The Australian

1 July 2010

By Malcolm Conn

THE ICC snubbing of the former PM is a loss for cricket.

THE apparatchiks who so swiftly dispensed with Kevin Rudd last week have nothing on the faceless men of the International Cricket Council responsible for John Howard’s insidious demise.

The rejection of the former prime minister’s nomination for future president of cricket’s governing body was a gutless act committed by the presidents of cricket’s seven Afro-Asian countries, who could not even look Howard in the eye.

They have destroyed the ICC’s electoral system and cricket’s credibility in the process.

Zimbabwe, the pariah of cricket, began a whispering campaign against Howard months ago. Through the ICC’s anti-colonial machinations, it resulted in six of those seven presidents signing a letter on Tuesday night, after the first day of a two-day board meeting in Singapore, objecting to Howard’s nomination and refusing to let him address the board.

Only Zimbabwe, which began the rot, refrained from signing on the recommendation of its Sports Minister David Coltart, a long-time opponent of Robert Mugabe. Coltart has been trying to rebuild cricketing relations with Australia and New Zealand as part of an inclusive government.

Zimbabwe Cricket officials, who are closely aligned with Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, have been trying just as hard to tear them down.

The letter was an attempt to undermine Howard and force the countries that put him forward, Australia and New Zealand, to choose another candidate.

They picked the wrong man to bully. After a lifetime in politics, including 11 years as prime minister, Howard stepped squarely on to the front foot and went searching for answers from the presidents who were so keen to avoid him, button-holing one.

“I said, ‘What’s the issue?’ He said, ‘The issue is that some people around me think your appointment will be bad for cricket governance,’ ” Howard tells The Australian from Singapore. “I said, ‘How and why?’ He said he couldn’t say.”

Among the whispers, Howard’s support for targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe and opposition to economic sanctions against apartheid-era South Africa were apparently held against him. Howard rails against both suggestions. “I didn’t agree with economic sanctions against South Africa just as people like Helen Suzman, who was sympathetic to Mandela and the ANC, didn’t agree with them either,” he says.

“I’m not going to walk away from that, but these things weren’t mentioned.

“If I was a supporter of apartheid I could understand it, but I wasn’t. No Australian political figure of that era was sympathetic to apartheid, it’s just that people had different ways [of opposing it].”

Likewise, he is unfazed about his action against Zimbabwe while in government, with travel bans on officials including the duplicitous president of Zimbabwe Cricket, Peter Chingoka.

“I wear the criticism as a badge of honour. I don’t apologise in any way for the criticism I offered of the Mugabe regime,” Howard says. “If it was in some way based on past political positions, well, that’s a very bad precedent to be establishing for the ICC.

“I’m out of politics. I don’t have any political agenda internationally other than, of course, promoting good relations between Australia and our long-term friends, many of which are cricket-playing nations in both Asia and Africa.”

The cowardice of the secret seven was complete when, on Wednesday at Raffles City Convention Centre, those opposing Howard, which amounted to every leading cricket country except England, Australia and New Zealand, couldn’t even find the courage to take a formal vote.

Australia and New Zealand were simply asked to come back by the end of next month with another candidate. No explanation was given.

A furious Cricket Australia has called an emergency board meeting, to be held within a week, and refused to rule out renominating Howard, who refuses to withdraw his bid for the presidency.

Such a stand is likely to be futile and pragmatism is expected to take over as the fury of the snub subsides. No one wants to get cricket’s cash cow, India, off side.

Just how willing Australia and everyone else is to placate a nation responsible for up to 80 per cent of the game’s wealth became obvious when India last toured during the 2007-08 summer.

India lost the second Test in Sydney in close and contentious circumstances and demanded West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor be sacked for not giving Andrew Symonds out caught behind. The ICC sacked Bucknor.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting reported India’s spinner Harbhajan Singh for racial abuse against Symonds in the same Test and he was suspended by ICC match referee Mike Procter.

