As a team, Zimbabwe has been a minnow, barring the occasional upsets, including one against India in a World Cup.
MUMBAI: As a team, Zimbabwe has been a minnow, barring the occasional upsets, including one against India in a World Cup. But as a member nation of the International Cricket Council, Zimbabwe have been a monster.
Already the issue has scalped a head and a break in 100-year-old tradition. Now it could cause a shift in a World Cup.
Following England Cricket Board’s decision to scrap bilateral ties with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, there are now question marks over England’s right to host the Twenty20 World Cup. ECB has flatly denied reports that the second World T20 Championship, scheduled to be held in England in 2009 June, is in danger of being shifted, but ICC has said the issue will be discussed at its scheduled annual conference from June 29 to July 4. The position of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could be key to the fortunes of the tournament.
“The executive board will give the final ruling,” ICC spokesman told DNA. The executive board meets next Wednesday and Thursday.
The venue of the annual conference itself was connected to the Zimbabwe issue. Traditionally, the Lord’s in London has been the venue of the conclave but it had to be shifted to Dubai following England’s refusal to grant visa to ZCU chief Peter Chingoka. Now that England has slammed its doors on Zimbabwe — because of the political turmoil in the African nation — ICC has a touch choice to make. A couple of months earlier, ICC’s chief executive officer Malcolm Speed had to be removed for his hardline stand on Zimbabwe.
There are also talks that England, which recently launched the tournament with a lot of fanfare, may eventually allow the Zimbabwe team to take part in the World Cup which is an ICC event on the ground that the ban is only on the bilateral programmes. ECB spokesman Colin Giboson, without willing to comment on that possibiliyt, said they will start selling the tickets for the event from Monday.
Meanwhile, the BCCI officials were unwilling to pass a comment but there is a belief that the ECB has spoken to Sharad Pawar when the Board president was in London for the 1983 World Cup celebrations.
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