Zimbabwe stakeholders urge ICC to act

Former Zimbabwe cricket stakeholders have broken their recent silence by urging the ICC to take decisive measures if auditors find the current Zimbabwe Cricket administration responsible for the misappropriation of funds.

In June the ICC appointed a top South African audit company, KPMG, to look into Zimbabwe Cricket's accounts after Malcolm Speed, the ICC's chief executive, said in a leaked document that he believed board funds had been squandered.

The auditor's findings were expected to be presented to the ICC's board meeting in Dubai this week, but that was postponed and the ICC accepted an undertaking that the exercise will now be finalised "as soon as possible."

A former influential board member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said if the audit named culprits then they must be booted out of sports administration for good. "Once the audit results are known, [if anyone is named they] must never be allowed to administer cricket and sports again, they must be must be brought to book because they have enriched themselves while the game suffers."

Cricinfo sources have also said an audit arm of the Sports and Recreation Commission, led by experienced Zimbabwean sports administrator, Mark Manolios, was also doing its own investigations into ZC's financial handlings in order to lead by example as the country's supreme sports regulatory body.

Another former Zimbabwe provincial administrator, who spoke to Cricinfo from South Africa, urged the ICC to use the audit results to take a firmer stand on the Zimbabwe issue. "This is a brilliant opportunity for the ICC to redeem itself on Zimbabwe," he said. "Us, as the legitimate stakeholders of Zimbabwe cricket, feel the ICC has neglected our cricket in Zimbabwe and let it die. We await too see what sort of action they will take this time. It's not late for them to save the situation."