India threatened go home. Terrified that millions of dollars in television rights would disappear on the same plane, Cricket Australia held a late-night meeting with its increasingly disillusioned players, convincing them to drop the charge of racial abuse for simple abuse at an appeal.

They reluctantly agreed, the ICC made a complete hash of the appeal, and Harbhajan escaped suspension.

Cricket’s most powerful man is also its most faceless. Leading Indian-based cricket website Cricinfo describes Board of Control for Cricket in India president Shashank Manohar as an introvert bordering on reclusive.

A prominent Nagpur lawyer who became the BCCI president in 2008, he is said to be a man of simple tastes who does not carry a mobile phone or a watch, did not have a passport until 2007, and his first foreign trip was to Dubai to attend an ICC meeting in 2008.

Manohar was, quite ironically, a staunch Sharad Pawar loyalist. No longer. Pawar, who was elected yesterday as ICC president, with no vice-president following Howard’s rejection, had previously supported Howard, or at least the process that would have seen him elected. Manohar, too, had initially told Australia that India was supportive, then all went quiet. Apparently, Zimbabwe had been on the phone.

Such are the shifting stands of cricket politics. Manohar was once vice-president of the BCCI under Pawar and their relationship goes back to the time when Pawar was Maharashtra’s chief minister and his father, V. R. Manohar, the advocate general of the state.

Manohar was not the only one to be corralled back into the Afro-Asian bloc. Pakistan and Bangladesh told outgoing president David Morgan, a retired Welsh industrialist, that they too would support the process that should have rubber-stamped Howard into the job months ago. In the end neither did.

Former ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, who was sacked in 2008 attempting to bring Zimbabwe to account for dubious financial dealings, described Pakistan Cricket Board president Ijaz Butt as a “buffoon”.

He wasn’t a great deal more complimentary towards former Bangladesh cricket heads.

“During my seven years as chief executive of ICC there were two presidents of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, both of whom were members of parliament and both of whom ended up in jail when there was a change of government,” Speed tells The Australian.

But Chingoka is the most disturbing and dangerous man on the ICC board, as he has proved again. A big man with a big smile in a starving country, he has followed the lead of his Zanu PF masters by destroying the game at all levels, just as Zanu PF has destroyed the country so those at the top can keep their snouts in the trough.

The Zimbabwe cricket team is a rump and has not played Test cricket for five years, yet still maintains full voting rights and all the millions of dollars in dividends that are distributed to the 10 full member countries.

As the new Sports Minister in the inclusive government, Coltart has been attempting to rebuild the national team by luring back disaffected players and administrators. He even asked his long-time protagonist Mugabe if he had any issue with Howard, an outspoken critic of Zimbabwe’s regime. “He said what’s past is past and he had no objection. That Zimbabwe Cricket must act in its best interest,” Coltart tells The Australian.

Sadly, The Herald in Zimbabwe, a Zanu PF mouthpiece, did not take the same conciliatory line about Howard’s dash to Harare last week for what proved to be a fruitless meeting with Chingoka and his flunkies.

The opinion piece is a rant that, once again, highlights the bizarre logic of a regime that has destroyed a country and its cricket.

“Cricket and world sport . . . does not need the likes of Howard, lest the sport be drawn into the gutters. He . . . cannot talk of developing a sport, which he has done so much to destroy for political ends,” the newspaper says. “He is a wolf in sheepskin, with the sole aim of returning the sport to the dark ages where it was a preserve of the Anglo-Saxon countries . . .

“He has nothing to offer to sport, which spreads a message of unity, against his racist thoughts.”

Remarkably, ZC keeps trying to tell the world it remains neutral on Howard, deflecting attention to South Africa and India.

The ICC’s decision to destroy its processes and protocols was criticised in an editorial in the Indian Express. “The campaign against Howard, more through rumours than official statements, centred on his decision when he was PM to put sanctions on cricket officials of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe,” the newspaper says.

