The Letter To Auckland

The Herald
By Robson Sharuko
27th March 2010

DAVID COLTART, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, is a devoted fan of Scottish football giants Glasgow Celtic — that massive team from Parkhead that has about 10 million fans across the world.

He is old enough to have been a witness of his team’s landmark triumph in the 1968 European Cup and the significance of the Lisbon Lions’ sensational victory that day to the global Celtic brand that we have today.

When you are a fan of Celtic, passion runs naturally through your blood veins, and the team’s Old Firm battles with their bitter Glasgow rivals, Rangers, has created one of modern sport’s greatest rivalry stories.

These are explosive battles that, while influenced by football, go beyond the game and spread into religion and ancestry and have historically divided the city of Glasgow — just like Harare — into two blocs of green and blue.

Scottish clubs have found the going tough, of late, fighting in the jungles dominated by the big money of the English, Spanish and Italian heavyweights and Celtic’s 1968 success story now looks like a tale from another era.

But the supporters of Celtic have remained loyal to their team and, seven years ago, 80 000 fans travelled to Seville in Spain, for the Uefa Cup final against Portuguese giants Porto, and they were gracious in a painful 2-3 extra-time defeat.

Fifa and Uefa were so touched, by the exemplary behaviour of the Celtic fans on that night, that the two football governing bodies decided to give the club prestigious Fair Play awards.

Given that background, it’s probably safer to also assume that the spirit of Fair Play runs very deep in the veins of Coltart — if not stemming from a background related to his love for Celtic then from years of being shaped by the virtues of profession as a lawyer.

There must have been a lot of Zimbabweans who cheered Coltart’s passionate defence of this country, in general, and its cricket, in particular, as he reminded the Black Caps of New Zealand of the virtues of Fair Play and challenged them to fulfil their tour in June.

What was remarkable about Coltart’s initiative was that he took his gospel — in support of Zimbabwe Cricket — right into the homes of the New Zealand public.

His passionate defence of this country, which he described as a safer place to visit for the Black Caps than either the United Kingdom or South Africa, was not initially carried in the local newspapers but was sent directly to the New Zealand Herald.

The letter’s reproduction, in this newspaper under a different headline and analysis, was also carried around the world — from India to the United States and from the United Kingdom to Namibia — with newspapers like USA Today reproducing the article.

It went beyond the borders of cricket and international magazines like Rugby World and Road Runner also reproduced the article — signifying its impact around the world — while NewZimbabwe.com, who had their own version, said it was one of the most read articles on their website.

That is what is called impact and one has to give Coltart credit for that.

The minister was responding to the decision by the New Zealand cricketers to postpone their tour of Zimbabwe, scheduled to get underway on June 10, because of claims they were concerned about the safety of their players here.

It’s the second time, in as many years, that the Black Caps have postponed the tour of Zimbabwe and the New Zealand Cricket board now wants the matches delayed until next year or played at a neutral venue.

—It is clear from our recent discussions that the Government’s assessment of the security situation in Zimbabwe has not changed from that of a year ago, when the scheduled tour was postponed,” said New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan.

Coltart said he found it strange that the Black Caps could decide to stay away from Zimbabwe, on the basis of imaginary security and safety concerns, when it was clear that this country was a safer place to visit than the United Kingdom, South Africa or even the Indian sub-continent.

The minister said New Zealand was wasting a golden opportunity to be remembered as a nation that helped Zimbabwe Cricket during its journey back from the darkness, after years in which the sport was torn by internal strife.

There are concrete signs that Zimbabwe Cricket is stepping back to life — after a lengthy period of paralysis triggered by boardroom battles that were entrenched in race complications — and key figures have returned to help the game.

Coltart believes domestic cricket had the potential to play the same unifying role that was played by rugby, in the sensitive period shortly after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, in bringing South Africa together.

But, hidden deep in Coltart’s letter, were issues — related to the crisis that almost destroyed domestic cricket and its governance — where the minister, once again, appeared to re-open old wounds and trade blows with those in charge of the domestic game.

It’s not a secret that the relationship between Coltart and the ZC leadership has always been tricky and things appeared to get a little bit messy when the minister used his personal website as a medium to publish the views of an Australian writer who believes that Peter Chingoka is a thug.

That Peter Roebuck, the same journalist who made those remarks, has continued to see nothing positive about the developments unfolding in Zimbabwe Cricket — even to the extent of attacking fellow veteran journalist Neil Manthorp for writing a couple of positive articles — shows that there is more to his fight than just the game.

Some say it’s related to incidents that happened when he used to visit this country and found himself facing questions about the real nature of his fascination, or is it relationship, with some local schoolboys.

It’s hard to dismiss those fears, imagined or otherwise, against a background of Roebuck’s suspended jail sentence by a British judge in 2001 for his caning three young cricketers he had offered to coach.

Roebuck pleaded guilty to three charges of common assault involving three South African teenagers, between 1 April and 31 May, 1999, causing actual bodily harm, which was accepted by the prosecution and was sentenced to four months in jail for each count, with the sentences suspended for two years, at Taunton Crown Court.

