Mark Vermuelen interview on BBC

Great read indeed. Listening to the happenings in his own words in such great detail - I never thought he would come out with this. Hope he gets to spend a more peaceful and less eventful life after cricket.

Let me tell you that ZC has messed up quite a few ex and current cricketers' heads, he ain't the only one. One of the reasons is that there's no money in the game here and domestic players, in particular, can barely subsist from the game and because of the state of the economy, can't get a job outside of it. Very few of the players have any qualifications to fall back on (hence Bvuti's outburst). Youngsters leaving school with enough qualifications for University entry are doing just that (and not in Zim!) because professional cricket is not an option here. Once they apply themselves to their studies for 3-5 years and don't play a high standard of cricket they then can no longer make a franchise side if they even consider returning to the game. If you put all the direct ZC issues aside, the current economic issues prevent new blood coming through the ranks. If you then factor in the development coaches' racial bias and the extraordinary way they select players for age group trials, how they conduct the trials and then finally how they select national age group sides you realize that we don''t have a snowball's chance in hell of sorting this mess out. If anyone is vaguely serious about sorting anything out here, this age group nonsense needs to be sorted out as a top priority. The main perpetrator (unfortunately he has ZC's blessing) should be investigated and convicted of wholesale theft of funds from all 5 franchises and the endless tours he's been on, but sadly he will remain in situ and continue to milk the system at a lower level, but worse, will prevent any meaningful age group development taking place. I can't begin to emphasize what damage this fellow has done over the years, he is a scoundrel of the highest order and his "untouchable" status and fraudulent credentials are well known in the cricketing circles here.

I know of one school leaver this year (quality all rounder), who wants to play pro cricket and should be given a franchise berth if selectors were smart, but he's not even contemplating it. He's off to play pro cricket in Holland and he will most definitely do very well as he is amazingly talented. Will he come back and play cricket here in years to come? Highly unlikely. I'd like to see ZC actively encouraging good school leavers to further their education and cricket elsewhere (as they have zero to offer here) and hope that things improve here in the meantime and then hope that they will return. Unfortunately it's seen as unpatriotic, and has a racial slant. But the sad fact is that they really like a bunch of under-educated, unqualified cricketers that they can bully and push around because these guys have no alternatives and have no idea how to stand up for themselves.

My point is that sorting out the issues in our National side is just the tip of the iceberg. It will be interesting to see what Campbell's new role will be and how effective he is. If he again takes it on without any meaningful authority it's just going to be more of the same, and he lost a lot of credibility last time with the Dominus fiasco. If he assumes an MD role with the current admin still in place and thinks, or tries to sell the idea, that this time around he'll make a difference I would have to be very circumspect as to his motives, because the reality is that he won't achieve a thing. So far he's been all hat and no cattle, but let's hope he can stem the rot to some degree until there are some real changes.

I assume you are talking about Mr Singo ;)

A point to illustrate- just heard via the grapevine that the U18 team about to head down to SA for the Coca-Cola Week (Nuffield) have been waiting since 4pm for their blazers and other kit, only to be told after 6pm that it's not ready. They are leaving tomorrow at 5.30am but have been assured that they will get it just before boarding the plane and must go into the airport toilet to change into it so they can leave as a team. Somebody explain to me how this is possible?????

I will guarantee that they will be short changed with their financial allocation as well and that their transport will be a disaster (it always is).