1. "What we quickly realised was that hosting Tests is something that costs us a lot of money, and that is a commodity we do not have at the moment" ZC's recently appointed MD Faisal Hasnain told ESPNcricinfo. "As things stand, it costs us money because we get almost negligible amounts from our current TV rights and sponsorships, and these continue till 2019. We will concentrate on playing more ODIs and T20s, home and away, under the ODI league and the T20 open format, which will hopefully enable us to cut expenditure and potentially generate greater revenues."
Any Zimbabwean fan could have told you that Sherlock. Proved just how inadequate and underprepared you were for the role. Imagine a CEO saying this within months of his/her appointment. I told you he’s downright incompetent.
2. source the ICC Test fund no longer exists
3. … to play Tests at home … we just would not be able to sustain it financially, unless we get substantial help from the ICC or from some other source - and other funding sources are few and far between.
So why exactly did you abandon India? To get what from the ICC? I told you they are not getting anything from the ICC.
4. Crucial to their quest to better financial health is income from the ICC, in the form of distribution and World Cup participation fees, which makes qualification for the 2019 event even more important.
I told you that without qualification they will only get that money if they qualify for the CWC. I also told you they’ve flushed money down the drain for an event that they 99% will not qualify for.
5. Zimbabwe has embarked on an ambitious project to convince certain players who had left the country to return, but the flipside of that has been the toll it has taken on their finances.
I told you that the money spent on these players will hurt the organisation badly. All of you forget things like the costs of insurance, fees of drafting such complicated and stupid contracts etc.
6. Both Brendan Taylor and Kyle Jarvis are being paid more than they were at Nottinghamshire and Lancashire respectively, and were also given a small portion as an advance to secure their return. Solomon Mire, based in Australia, received what one source said was a "good deal, better than that of the other players who have stayed behind".
I told you this was extremely bad busniness with the returns NEVER EVER going to justify the means. Precisely because ZC knew well in advance of doing this that Tests were no longer relevant. Wait till Jarvis players ODIs & T20s. Then he will really look like an absolute waste of money and a thoroughly stupid decision by extremely stupid and incompetent fools!!!
7. Unsurprisingly, the treatment of the trio has created issues within the team. "Players who come back automatically get paid more than the guys who are there," one source said. "It's bad because there are players who have made sacrifices to stay in Zimbabwe and they are suffering."
It’s pretty clear that these new players are not really worth that much more than the players who remained and time will back that up entirely. Let’s see how much better they will do against Afghanistan than those who remained.
8. … employee and player salaries … part-paid at the end of October because of the financial challenges their board faces
Again it was silly of you here to try and deflect this. You said it was ok, only Admin not getting paid. Then again argued that it was temporary and they were waiting for funds to filter through from the ICC so they could get paid in full. You were in denial about a totally obvious situation. For what?
9. Zimbabwe's players have yet to receive their match fees for the Sri Lanka tour that took place in July.
So playing away is cheaper, and that’s your strategy, but even after you’ve played away you still can’t play players. How will it work out better in future when all Tests are away? Match fees will get paid? In any event players were never going to get paid October salaries with match fees outstanding from July.
10. A proposed increase in player allowance for this season's domestic matches has also not come to pass.
They offered domestic players an increase despite knowing they won’t be able to afford it. Standard Pakistani behaviour. In any even if Aliseni thought it wasn’t worth it then even that increase was an insult.
11. At least one board member is understood to have opposed the efforts to lure Taylor, Jarvis and Mire back because of the expense
This man(men?) is the biggest hero of cricket in Zimbabwe. He single-handedly tried to avoid the death of cricket in Zimbabwe. A side already going to fall behind other Associates in ODIs, and already behind a number of them in T20s has killed the game in Zimbabwe without providing solutions to that situation.
12. the prospect of having them in the team for the World Cup qualifiers motivated ZC to do "everything it could", according to the source, to convince the players to commit to Zimbabwe.
All the more reason why mass resignation and civil suits should happen WHEN they fail to qualify, and ZC should abandon the contracts because they neglected to include the definite performance clause to justify the expense. Whatever you think of them, Bvute and Chingoka would never have been this stupid.
13. the limited opportunities to raise money that will not be easy.