So when Coltart told the New Zealand Herald that there was need for them to tour, simply because we are not only a safe country but issues like maladministration in the sport were being addressed, it also exposed his frosty relationship with the ZC leadership.

At a time when the same minister was preaching for the New Zealanders to forget about the past — the way the political leaders in this country appear to be doing to create the safe haven he was writing about — it was ironic that he also used the same opportunity to re-open old wounds.

“When it’s the clear wish of former Zimbabwe cricketers such as Heath Streak and Grant Flower — now both national coaches who have suffered in the last decade that this tour should go ahead — they, too, should be listened to,’’ wrote Coltart.

“Importantly, maladministration in cricket is being addressed, racism and tribalism in tem selection has ended and former doyens of the sport, such as Heath Streak, have been re-integrated.”

Yes, the return of Streak and company is key and only someone without a passion for domestic cricket would tell you that the exodus of the white players was a non-event and their contribution is not needed to take the game where it belongs.

But, to suggest that Streak and Flower probably suffered more — in the past decade — than Tatenda Taibu, Proper Utseya, Elton Chigumbura, Chamu Chibhabha and the other black players is, to a certain extent, playing the race card that the good minister appears to be vehemently opposed to.

To portray the white players, who rebelled against the establishment simply because they were not happy about some particular issues, are use them as the face of our battle to convince New Zealand to change its decision and tour this country, is not only wrong but an assault on the process of reconciliation prevailing in the game.

The problem, with Coltart’s appeal, is that it sends a certain message — by design or by default — that the only way we can get the Black Caps here is by telling them that their fellow white players are back in the fold in Zimbabwe Cricket structures.

In other words, rightly or wrongly, New Zealand can tour here if there is a certain white influence in the game — especially that bloc which turned against the establishment — and can’t do the same if the entire system is dominated by blacks.

Certainly, that wasn’t the message the minister sent out but, in an environment dominated by tricky race relationships and were the race card left a lot of emotional scars which are yet to heal, it’s a sensitive subject and wrong interpretations can be drawn from such statements.

When Coltart tells the New Zealanders that, “importantly, maladministration in cricket is being addressed,” it’s a huge statement given the background that even the ICC cleared the ZC leadership of such allegations.

What has changed within the structures of the ZC leadership, which Coltart’s address to the New Zealanders, appear to suggest?

Chingoka is still in charge and Ozias Bvute is still the managing director — that was the case at the time of the rebellion by the white players — and that is still the case now.

In times of battles, opposing factions tend to look for every weapon possible to use against their opponents and there were a plethora of allegations, from financial mismanagement on a grand scale to just about anything one can ever think of, which were leveled against the ZC leadership.

Not that the ZC leadership were saints and they have also conceded, as much, in recent interviews that they read the politics of their battles wrong and rather than see the clear signs that they were fighting a force bigger than those opposed to their values, they were actually fighting the world.

They are human, and they have their faults, but if the ICC investigation can clear them of questionable financial management, then isn’t it wrong to use the same carrot — that there is maladministration in Zimbabwe Cricket and it is being addressed — as a means of luring New Zealand here?

To suggest, as Coltart did, that “racism and tribalism in team selection has ended,” in his letter to the New Zealand Herald, was taking his plea a bit too far because the real battle of Zimbabwe Cricket was never about questionable drafting of certain players into the national team, but the resistance of an institution — for decades built on race prejudice — against change.

There were big mistakes on both sides — in a fight that was built on race — and the good part is many of those who were in the trenches have conceded that they erred, in one way or another, and have accepted that there is need for them to rebuild their battered game.

That is the reason why Streak and company have decided to come back and work with the leadership hoping that both sides can use the lessons from the past decade to build a foundation of success where the curse that almost destroyed their game will never again be allowed to return.

We have already seen positive things from that and the Stanbic Twenty20 Cup — which attracted a battery of sponsors who had fled the game during its bad times and, crucially, a huge fan base that had deserted the game — shows there is a light flickering in the distance.

The national team might have lost in the West Indies but they gave a fight and were certainly not humiliated and, for many of those games, it was closer than the scores suggested.

The absence of genuine pace, to spearhead the attack, remains a concern and hopefully the trials that are on-going and the return of Andy Blignaut will give us hope in that direction.

Therefore, against such a background, it doesn’t help the game that the minister re-opens old wounds and suggests that there was a time when the Zimbabwe cricket team was chosen on the basis of someone being Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika or Ndebele by the current leadership.

There is no doubt, in my mind, that Coltart played his innings — in defence of our country in that letter in the New Zealand Herald — with honour and he deserves to be commended for his stance.

It’s only unfortunate that, to hammer home his point, he somehow tainted his argument by playing the same race card that we believe is a cancer to our game and was the root of all the problems that ended up nearly choking it.

Coltart will certainly not be surprised to find that there are some people, within the ZC leadership, who believe that he didn’t exercise Fair Play in his letter when it came to issues related to the administrative side of the game.

And, for a man who supports a team called Glasgow Celtic whose fans are known to believe in the virtues of Fair Play, Coltart shouldn’t be surprised that there are some in the ZC would believe bowled a wide.

Comment:

Senator David Coltart