“His comments on Muttiah Muralitharan’s [bowling] technique are also cited as proof of his insularity.

“In effect, the dissenting cricket boards are sending out the message that . . . they can keep out anybody who may have ever disagreed with one of them, that too in a personal or political capacity, with no reasons given. That’s dangerous for the sport.”

Malcolm Conn is chief cricket writer for The Australian.

The Telegraph

By Nick Hoult

30 June 2010

Andy Flower, the England coach, will advise the MCC on Thursday about reopening cricketing ties with Zimbabwe.

Flower’s own international career was ended in 2003 when he wore a black armband at a World Cup match in Harare to protest against the Robert Mugabe regime.

He has subsequently rebuilt his life in Britain while Zimbabwe have spent five years in the cricketing wilderness after losing Test status.

Last year their cricketers reluctantly withdrew from the World Twenty20 in England after it was made clear they would not get visas.

The Zimbabwe Cricket Union has also been hit by a string of allegations of financial irregularities.

But the return to the fold of several former leading cricketers and the appointment of the former England batsman and Surery coach Alan Butcher as head coach has led Zimbabwe to begin lobbying for a return of Test status.

The ZCU is also said to have cleaned up its act under the guidance of officials from Cricket South Africa, and the MCC is considering sending a team to tour there later this year, the first visit by an England side since 2004.

Flower, whose brother Grant will join Butcher’s staff after the English season, told Telegraph Sport: “There are some strong parallels in what has happened in the cricket scene and what has happened in the country.

“The Mugabe regime cannot last forever and already Morgan Tsvangirai and David Coltart [minister of sport] have a foot in the door in government, though I know it’s a tricky situation. At least their influence means there is constitutional debate and things have started to move in the right direction again on both those fronts.

“I think they are doing their best to resurrect cricket after a period of mismanagement and I’m glad there is this energetic push to get Zim back on the international stage. There are some very good people getting involved again.”

ABC

30 June 2010

MARK COLVIN: Another bad day for a former prime minister.

At the International Cricket Council meeting in Singapore, the former prime minister John Howard has failed in his bid to become the next vice president of the sport’s governing body.

The bid was lost without a vote being taken. But was it the fact that Mr Howard has never been a cricket administrator or his past criticisms of Robert Mugabe’s regime which scuttled the bid?

Malcolm Speed is a former chief executive of the ICC. I asked him about the decision a short time ago.

MALCOLM SPEED: I think it’s disgraceful. I think it’s an insult to Australian and New Zealand cricket. It’s a farcical situation where the best credentialed candidate ever put forward for the position of president of the International Cricket Council has been rejected on political grounds.

Now to put that into context – two things there. The current, the man who’s about to take over as president of the International Cricket Council, is a minister in the Indian government with very little background in cricket. If Australia and New Zealand say well that’s fine, we’ve put up our candidate and you’ve rejected him, then next in rotation is Pakistan and Bangladesh. The presidents of the cricket boards of both of those countries are appointed by the government, so we see a farcical situation here.

John Howard didn’t seek this position. He was approached by Cricket Australia. I think to say that he’s lost his bid is incorrect. Cricket Australia and Cricket New Zealand have lost the bid to have their chosen candidate appointed to this position.

MARK COLVIN: But why is opposition to Robert Mugabe so unpopular among other cricketing nations than Zimbabwe?

MALCOLM SPEED: I think it goes wider than just the opposition to Robert Mugabe. International cricket is a very complex and political organisation. I think there would be a multitude of reasons for rejecting Mr Howard’s nomination. The opposition to Mugabe perhaps one that plays out in Africa. Other reasons would play out in the Indian sub-continent.

MARK COLVIN: For instance that Mr Howard accused Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sri Lankan bowler, of being a chucker?

