The Sunday Mail
Brighton Zhawi
With every passing week, the walls around Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani keep closing in.
Although he survived the clash with the Sports and Recreation Commission, the International Cricket Council suspension, the retirement of some of the Chevrons top charges, Mukuhlani has certainly seen better days.
The ZC chair now appears to be pinning his hopes on Zimbabwe’s reinstatement as an ICC full member state when the ICC convenes in Dubai next week.
Zimbabwe is currently under ICC’s suspension since the SRC’s nullified the outcome of the mother body’s election in June.
When the SRC suspended the ZC board in July, together with acting managing director Givemore Makoni, this was deemed as government interference by the ICC.
Upon suspending Zimbabwe, the ICC stated that the country could only be reinstated after the reversal of SRC’s move within three months.
Last month, SRC’s interim board, which was led by Dave-Ellman Brown, was cast aside, thereby paving way for the Mukuhlani-led board.
“We engaged SRC and we now have a good working relation with them. They are the regulators and we fully respect their authority,” he said.
“We expect to be operating in full swing in the coming weeks as we expect the ICC to lift their suspension when they convene next week,” Mukuhlani told The Sunday Mail Sport last week.
Zimbabwe’s suspension saw the country’s senior teams not participating in the male and female World T20 Qualifiers.
ICC’s funding to ZC was also frozen.
Mukuhlani admitted that the episode has been his toughest since he became ZC chair in August 2015.
‘It has been tough for everyone. Missing out on the two qualifiers was sad,” said the ZC chair.
“It doesn’t give one gratification, but everything happens for a reason. We have to plan for the future.
“At least we could organize bi-lateral series, we are glad that we played in Bangladesh and now Singapore.
“We also have the under 19s preparing for the World Cup to be played next year in South Africa. With funding from the ICC, we expect everything to be in full swing soon,” said Mukuhlani.
The ZC chair said his administration will have to make some changes after the envisioned reinstatement.
“Expect positive changes,” he declared.
“We obviously realized that we have some adjustments to make, we are going to work on developing our cricket.”
Mukuhlani also hailed Hamilton Masakadza for an illustrious career, saying the former captain can continue his cricket innings in another capacity.
“Whatever he is taking up next will be richer because he is a good guy, educated as well.
“We look forward to engaging him in the future. We will hear what he will do next, but we have so much respect for him and what he did for Zimbabwe Cricket,” he said.
