The Herald

By Eddie Chikamhi

24 June 2010

Harare — THE Zimbabwe Cricket board is expected to meet this week to come up with a stance on former Australian primier John Howard’s nomination for the International Cricket Council vice-presidency.

Howard who was in the country yesterday, accompanied by the Cricket Australia chairman Jack Clarke met Zimbabwe Cricket management and discussed wide-ranging issues meant to improve cricket relations between the two nations ahead of the ICC meeting this weekend.

ZC was represented in the meeting by chairman Peter Chingoka, managing director Ozias Bvute and the board’s legal and constitutional board committee member Wilson Manase.

Howard was in the country to formalise relations ahead of the ICC meeting this weekend at which his nomination for the ICC post will be finalised.

“Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket, together with Howard as their nominee, took up the opportunity to meet personally with the ZC officials before the annual conference to formalise relationships and discuss the current challenges and progress of international cricket and those particular to the ZC Board,” said a statement from the Cricket Australia board.

Zimbabwe holds a crucial vote in Howard’s candidature to take on a two-year term as vice-president, becoming president of the game’s world governing body in 2012 can only be approved by at least seven of the ICC’s 10 Test-playing nations.

Howard was nominated by the New Zealand and Australian boards as their candidate on their turn under the ICC rotational policy.

Bvute said ZC are yet to meet to discuss the issue, contrary to reports that Zimbabwe had already taken a decision to vote against Howard.

“A section of the international media has erroneously created the impression that we have been at the forefront of a motion to block Howard’s nomination.

“This is not only maliciously correct but also ignores the fact that our structures dictate that such a decision can only be taken by the Zimbabwe Cricket board which is still to convene and state the position on this matter,” he said.

Bvute however acknowledged the frosty relations that existed between Zimbabwe and Australia in the recent past and said that would not in any way affect their decision on the matter.

“We are not vindictive people regardless of how badly we have been portrayed and treated in the past. Our concern has and will always be the welfare of the game.

“Our final decision concerning the ICC vice-presidency will be guided by what is in the best interest of cricket in this country,” said Bvute.

The ICC is expected to meet next week at a gathering at which Howard’s ascension to the ICC vice-presidency will be finalised.

However, Howard’s attacks on Zimbabwe during his prime ministerial days and his criticism of Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan’s controversial bowling action have led to some nations including South Africa questioning his appointment. A lack of support from the influential Indian board could lead to at least six nations voting against Howard, including Sri Lanka.

Howard’s problems in winning the ICC vote come after discontent in New Zealand earlier this year when Howard was eventually chosen ahead of the Kiwi candidate Sir John Anderson, a former NZ Cricket chairman.

Howard’s visit follows a similar trip to New Zealand and Australia by Education, Sports, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart last week at which both nations indicated their willingness to re-engage Zimbabwe in international commitments. Bvute also said other issues discussed at yesterday’s meeting included the ICC and the future of cricket in Zimbabwe.

He described the meeting as ‘frank, friendly and constructive.’

“I am confident that each party left this meeting with a better understanding of the other,” said Bvute. Australia are set to host a Zimbabwean team for the first time since 2003, following a meeting between Cricket Australia and Coltart.

In keeping with Zimbabwe’s plans for gradual re-engagement with the cricket community, any series will be played between “A” teams from the two countries.

Howard said his wish was to see the standards of the game improving in Zimbabwe.

“My personal wish is to see Zimbabwe fully re-integrated into the world cricket family and see the sport continue to grow in all parts of the world, including Zimbabwe,” he said.

Herald

23 June 2010

By Tendai Mugabe and Farirai Machivenyika

Former Australian prime minister John Howard is in Zimbabwe to solicit support for his bid to become the next International Cricket Council president.

According to Immigration Department sources, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart picked up Mr Howard at the Harare Interna-tional Airport yesterday afternoon.

The Herald is reliably informed that Minister Coltart accompanied Mr Howard to dinner at Australian Ambassador Mr John Courtney’s official residence in Harare.

Minister Coltart was yesterday curt when asked about Mr Howard’s visit.

“Why can’t you talk to Zimbabwe Cricket? He is meeting them tomorrow,” he said before switching off his mobile phone.