MALCOLM SPEED: Um, maybe but I think it’s perhaps more deep seated than that. I think there is a wish from some people involved in cricket in India to downgrade the status of the International Cricket Council, and having Mr Howard there as the incoming president in two years would be an obstacle for that objective. So I think it’s perhaps more deep seated than superficial instances such as calling Muralitharan a chucker. I think there’s more to it than that, but we’ll never know.

MARK COLVIN: Can you explain this to me. I’ve seen reports that although as you say it’s an Australia, New Zealand bid, I’ve seen some reports that there is anger that Sir John Anderson, a New Zealand candidate was rejected. What’s the background to all that?

MALCOLM SPEED: Well Sir John Anderson is a very fine man. He was the president of New Zealand Cricket for many years and served on the ICC board. Australia and New Zealand under this rotation system would have put forward a joint candidate. They did that after a good deal of consultation and quite some anguish between those two countries’ cricket boards. And John Howard was the chosen candidate of the two countries and as I understand it from afar, both countries are still well and truly behind Mr Howard.

MARK COLVIN: And there is a system of rotation in this is there? I mean Mr Howard should normally have just been a shoe-in?

MALCOLM SPEED: Should have been a rubber stamp. In past instances with a system similar to this other countries have put up candidates where Australia and New Zealand could have taken exception to them but they were prepared to respect the sovereignty of the country that had put them forward and they voted for those people to take over the presidency of ICC. For the countries now to reject Australia and New Zealand’s candidate is an insult.

MARK COLVIN: Now, why does it matter? What would John Howard have been able to do that he now won’t be able to do?

MALCOLM SPEED: It’s a good question Mark. I think what John Howard would have brought to the position was experience. Whether you agree with his politics or not he is a very good politician in that he was elected in difficult circumstances four times. He ran the country for 11 years.

He would bring diplomatic skills. He is used to running a board or a cabinet with diverse opinions. I think he would have brought to it a statesman-like approach, just a completely different breadth of experience from the other presidents that ICC has had in the past, many of whom have been very good at the job. I thought he was ideally suited.

MARK COLVIN: And the Zimbabwe sports minister was here last week and saying that he wanted normalisation between Australia and Zimbabwe, but clearly he was having a lot of difficulty with his own cricket council, or cricket board back home. Is normalisation, a thaw, now impossible?

MALCOLM SPEED: I think that’s a matter for Cricket Australia and we need to bear in mind that Zimbabwe is still a very troubled country. The sports minister there, Mr Coltart, I don’t know him but I hear good things about him. I think he is trying to solve some of the problems that cricket in Zimbabwe has faced but this won’t help.

MARK COLVIN: Malcolm Speed, former chief executive of the International Cricket Council.

Newsday

By Daniel Nhakaniso

June 29 2010

Khumalo Hockey Stadium will get a facelift after the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture secured $1 million for its refurbishment ahead of the 2011 African Olympic qualifiers.

The Minister of Education, Sports and Culture David Coltart yesterday confirmed that his ministry had made a breakthrough after the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti agreed to provide $1,1 million to refurbish one stadium. “We have made a breakthrough in that the Minister of Finance has agreed to provide the funding needed to refurbish one stadium so that the country can host the Olympic qualifiers,” he said. “I am now in the process of finalising the arrangements with the Minister of Finance and soon I will be meeting with officials from the Hockey Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) so that the disbursement of funds can start in preparation for the games next year,” said Coltart.

After the refurbishment of  Khumalo Hockey Stadium in Bulawayo, Magamba Stadium in Harare will also get a facelift. NewsDay is reliably informed that a South African contractor recently inspected the stadium to assess the kind of repairs that will be undertaken at the facility. The damage to the astro turf at the two venues has resulted in local players playing on grass when internationally, the sport is being played on astro turf. This has made local players to lag behind in terms of skills and techniques of the modern game. Coltart said having functional stadia would boost the popularity of the sport.

“Hockey is one of the major sports in the country and we have a lot of talented players but we have been losing most of them to neighbouring countries.

“All that should be a thing of the past if Khumalo and Magamba are hosting matches again,” said Coltart.

