

So what has happened to the millions of dollars given to Zimbabwe Cricket by the ICC? If only we knew. On the ICC's website there is a mission statement of values, one of which, under the heading “Openness, honesty and integrity”, reads: “We work to the highest ethical standards. We do what we say we are going to do, in the way we say we are going to do it.” Presumably, because the ICC is simply an amalgam of its constituent parts, these constituent parts sign up to such mission statements, too. But Zimbabwe Cricket has issued no accounts for public consumption since 2005.