Ironically, Mr Howard in 2007 cancelled the Australian cricket team’s tour of Zimbabwe saying it would legitimise President Mugabe’s rule.

President Mugabe is the patron of Zimbabwe Cricket.

Mr Howard claimed President Mugabe would use the tour for propaganda purposes and opted to pay US$2 million to the ICC as a penalty for the cancellation.

Before that, Mr Howard’s government had imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe in an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2002 Presidential elections won by President Mugabe.

In 2007 his administration deported children of senior Government officials who were studying in Australia.

Mr Howard was also instrumental in Zimbabwe’s initial suspension from Commonwealth Councils in 2002.

Zimbabwe subsequently pulled out of the club of former British colonies in December 2003.

In May 2007, Australian Foreign Minister Mr Alexander Downer — under Mr Howard’s tenure — said they would extend A$18 million to fund the opposition in Zimbabwe ahead of the 2008 harmonised elections in contravention of the Political Parties (Finance) Act.

New Zimbabwe.com

by Nkanyiso Moyo

23 June 2010

FORMER Australian Prime Minister John Howard and the chairman of Cricket Australia, Jack Clarke, arrived in Harare on Wednesday for meetings with Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) officials.

The visit by Howard and Clarke follows a recent charm offensive to New Zealand and Australia by Sports Minister David Coltart to end the isolation of Zimbabwe cricket.

ZC chairman Peter Chingoka, managing director, Ozias Bvute and legal and constitutional board committee member Wilson Manase met with the two men.

Zimbabwe Cricket said the meeting discussed a number of issues including the International Cricket Council (ICC), the future of cricket in Zimbabwe and Howard’s candidature for the post of Vice President of the ICC.

Both Howard and Bvute later described the meeting as friendly, constructive and frank.

Bvute said: “I am confident that each party leaves this meeting with a better understanding of the other.”

Asked what his hopes were for the future of cricket in Zimbabwe, Howard said: “My personal wish is to see Zimbabwe fully re-integrated into the world cricket family and see the sport continue to grow in all parts of the world, including Zimbabwe.”

Following the meeting, Howard and Clarke were taken on a tour of the Harare Sports Club at their request.

“I have heard great things about how fantastic this ground is and I would not have wanted to leave before I got the chance to see it for myself,” said Howard.

It was supposed to be a formality that the former Australian Prime Minister would be approved by at least seven of the ICC’s 10 Test-playing nations to take on a two-year term as vice-president, becoming president of the game’s world governing body in 2012.

The ICC had asked Australia and New Zealand to put forward a joint nomination in February, as it was the turn of those two cricket boards under the ICC’s rotational policy.

However Howard’s attacks on Zimbabwe during his Prime Ministerial days and his criticism of Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralidaran’s controversial bowling action have led to some nations including Zimbabwe’s neighbouring country South Africa questioning Howard’s appointment.

A lack of support from the influential Indian board could lead to at least six nations voting against Howard, including Sri Lanka at next week’s ICC annual conference.

Howard’s problems in winning the ICC vote come after discontent in New Zealand earlier this year when Howard was eventually chosen ahead of the Kiwi candidate Sir John Anderson, a former NZ Cricket chairman.
The ICC meeting, usually held in London, has been shifted to Singapore.

Zimbabwe Cricket president Peter Chingoka is banned from travelling to Australia, the United Kingdom and the European Union over his links with the Zimbabwe government.

Next year Australia is set to host a Zimbabwean team for the first time since 2003, following a meeting between Cricket Australia and Coltart.

In keeping with Zimbabwe’s plans for gradual re-engagement with the cricket community, any series will be played between “A” teams from the two countries.

However, this still represents a major step for the African nation after years of sanctions and international condemnation.

IRIN

23 June 2010

HARARE – Chenai Moyo, 18, is confident she would have passed the examinations at her school in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, but for two years in a row there was no money; now she has to fend for the family and depends on an older man for support.

“I couldn’t register for examinations last year [2009] because my father had just passed away, and the little money that was there went towards his burial. My mother is not employed and now that she is ill the situation is worse for me and my brothers,” Moyo told IRIN. Her mother tested positive for HIV in 2009.