Herald

28 June 2010

By Felex Share
PROSPECTS that the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council could allow more than 110 000 disadvantaged candidates to sit for their November examinations look hazy as it emerged that it is owed nearly US$5 million in unpaid fees.

Government last year allowed students to sit for the examinations without paying fees on the understanding that that these would be paid at a later date.

Last week, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart announced that the Government would release US$1,8 million for needy candidates under the Basic Education Assistance Model.

However, sources at Zimsec last week indicated that the examination council was still owed money from last year.

“We have been battling to get the money owed from last year and Zimsec has written twice to Government with little joy,” the source said.

Minister Coltart acknowledged the debt in an interview last Friday and said he was waiting for Treasury to release the money while Minister Biti said his office could only allocate budget finances to Zimsec and not for pupils.

Thousands of candidates failed to register for last year’s November Ordinary and Advanced Level public examinations owing to exorbitant fees.

However, to date, nothing has been paid to the examinations body.

The State said it would help poor candidates pay for six subjects for O-Level and four subjects for A-Level, including General Paper.

In addition, Government said it would pay for those who had registered for less than six subjects.

Confirming the debt, Minister Coltart said Treasury committed itself to paying for the disadvantaged pupils.

“On the issue of the money owed to Zimsec, I can only say they (Zimsec) have written to me in the past on the matter but it is the responsibility of the Treasury to release the money to them not the education ministry.

“At the moment, I am not aware of the current position but I would appropriately comment after consulting Mr Ndanga (Zimsec director) and officials from the Finance Ministry next week,” he said.

However, Minister Biti argued that examination issues were the responsibility of the Education Ministry.

He said his ministry’s duty was “only” to allocate the examination body money in the National Budget not to pay for students’ examination fees.

“As far as I am concerned we do not owe them (Zimsec) anything and the education minister is the ideal man to talk

“We only allocate them money in the National Budget and anything to do with education is the sole responsibility of the parent ministry,” he said.

However, it could not be established how many from the 187 000 O-Level candidates and 23 000 A-Level pupils — who registered for exams last year — should have had their fees covered by Government.

Zimsec director Mr Happy Ndanga on Friday admitted that Government owed them money.

“Government does not owe us money in the general sense of a lender and borrower but intervenes in cases of hardships.

“Government pays examination fees for hardship cases that have been identified at the school and vetted by the Community Selection Committee. There has never been strenuous efforts to make them pay,” he said.

However, a senior Zimsec staffer in the finance department said the examination body had written to the ministries of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture and Finance twice on the matter with no favourable results.

He said the unpaid debts were affecting operations at the institution and would cripple the examination body if not paid again this year.

“Government is our sole financier and we normally get our money from the money paid by the candidates. They promised to pay us through the Finance Ministry but it seems we will never get anything. If Government continues offering the examinations for free then it will be disastrous on our part.

“We need money to print question papers, purchase exam materials, for distribution, paying markers among other things and how does Government think we are coping?

“We must be clear in the way we operate because in the end the blame is always heaped on Zimsec yet they (Government) will have contributed immensely to the crisis,” said the official.

Government, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Services’ Enhanced Social Protection Project, intervenes in cases of hardships.

One of these interventions includes Beam where Government pays examination fees for disadvantaged pupils identified by the schools.

Herald

28 June 2010

By Mukanya Makwira

THE separation of politics and sport is an issue held in sanctity by the majority of sports federations the world over.

Fifa, the world soccer governing body, even discourages any displays, adverts, messages or material with political undertones. The reason for this is because of the unifying power of sport.

It is desperation, however, that drives a man to look for help from a wounded lion’s den. Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard sneaked into the country last week to solicit support from Zimbabwe Cricket.

Yes, John Howard was here, in the very country he said was politically unstable that his country’s cricketers could not come to, to solicit the country’s support in his bid to land the post of president of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Zimbabwe Cricket has over the last decade endured a tumultuous period at the hands of some Western countries, who decided to cross the sport Rubicon and muddied the good game of cricket with politics, all in the name of regime change.

