×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Manase to appeal SRC suspension

Sport
Former Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chairman, Wilson Manase has criticised the four-year suspension imposed on him by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) after the national cricket team toured Pakistan in May.

Former Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chairman, Wilson Manase has criticised the four-year suspension imposed on him by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) after the national cricket team toured Pakistan in May.

BY SPORTS REPORTER

The veteran lawyer said he will appeal against the ruling at the Administrative Court, as proper procedures had not been followed. Manase, who lost the chairmanship post to Tavengwa Mukuhlani in August, said it was improper for SRC to single him out over the tour of Pakistan, saying the decision to visit that country was unanimously made by the ZC board.

“I did not single-handedly let the team go there with all the officials,” he told NewsDay.

“The board is made up of individuals and the leader of the delegation was Ozias Bvute,” he said.

“The decision to single out myself when the charge was against ZC boggles the mind. The charge sheet did not put me as a defendant in the matter. There are so many grounds of appeal to the Administrative Court.”

Manase said the hearing officer, Aisha Tsimba, was conflicted, as she sits on the SRC board.

“Rather than farm out the case to an outside arbitrator, the SRC became the aggrieved party, the judge and the executioner. What this means is that they became the adjudicators in a case in which they had an interest,” he said. “Therefore, the rules of natural justice, equity and good conscience, were violated by the SRC. That is a very strong ground of appeal to the Administrative Court.”

Manase said after the case was “supposedly” heard, Tsimba promised that the ruling was to be delivered in seven days, but it was delivered four months later.

He said ZC and himself were supposed to be called for the ruling to be delivered, adding that nothing of that sort had happened, accusing an “unseen hand conniving to tarnish my image”.

Manase said sport in Zimbabwe has “certain personalities with vested interests and that’s the cause of the demise of sport”.

Manase said the decision to ban him “embarrasses the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan who was so grateful of the tour that he wrote to our own President thanking him”.