Bvute departure long overdue

Bvute departure long overdue PDF Print E-mail

Saturday, 23 June 2012 20:10

[Ozias Bvute]

Ozias Bvute

Mehluli Sibanda

Senior Sports Reporter

LAST Tuesday, the local cricket community woke up to the news that controversial Zimbabwe Cricket managing director had relinquished his post.

While such news was not expected, it didn’t come as a surprise, it was long overdue. What has shocked many is the manner in which Ozias Bvute is being portrayed by some sections of the media.

In this democratic world, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how much they want us to believe it, it remains what it is, just their own point of view.

It is such a pity that many among us in the fourth estate have reduced ourselves to praise singers allowing obsession to cloud our objectivity contrary to the situation on the ground.

Bvute has been described as the man who triggered the winds of change, which paved the way for more black players to make it into the national team. That is far from the truth, most of the black players in our national team are there because they are talented, they didn’t need Bvute’s rabble rousing to make it into the team. Did Bvute play any role in getting Christopher Mpofu into the national team? The answer is a big NO, he does not even know how the lanky bowler came to play for the national team and people like Ethan Dube should get all the credit for the faith they have shown into Mpofu, et al.

To me and the rest of cricket followers in this country Bvute will be remembered as the man who prevailed over the darkest period in our cricket history during which we became the laughing stock of the international cricketing community.

In 2004, Bvute played a leading role in the sacking of 15 players who happened to be all white who had protested against the removal of then captain Heath Streak from his position. What followed was a moment of chaos which saw most players who made the core of the national team now being thrown into the deep end prematurely and the results were catastrophic as the senior cricket side became everyone’s punching bag in all formats of the game.

I believe that there could have been a better way of handling the situation, Bvute and his allies adopted a heavy handed approach while the players did not help the situation. Instead of the situation being handled properly, the whole of 2004 saw continuous bickering and it was the game, which suffered that dark period.

An entire generation of cricketers was lost and I believe that was the finest crop of players we ever had as a country and losing them when some of them were yet to reach peak took us back. So to suggest that Bvute brought change is ludicrous to say the least. Bvute brought gloom upon cricket and that is what he will be remembered for, nothing else.

Our team was forced to withdraw from Test cricket in 2006 largely through worrying results, which could have led to the country being stripped of Test status we got in 1992. Our team did make a return to the five-day version of the game but I think it will take ages for us to reach the competitive levels we displayed before 2004.

Bvute is a bully who frightens everyone who stands in his way, be it fellow administrators, players and even journalists. I was on numerous occasions a victim of his bullying. He threatened me in 2004 when during the so called “Rebel Crisis”, I decided to report the truth and refused to be fed with propaganda. I still recall in November 2004, on Bvute’s instructions to his then sidekick Lovemore Banda, I was pulled out of the Harare Sports Club Press box and made to remove a shirt bearing Streak’s name. I have been told by players of his bullying tactics as well so that goes to show what exactly a man he is. Even certain individuals who at some stage were his allies who played a role in getting him to the top were hounded out of the game when they disagreed with him.

It has been said that Bvute has left ZC in a better financial standing than it was when he took over in 2004 and I beg to differ there. While I have not seen any of the ZC financial statements in a long time but one thing I can say without a doubt is that ZC is literally broke with huge amounts owed to service providers who include hotels in Bulawayo and Harare. In 2008, ZC were cleared of any financial wrongdoing by an audit instituted by the International Cricket Council but the question I asked back then and now is where did the money go? When I started covering cricket in 2001, Zimbabwe Cricket was the most financially sound sporting body on the local front and every child aspired to play cricket. Fast-forward to 2012, ZC is mired in debt and is just now like any other sporting association.

Players have been complaining about their match fees and when they demand what is theirs, they are told to shut up and I am convinced that is one of the reasons why our national team players are not performing to their full potential. Our players are no longer boys, they have families to feed now so they ought to be given what is due to them on time, not get their match fees after years of waiting.

Bvute adopted a heavy handed approach in everything and got involved even in the appointments of provincial chairpersons. Right now we have an embarrassing scenario where someone who resides in Harare was appointed the Bulawayo Metropolitan Cricket Association chairperson. Was there no fit administrator to be voted into that position? I doubt very much, there were more than capable individuals in Bulawayo with knowledge of the game who could assume those posts but they did not fit into Bvute and Peter Chingoka’s agenda.

What a coincidence that soon after being elevated to the position of Bulawayo Metropolitan Cricket Association chairperson, Esther Chagadama found her way into the ZC board, it clearly shows that the whole thing was planned.

When ZC adopted a franchise system in 2009, the process of hiring chief executive officers was mired in controversy with Bvute ensuring that his loyalists got those jobs. Those in cricket circles know that the chief executive officers for Mashonaland Eagles and Mountaineers did not stay long in those positions, whether they quit or they were fired, one thing I know they ran down those franchises financially to an extent that at some stage players from Mountaineers went on strike just before a game against Matabeleland Tuskers. The Mountaineers players locked themselves in the changing room at Queens Sports Club and only agreed to take to the field after false promises had been made to them.

Bvute ran ZC just like his personal tuck-shop with no accountability to anyone. How else does he explain that our national team that used to play all over this country has now been reduced to a Harare national team? Even A side matches are now being played in Harare yet ZC have a mandate and an obligation to each and every Zimbabwean to take the game to the masses and having all cricket matches of note being played in Harare is not spreading the game.

I am reliably informed that Dominus Sport, a company in which Bvute and former Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell are majority shareholders holds the licence to run international games for Zimbabwe. How on earth ZC abdicated their duty to run the cricket affairs on behalf of us Zimbabweans and give those rights to Dominus Sport. In essence, Dominus Sport runs ZC, it appears ZC is now a subsidiary of Dominus Sport, which is the biggest fraud, and Bvute was behind all that. ZC’s role is just to attend ICC meetings only while Dominus Sport makes all the decisions on the running of the sport locally. Instead of ZC being the custodians of the game in Zimbabwe, Dominus Sport is now playing that role and that is really shocking, a company running a national sport instead of a national association doing so.

My sources also tell me that Bvute has left ZC to take up a role as director in Metropolitan Bank; I would not be surprised if funds from ZC were diverted to acquire a stake in the bank. The reliable source also told me that prior to his announced departure, Bvute was already running ZC by remote control while setting up base at the bank.

Praise singers have even gone on overdrive, describing Bvute as the best cricket administrator the country has ever had. I have been around long enough to interact with the likes of David Ellman-Brown, Qhubekani Nkala, Ethan Dube and Vincent Hogg and I can testify that those were some of the finest administrators of the game I have ever seen.

While we might never know the real reason why Bvute decided to leave his post but I smell a rat here. Did he really quit? Why is he saying that he would be involved on a consultancy basis, can’t he just walk away, get on with his life just like he wants us to believe? If he has faith in his successor Wilfred Mukondiwa, as he wants us to believe, then why does he still want to be a consultant?