In the process, the sport suffered from the politics of racism as the majority of white cricketers left the country to play overseas, mainly for low division teams, in an effort to spruce up the propaganda effort of the West.

Amongst those trying to achieve political means through sport was John Howard, who ironically is trying to convince Zimbabwe to bring his rot, right into the corridors of the ICC.

Now hear this. “My personal wish is to see Zimbabwe fully reintegrated into the world cricket family and see the sport continue to grow in all parts of the world, including Zimbabwe,” said Howard. How ironic!

Cricket and world sport in general does not need the likes of Howard, lest the sport be drawn into the gutters. He, of all people, cannot talk of developing a sport, which he has done so much to destroy for political ends.

He is a wolf in sheepskin, with the sole aim of returning the sport to the dark ages where it was a preserve of the Anglo-Saxon countries and using it to settle political scores. He has nothing to offer to sport, which spreads a message of unity, against his racist thoughts.

That he came to Zimbabwe was a surprise on its own. Wasn’t he the same person who went out of his way to block his country’s cricketers from touring Zimbabwe in 2007 saying that the country was not safe?

So determined was he that his government offered to pay the US$2 million fine to ICC, in order to make sure that the tour was cancelled. So Zimbabwe is safe for him when he wants to satisfy his personal ambitions and not for his fellow countrymen? What a shame!

In a bid to free sport of all ills, virtually all sports associations have incorporated the “Kick Out Racism” campaign. It is therefore a surprise that cricket is trying to put in its highest echelons a renowned racist.

For what purpose, one might ask?

Howard has excess baggage, a point so amplified by the South Africa Cricket president Methuseli Nyoka and the majority of the directors of other cricket associations around the world.

The support from the likes of English and New Zealand cricket associations just smacks of arrogance and reveals their quest to politicise sport.

Howard was a fervent supporter of the apartheid regime in South Africa. He also superintended over racist laws in Australia, which discriminated against the indigenous aborigines.

It took the man who replaced him, Kevin Rudd, to repeal the racist legislation, some of which were passed under his watch. Why is the ICC going to where other sporting disciplines are trying very hard to come from? Do they think a leopard can shed its spots? Never!

True to his racial orientation, Howard tried to clandestinely use the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, to penetrate the corridors of Zimbabwe Cricket.

Was it mere coincidence that the minister was at the airport at the same time Howard arrived? That both of them were whisked to the Australian ambassador’s residence for “dinner”, minus the cricket officials he had come to see adds further intrigue to his intentions.

Does he think that Zimbabweans have a short memory? His liberal-national coalition government was responsible for imposing the ruinous illegal sanctions, working in cahoots with the British and Americans. Today he asks for our help. What a shame! Should the country help such people? Let him fight his dirty war.

Howard’s visit now explains the “gesture” by Australian Cricket, inviting the Zimbabwean team to tour the country in 2011, for reasons, which were not clear up to now.

The cat is now out of the bag. They think that cricket bosses can be bought for two pieces of silver? What has changed now? Just because they want to use us to vote for their man they think they could give us a sweetener?

Allowing bigoted politicians to sneak into the sporting world is the worst thing that can happen to sport.

History will judge all those who assist those who want to politicise sport harshly. Posterity will not be kind to them. Such kinds of people are a nuisance to sport. They would seek to use politics to further their political agendas.

The Australian

28 June 2010

By Malcolm Conn

JOHN Howard is so unpopular in African cricket circles that South African officials refused to meet him last week to discuss the former prime minister’s nomination as president elect of the International Cricket Council.

This trenchant opposition has left Howard’s chances of becoming the next ICC vice-president on a “knife edge” according to one official.

What should have been a routine appointment months ago following his joint nomination by Australia and New Zealand will now be decided at an ICC executive board meeting in Singapore tomorrow and Wednesday.