Moyo was a brilliant student but said she would probably never sit her O-Level examinations, a school-leaving certificate. “My mother talked me into marrying this man, who is an elder in our church. He has promised to look after my ill mother and my two brothers, but I have given up hope of ever going to school again,” she said.

She is not alone: recent education ministry statistics showed that some 100,000 learners (33 percent of those eligible to write O-level exams) and around 10,700 learners (29 percent of those eligible for A-level exams) had failed to register.

“This year … there are a number of students out there who have failed [to register] because of poverty,” education minister David Coltart said in a statement.

Zimbabwe’s ailing education system, once a model for sub-Saharan Africa, has buckled and all but collapsed under the economic and political crises of the past decade, when widespread food shortages, hyperinflation, cholera outbreaks, and an almost year-long strike by teachers in 2008 led to a dramatic decline in the standard of learning.

It is not uncommon for 10 pupils to share a textbook, and although the government drastically slashed school fees in February 2009, deepening poverty put even the reduced cost of attending government schools in some areas beyond the reach of thousands of children.

The government extended the initial exam registration deadline of 28 May by two weeks, but most people were sceptical that parents and students who had previously been unable to pay the fees – US$10 per O-level subject and US$20 per A-level subject – would be able to raise the money in time.

“The extension means nothing at all – the period is too short, and one wonders why the government is in such a hurry to close the door on students,” the president of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Raymond Majongwe, told IRIN.

“Besides, late entrants will be fined US$5 per subject and we don’t know where the government expects the poor parents that have failed to raise the examination fees to get the extra amount.”

Majongwe said he thought the ministry’s figure for the number of students who had failed to register for examinations was an “understatement” of the gravity of the situation.

“According to our own independent surveys, close to 200,000 O- and A-level students have been denied the chance to prepare for their future. There are thousands who have resigned themselves to fate, as they have failed to write in the past and are not part of the current statistics since they are not attending school,” he pointed out.

A headmaster at a secondary school in Seke rural district, about 40km south of the capital, said only 30 students at his school would write their O-level examinations this year.

“I was supposed to have 125 students sitting for their O-level examinations but only a handful managed to register,” he noted. “While the examinations fees might not seem too high, it should be remembered that the majority of households in rural areas still have large families to look after, and there is a significant number of child-headed families.”

The Courier Mail

By Ben Douries

23 June 2010

FORMER Australian Prime Minister John Howard is in Zimbabwe to try to shore up support for his nomination as the future boss of the International Cricket Council.

Howard is in Harare today with Cricket Australia chairman Jack Clarke, meeting key figures from Zimbabwe Cricket.

It comes ahead of a key vote at a weekend meeting of the ICC where Howard’s ascension to vice president (and future president) is due to be finalised.

Zimbabwe, apparently angry at Mr Howard’s stand against the Robert Mugabe regime during his prime ministership, had threatened to block Howard’s nomination.

Sri Lanka and South Africa also made it known they did not want Mr Howard in the job.

However last week Zimbabwe’s Sport Minister Senator David Coltart met Cricket Australia officials in Melbourne – and denied Zimbabwe was anti-Howard.

The Telegraph Calcutta

22 June 2010

By Lokendra Pratap Sahi

Calcutta: The pro-John Howard lobby in the International Cricket Council (ICC) is convinced that Zimbabwe will break ranks and end its opposition to the former Australia Prime Minister’s nomination as the next vice-president of the world body.

Sharad Pawar’s successor in the No.2 position will also succeed him as the ICC president, in 2012.

Pawar’s elevation is just days away.

According to The Telegraph’s sources, Howard’s backers are confident that Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chairman Peter Chingoka has been “won over” by outgoing ICC president David Morgan. This also follows a meeting between Zimbabwe Sports Minister David Coltart and Cricket Australia.

“Chingoka has been assured of Zimbabwe’s return to Test cricket, possibly in May next year, with a home series against Bangladesh… In return, ZC is to back off from opposing Howard,” is how one source put it.

Zimbabwe’s last Test (against India, incidentally) was in September 2005, the series which saw the infamous spat between Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell.

Nobody from ZC was available for a comment, till late on Monday, but the head of one of the boards against Howard’s nomination said it was “unlikely” that Chingoka would go along with a minority group.

“Look, ZC can’t disregard the sentiments of India, South Africa, the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh… In fact, there’s reason to believe that Pakistan, too, will sit on the same side as India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,” the gentleman maintained.

