Speed’s departure highlights divisions over Zimbabwe at ICC

Speed was reportedly in favour of adopting a tougher line against Zimbabwe, and in particular with Peter Chingoka, the head of the Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) and who is an ally of Robert Mugabe.

In an ICC meeting in March this year, Speed had asked for the ICC to publish the audit, and was in favour of handing the matter to the ICC’s ethics committee to investigate the report. However, he was voted down by the board, due to strong resistance from ICC president Ray Mali and representatives from India, the ICC’s most economically powerful member.

The audit was commissioned by the ICC and was undertaken in order to establish whether money paid to ZC by the ICC was being diverted for personal and political gain. While the report found no evidence of individuals gaining from the funds, the auditors reportedly alleged severe financial irregularities within the organisation.

Gardening leave
As a result of the breakdown in the relationship between chief executive and president, it was announced by the ICC that Speed would be placed on ‘gardening leave’ until the end of his term as chief executive in July 2008. He will be succeeded by South African Haroon Lorgat. Announcement of Speed’s departure was made by David Morgan, the chairman of the England and Wales cricket board and ICC president elect (who will take office this summer).

“Mali and Speed have agreed that Speed will be on paid leave from April 30 until the end of his contract term on July 4 2008,” said Morgan in the statement. “This change of plan is the result of a fundamental breakdown in the relationship between the chief executive and a number of [ICC] board members, including the president, over a variety of issues that include Zimbabwe.”

Asked as to why the ICC chose not to publish the audit, Morgan replied that it was a reflection of the economic climate in Zimbabwe.

“The thinking behind it reflected the extremely difficult trading position that exists in Zimbabwe, and it was very clear that the report identified no particular individuals who were guilty of any financial mismanagement or malpractice. It's on that background that the board decided the report shouldn't be made public,” reports the Guardian.

Chingoka vindicated?
The ruling has been taken as a sign of vindication by Zimbabwe Cricket. “We accept that our accounting protocols at the material time – the period 2004 to 2006 – did not fully meet acceptable international accounting standards,” a ZC spokesman told Zimbabwean news agency ZimOnline.

“The ICC and KPMG also accept that we have since instituted remedial measures. Cricket South Africa have agreed to our request to assist in ensuring further improvement of the accounting procedures to avoid the recurrence of such an issue,” he continued.

The decision not to disclose the audit reportedly owes much to the relationship between ICC president Ray Mali and Chingoka. Mali took on the position of ICC president last year after the death fellow South African Percy Sonn, and has been keen to build a power base and counts Chingoka as an ally.

The relationship between the two goes back to over a quarter of a century ago. Sri Lankan newspaper, the Lankan Times, reports that the two have known each other since the 1970s when Chingoka was studying history at Fort Hare University in South Africa, with Mali teaching the same subject at the university, where they built up a friendship with each other.

Chingoka was also a member of the ICC Governance Review Committee that appointed Mali to the post of president. As one of his first acts as president of the ICC, Mali visited Zimbabwe, heaping praise on the development of the nation’s one-day cricket team, and indirectly criticised moves by some nations over boycotting the country, reports cricket website Cricinfo.com.

ICC consensus driven
Much of the political fallout within the ICC over what action to take on Zimbabwe stems from the nature of the organisation as a consensus based body says Mike Selvey, former Test cricket player and current cricket correspondent for the Guardian newspaper.

“[The ICC] is not an autonomous and definitive ruling body; rather it is a nebulous organisation whose constituents are the cricket-playing countries themselves. It relies on consensus among the national boards. Frequently it operates under constraint, unable, for example, to take the moral stance that the situation in Zimbabwe has been demanding for years, albeit using the threat of swingeing sanctions to prevent boards from pursuing their beliefs unilaterally,” writes Selvey.

The issue of sanctions came to the fore in 2007 when world champions Australia were asked to consider not touring Zimbabwe by the Australian government (see Australian government bans cricket team from Zimbabwe). Cricket Australia, the game’s governing body in Australia, would have been subject to a USD 2 million fine if it refused to tour Zimbabwe, which it managed to escape only after touring became impossible following a government ban. A similar decision awaits England in 2009.

Visa issues
Chingoka’s presence and the stance of the ICC towards Zimbabwe will continue to cause problems for the ICC, despite Speed’s departure. Uncertainty over British visa restrictions upon Chingoka, due to his close links with the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe, the annual ICC conference will be held in Dubai this summer, rather than at the Lord’s cricket ground in London which has hosted it for the past 99 years.

While Chingoka was not refused a visa, he was not granted one, as he withdrew his passport in order to travel to India part-way through the visa application process.

There are also rumours over a possible relocation of the ICC World Tenty20 tournament from England in the summer 2009 to South Africa over uncertainty as to whether Zimbabwean cricketers will be issued visas, though these have been dismissed by David Morgan.

“The ICC World Twenty20 will in my opinion go ahead here. I can't go into any more detail but I do not believe there is a significant threat of that [relocation to another country]," reports the Telegraph.

Related links

• The Lankan Times, “The Chesterfield Files, Dirty politics cloud the Speed issue”
• The Guardian, “Speed sent to tend his garden after Zimbabwe row”
• The Telegraph, “Zimbabwe cricket officials remain in the dock”
• The Guardian, “Hair treatment haunts Speed as ICC makes itself a laughing stock”
• Cricinfo, “Mali tips Zimbabwe for the top”
• ZimOnline “Audit Clears Zimbabwe Cricket”
• Play the Game, "Australian government bans cricket team from Zimbabwe"