Howard stopped in South Africa on the way to meeting Zimbabwe Cricket officials in Harare last week, wishing the Socceroos all the best and attempting to catch up with Cricket South Africa’s hierarchy.

Much to the amazement of some cricket officials and chagrin of others, Howard was snubbed, reinforcing SA’s opposition as a proxy for Zimbabwe.

Outgoing ICC president David Morgan is continuing to lobby India in particular in the hope that an already embarrassing stand-off will not become a full-scale schism which would destroy the ICC’s administrative process.

A guarded Morgan continued his unequivocal support of Howard last night.

“I believe he is an excellent candidate,” Morgan told The Australian from Singapore.

“He has the right experience and attributes to do an excellent job and thus far I’ve not heard any good reason from anybody as to why he should not be the next vice-president of the ICC.”

Morgan declined to discuss any details of Howard’s support levels but The Australian understands there has been no improvement from last week, when only five of the 10 so-called Test-playing countries were prepared to vote for him.

At least seven votes are required to become vice-president for a two-year term, which is automatically followed by a two-year term as president.

Zimbabwe’s strong private anti-Howard stance, even after last week’s meeting with ZC officials, is in stark contrast to the public utterances of its chief executive Ozias Bvute.

“A section of the international media has erroneously created the impression that we have been at the forefront of a motion to block Mr Howard’s nomination,” Bvute told Zimbabwe media.

“This is not only maliciously incorrect but also ignores the fact that our structures dictate that such a decision can only be taken by the ZC board which is in fact still to meet and state a position on the matter.”

Bvute also claimed that past tensions are unlikely to influence Zimbabwe’s final decision.

Despite ZC’s strong backroom opposition to Howard, who has been a long-time critic of brutal president Robert Mugabe’s regime, Zimbabwe sports minister David Coltart claims that ZC officials keep telling him they are not opposing Howard. Coltart has no direct links with ZC.

Sunday Mail

27 June 2010

By Makomborero Mutimukulu

IT is generally agreed that winning the Comrades Marathon, the world’s oldest and largest ultra-marathon race, is one of the topmost accomplishments in athletics.