Apparently, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt is “opposed” to a politician, who hasn’t held any office in his own board, “hijacking” cricket’s No.1 position.

Pawar’s case is, of course, very different as he’s been associated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India for a decade.

Butt, one learns, will go along with the “consensus” reached (within Asia) before the ICC’s annual conference, in Singapore, from June 27-July 1.

The region’s Big Four are expected to meet before the annual conference gets underway.

Butt, by the way, is the outgoing head of the Asian Cricket Council and it’s Bangladesh’s turn next to have their man at the top.

Howard is Australia-New Zealand’s nominee and, had things gone according to schedule, the ICC’s Executive Board would have approved his nomination in April itself.

Nobody went on record, but till the Zimbabwe ‘development’, Howard wasn’t exactly assured even of England’s support.

England isn’t a big player, though. Indeed, to make it, Howard has to have India’s endorsement.

Major decisions require the approval of seven of the 10 Test-playing nations, all of whom have seats on the Executive Board.

Southern Times

21 June 2010

Harare – Zimbabwe sports minister David Coltart has been in Australia meeting government representatives with the hope of resuming cricket ties between the two countries.

This follows a meeting with Cricket Australia (CA) officials earlier in the week, including chairman Jack Clarke and chief executive James Sutherland, where Coltart argued Zimbabwe’s case for the resumption of cricket ties.

‘Senator Coltart briefed the chairman and chief executive on his view that cricket is starting to be restored in Zimbabwe,’ a CA spokesman said.

‘His view is that it would be helpful if world cricket was able to engage with Zimbabwe cricket to help with the further restoration of the game in that country.’

Coltart requested that Australia resume cricket contact with Zimbabwe at under-19 and Australia A level, a proposal that CA will consider.
However, a sticky issue during Coltart’s trip was the ICC candidacy of former Australian prime minister John Howard which is being opposed by Zimbabwe Cricket.

‘In terms of Zimbabwe’s laws I do not have the power to give direction to Zimbabwe cricket. So I’m simply playing a role of mediator and facilitator, because Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute can’t at the present time travel to Australia.

‘I will meet the Zimbabwe cricket board when I get back next week and convey to them what’s been discussed, and I hope that sense will prevail,’ Coltart said

Coltart travelled to New Zealand prior to Australia and the Black Cats have already said they would work towards touring Zimbabwe next year. New Zealand called-off a scheduled tour of the country this year, citing ‘security concerns’.

However, Zimbabwe recently hosted without incident a tri-nations One Day International series involving India and Sri Lanka where the hosts made it to the finals with some encouraging performances.

Newstime.co.za

Sunday, June 20, 2010

By Nicholas Ndebele

ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC) is targeting Bangladesh, West Indies and New Zealand as the first batch of countries to play when they eventually return to Test cricket next year.

ZC managing director Ozias Bvute has outlined an ambitious programme, driven by sports minister David Coltart’s drive to revive cricket ties with all nations, as the only way Zimbabwe can bounce back into Test cricket.

“It would be premature for us to jump straight into a normal playing schedule like all the other nations. Instead, we are working on a new calendar which will hopefully see us play Bangladesh, West Indies and then New Zealand over the next two years.

“We are yet to approach any of these boards with our request, though we would like Bangladesh to play in a Test match here in Zimbabwe, soon after the 2011 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup ends in April next year.

“The gradual re-entry is intentional, to allow our cricketers to build confidence and gain momentum. Supreme to all of this is the integrity of the results such that they are reflective of competitive cricket matches,” he said.

Zimbabwe has just played host to India and Sri Lanka in a triangular and T20 series.

“We will engage the rest of the cricketing world with the objective of playing once-off fixtures in Zimbabwe over a period,” Bvute said.

“We recognise that, in the short term, it may not be commercially viable for the other nations to have Zimbabwe touring, but we will engage them with the prospect of allowing out national team to play their A sides in their countries.

“This will allow our team to familiarise themselves with other playing conditions and ultimately gain more experience.”

Bvute stressed the need for the team to be consistent.

“The greatest hurdle we must overcome is for our team to be consistent. A lot more work needs to be done to ensure that the objective of playing consistent and competitive cricket is achieved.