Again gutter journalism, and still no mention of India. Income from India used to be able to help ZC host Tests plus pay huge chunks of the Loan to reduce interest. Financials will definitely show that this loan has actually skyrocketed like never before in just the short stint of this Pakistani. They will prove that he has allowed it to balloon.
14. ICC money will be an important source of income and rationalisation of costs will have to continue. With no Test ranking points for Zimbabwe to concern themselves with, there would appear to be sense in not hosting home Tests. So even though they will not abandon Tests altogether, this could lead to a fundamental shift in outlook and the way they position themselves as a cricketing nation.
I told you cricket in Zimbabwe was dead. . Why rationalise costs if you’re “loaded” after the new ICC bumper deal to reduce India's cut for your benefit? Why ditch the Tests you can now afford? Unless you were duped?
15. In that light, it is not outlandish to wonder whether West Indies might have been the last team that will play a Test in Zimbabwe for a while. According to the current FTP, Zimbabwe are scheduled to host Pakistan for a two-Test series next year in June-July, a tour which also includes three ODIs and two T20Is. Preceding that, Australia visit for a tour that was originally scheduled to include two Tests, but no longer does; instead they will feature in a T20I tri-series alongside Pakistan
.So these guys are smarter than the old management hey. They found a way to avoid substituting Tests for LOIs?
16. The Logan Cup, Zimbabwe's first-class competition, for example, may be shortened from its current format - in which teams play each other in a double round - to a single round, and there could be an increase in domestic ODI and T20 competitions.
Indeed, cricket in Zimbabwe is well and truly dead!
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The one thing that I never expected was for forumites to go on the defensive and be in denial. Right in front of your eyes, in broad daylight, decisions were made to literally kill cricket in Zimbabwe, and the one place that you would expect to swiftly pick this up and start online petitions to block certain decisions and demand the dismissal of certain people actually gave praises instead. Mind boggling! I read somewhere that ZCF will be celebrating 10 years, and the sentiments as all of this was unfolding were extremely disappointing.
Years from now you will read this forum online and ask yourselves, how on earth did we miss this. This forum was supposed to be the catalyst to prevent such from happening, open people's eyes. To read people trying to shift blame to the past and years of mismanagement only serves to make things worse. Potentially you could be starring at a well thought out and well planned strategy to kill of Zimbabwe cricket, with some people complicit but you're shifting blame. This was not an organic death. This was murder of the highest degree. Malicious, willful and premeditated. But it was also a perfect murder because "ZC did everything it could" to avoid the death of cricket in Zimbabwe. Even better, they fed the "Rising Stars" an overdose of One Day cricket only! A precursor for their future!
This is all going to get even nastier and uglier. The journalists are still avoiding the ICC deal regarding the support towards the loan, the loan still standing and its status, plus India (BCCI). It will get even worse because of player discontent.
Whether you like it or not cricket in Zimbabwe is very dead now. More than it has ever been. Another point that you denied when I said it because at least back then ZC took the step of its own volition because ICC had no legal basis to force them to do so, plus ZIM knew they were still in control and could get back whenever they set their minds to it.
ZIM is not marketable. So revenue will actually decrease not increase - be it sponsorship or TV Rights deals. Their LOI results won't get any better. They stand a greater chance of dropping further down the rankings than rising.
In an nutshell, they are doomed, and I can assure you when the figures are finally released, what Firdose Moonda reported as "a small portion as an advance to secure their return" will actually turn out to not be so small because Brendan and Kyle would not have been so stupid to return if all of this was fully disclosed to them which it wasn't plus ZC had no legal obligation to, and the amount of money they received in advance actually means it's substantial enough for them to be too indebted to ZC so much that they won't be able to challenge or leave without having to face the prospect of buying themselves out of the contracts.
Most of you will try to discredit what I'm saying and deflect again refusing to appreciate the total uniqueness of this situation. However, like Liam, Tristan and Firdose, they too will inevitably be forced to gradually reveal the truth. They are so far out of their depth as far as this is concerned that they are literally being forced to put their names against every embarrassing " exposé "! So it'll be easy for you to do so from the comfort of the forum, but for them, they will have to endure the discomfort professionally.