The BBC article “Brendan Taylor: Why I quit Zimbabwe team for Notts” by Kalika Mehta has several inaccuracies. Who paid Taylor £131? For the 2015 International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup, match and appearance fees ranged from US$27 000 to US$52 000 per player.
Zimbabwe Cricket
Outside the World Cup, centrally contracted players like Taylor are on a retainer and match fees which we cannot reveal on the grounds of confidentiality. Suffice it to say that Taylor was, at the time of his departure, one of the highest paid Zimbabwe cricketers and that category claims in excess of US$100 000 per annum.
As for the “meagre 30p per run”, that sounds to us like prize money. If we are right, then the fact is prize money was determined by performance at the tournament, not by ZC. Still, the players got such an amount that sharing it out among themselves would leave Taylor with much more than £131.
Zimbabwe “has never prospered since being granted Test status in 1992”. Surely that is relative. Our results compare favourably with those of any other low-ranked nation.
There is mention of a dispute over the allocation of “Z$650 000 (£1 219,90)”. First, the dispute was not between ZC and the players but among the players themselves. Anyone who disputes that should still agree with us on the next correction: Zimbabwe was not using Z$ when the players left for the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup! So much for accuracy.
We may complain about the level of taxation in Zimbabwe, as people do elsewhere. But we have tax bands, and those earning below US$300 are not taxed. Yet the reporter refers to “a set tax of 50%. Really? Well, not even on the highest figure cited in the franchise salaries range by the reporter.
Craig Ervine is listed as one of the players who opted out of playing for Zimbabwe. But he came back to a franchise contract. Could he have done that if our contracts were not lucrative? And Craig Ervine played for Zimbabwe a month ago!
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Kyle Jarvis has also been back on a franchise earn-as-you play contract. Still not lucrative?
The article on Taylor opting to play for a county rather than his country also talks about Andy Flower and Henry Olonga. What is the relevance of that to the Taylor issue, or is the article much more than that? A demonisation of Zimbabwe perhaps? Since the reporter sees the relevance, one should wonder how a Zimbabwe that hounds Andy Flower away allows his brother Grant to take up a national post after Andy is “safe” in England. And how in fact Grant peacefully served out the larger part of a two-year contract until he asked to be released two months earlier to take up a post in Pakistan.
Zimbabwe’s Test status was not “suspended”. We voluntarily withdrew and voluntarily returned. The reporter could have easily confirmed with the ICC.
It is not true that a “predominantly white team was deemed unacceptable” in Zimbabwe. The team remained “predominantly white” from Independence in 1980 to 2004, when the predominantly white players deliberately walked out over money and board issues such as captaincy and selectors.
Results in Test matches prior to that period were not particularly impressive!
There have never been quotas in Zimbabwe cricket! If Sean Ervine rebelled against them, how come he has been back to play domestic cricket? How come he made himself available for the World Cup in the West Indies but was stopped short by his county contract?
The issue of the club game needs to be seen in perspective. The concept of a club is an organisation made up of members and run on their subscriptions. But because of our emphasis on development so that we can transform a once-minority sport into one accessible to the majority, ZC has to be involved in the club game to a greater extent than elsewhere.
“However, sport in Zimbabwe seems to be in peril . . . ” Now the reporter finally comes out: this is not about cricket or indeed any other sport in Zimbabwe. This article is about Zimbabwe!