“I am confident that the technical team we have around our boys, in both the franchise and national team structures, set us in the right direction.”

The domestic structures have also been revamped with the birth of the South African-style franchise system.

“It is hoped that our domestic cricket structure will serve as a valuable feeder system to our national team and, to this end, we have given a directive that our franchises engage coaches of a very high international standards .

“We have also made it mandatory that each team has a set number of foreign players,” Bvute said.

The Zimbabwean

Sunday,   20 June 2010

June 19, 2010

By Malcolm Conn

David Coltart is the acceptable face of Zimbabwe cricket.

A human rights lawyer and now Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister in Zimbabwe’s fragile inclusive government, Coltart shares a cabinet room with the man who once apparently ordered his assassination, brutal dictator Robert Mugabe.

Attempting to rebuild a shattered country many feared would become another Somalia, the least bloody choice for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in 2008 was to try to work with those who shattered it, and Coltart is using cricket as a vehicle for reconciliation.

He was in New Zealand and Australia this past week thawing relations with both governments and pleading with cricket officials to resume tours. So well was Coltart accepted, tours involving Australia A are expected to begin within a year.

“The decision the combined MDC made was to avoid the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives we would reach this agreement, brokered by the region, which involved us swallowing hard and entering into an agreement with a political party which had been responsible for hundreds of activists’ deaths and gross acts of corruption.

“I’ve had to approach my job as minister in the same way because I firmly believe this is the only viable non-violent option open to us as a country.

“The price is that people like Robert Mugabe are still in office, and the same applies to cricket, but one cannot live in the past. One has to move on.”

Cricket is often regarded as a microcosm of its country and this is no different in Zimbabwe, where the internationally disgraced hierarchy of Zimbabwe Cricket destroyed the game at all levels simply to stay in power.

Like the elite enjoying Mugabe’s patronage, they wanted to keep their snouts in the trough as television broadcasters and the International Cricket Council continued to pour millions into the pathetic rump that became Zimbabwe cricket.

“Zimbabwe cricket has been through a terrible 10 years and almost died but I think we are seeing its resurgence,” Coltart said.

“There are still obviously many problems within cricket and one has to see this as a process of transformation which is going to take some years, not just in terms of performances on the field but the way we run our cricket.”

So close is ZC president Peter Chingoka considered to be to the Mugabe regime, he is one of the few dozen Zimbabweans banned from visiting the EU, UK and Australia, forcing the ICC to move this month’s annual meeting from London to Singapore.

“Just as Robert Mugabe is a reality . . . likewise Peter Chingoka is president of Zimbabwe Cricket and without acting unconstitutionally and unlawfully myself I cannot lawfully remove him from that office,” Coltart said.

Former players and administrators have returned to the game, improving Zimbabwe’s performance to the point where in a seven-match triangular one-day series it hosted this month, Zimbabwe beat a weakened India twice and Sri Lanka once, making the final in front of India.

Coltart hopes Zimbabwe can resume playing Test cricket against weaker nations such as Bangladesh as soon as next year.

Chingoka and ZC chief executive Ozias Bvute, are believed by some to be behind an insidious behind-the-scenes campaign against Australasia’s nomination of John Howard as a future ICC president because of his strident opposition to the Mugabe regime.

What should have been a rubber stamp after Australia and New Zealand eventually settled their differences to nominate the former Australian prime minister has now become an embarrassing vote at the ICC’s annual meeting, which begins tomorrow week.

Not surprisingly, Chingoka and Bvute have hardly been forthcoming with Coltart, who has no direct role with ZC, but his influence is significant and he is determined to re-engage with Australia and New Zealand.

“I have spoken to Zimbabwe Cricket about this (Howard). They say they have not reached a decision,” Coltart said.

“I’ve reached a consensus with them. I as minister and they as Zimbabwe Cricket recognise it’s important that we normalise our relations with all cricket associations.

“Unless we do, we’re not going to achieve our aim of improving Zimbabwe cricket.

“One can hardly normalise relations with New Zealand Cricket and Cricket Australia if our first act is going to be to stand in the way of their preferred choice. Zimbabwe Cricket understand that.”

The ICC annual meeting this month will highlight just how well ZC does understand this.