Athletes who cross the finishing line first in the 90-kilometre race become legends overnight and are showered with praise for the rest of their lives.
Winning the Comrades Marathon is an extraordinary feat.
Doing it twice, like Zimbabwean athlete Stephen Muzhingi has done, is a magnificent achievement. No superlative can fully describe the feat.
Equally one would also run out of words to describe how Zimbabwe has inexplicably failed to honour Muzhingi for exploits that can be compared with the Warriors winning the World Cup and Kirsty Coventry scooping gold at the Olympics.
As Zimbabweans we ought to be ashamed of ourselves for frustrating one of the country’s most successful long-distance runners into wishing he was South African.
“The South Africans are more proud of me and maybe this is why I should become a South African. It is so hard to be recognised in my own country, but maybe now, with this second win, I might just be recognised at home,” Muzhingi was recently quoted as saying.
In Gutu, Muzhingi’s birthplace, people are perplexed as to why the media splashes full portraits of athletes such as Usain Bolt and not the boy who grew up with a dream of becoming a bus driver before going on to rule the world marathon circuit.
“I don’t know much about this Bolt guy, but I am certain that he does not stand a chance with Muzhingi,” 50-year-old Mariah Mupah told The Sunday Mail from her market stall at Gutu Growth Point last week.
Mupah may be forgiven for trying to compare a sprinter with a long-distance runner, but what excuse does Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart have for not making noise about Muzhingi’s Comrades Marathon triumph?
Coltart must be at the forefront of pushing Government into honouring Muzhingi.
Maybe the reference to “sport” in Coltart’s title should be replaced with “cricket”.
Twice Muzhingi has won the world’s toughest race and Zimbabwe is silent, going about business as if nothing has happened?  It’s nauseating!
However, such has been the life of the 33-year-old Muzhingi who was given notice to vacate his lodgings by a landlord who was not amused by the top-of-the-range fridge the athlete had bought using proceeds from his 2009 Comrades Marathon triumph.
“After winning the race last year, I first bought a fridge and when I took it home the landlord gave me notice to vacate. I then bought a house,” disclosed the South African-based athlete.
Muzhingi has had to fight adversity at every turn while working twice as much. His initial attempts to take a crack at the Comrades Marathon went up in smoke as he just could not afford a ticket to South Africa. And after several failed attempts, Muzhingi made his Comrades Marathon debut in 2005, crossing the line at number 123 before coming seventh in 2007.
The year 2009 saw a long-cherished dream come true when he became the first African, outside South Africa, to win the much-revered race. A few weeks ago, Muzhingi proved that his 2009 triumph was no fluke by successfully defending his title.
However, unlike the first time when he had to borrow a Zimbabwean flag from a church and celebrate alone, this time Muzhingi was a prepared man. His wife Erinah and son Mathen were on standby, with national flag in hand, to share in his moment of glory.
“This race is for my wife and child. I think I was running for them,” Muzhingi told the media a few minutes after successfully defending his title.
Now, as Zimbabweans we might be forgiven for turning a blind eye to his 2009 triumph, but it is inexcusable for us to fail to stand up and take note of Muzhingi’s exploits.
If we can give Coventry a diplomatic passport for winning gold at the Olympics and Sizzla Kalonji land for his project, what can stop us from being extravagant with Muzhingi, our two-time Comrades Marathon champion?
Come on, let’s honour this son of the soil!
There is a chain of people who are sleeping on the wheel. The media has not made enough noise about the matter, the Athletics Association of Zimbabwe are conspicuous by their silence, the Sports and Recreation Commission has only issued a feeble statement while the ministry responsible seems to believe cricket is the only sport in Zimbabwe.
Last year, Coltart only got to salute Muzhingi on behalf of Government a few days after this paper had broken the story on how the athlete had made history in Mzansi.
“It’s good when Zimbabwean men and women raise the flag high and it is important to rebrand Zimbabwe through sport because the country has been associated with things that are not good,” Coltart said in his congratulatory message.
“We are delighted with what you have achieved for the country and we are certainly proud of the achievement. I’m going to be watching closely next year’s race and hope you will break the record and with the 2012 Olympics coming you will focus on that. I will be following your exploits closely.”
Now the Comrades Marathon edition that Coltart promised to “watch closely” has come and gone with Muzhingi proving that he is the undisputed numero uno.
We now wait to see what Government will do. It is a people’s Government after all, is it not? Surely, this is a matter that will not take Cabinet more than five minutes to deliberate on.
Maybe it’s about time Walter Mzembi “hijacks” the matter.
“Zimbabwe is also the birthplace of current Comrades Marathon champion,” the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister could say as part of the marketing drive that saw Brazil come to play a friendly with the Warriors in the build-up to the World Cup.
Recently, Muzhingi spoke of his disappointment at how his maiden Comrades Marathon triumph was received in his country of birth. “For other athletes who have won before, the trophy was flown and presented to prominent persons in their country. I did not know who among the prominent leaders was willing to receive it on my behalf. I have tried to go through the Sports Commission and the mayor (of Harare, Muchadeyi Masunda), but nothing has worked out.”
For transforming from a boy who used to run more than 10 kilometres to school to becoming a two-time Comrades Marathon winner, Muzhingi is a legend regardless of the sickening manner his country is living true to the assertion that a prophet has no honour in his country of birth.

The Australian

26 June 2010

By Malcolm Conn

JOHN Howard still does not have the numbers to become president-elect of the International Cricket Council just days before its meeting.

As increasingly frantic and embarrassed officials step up backroom diplomatic efforts to try to avoid a major meltdown, serious concerns remain that the former prime minister’s nomination will be rejected.

Should this happen the ICC will become deadlocked and its administrative process will collapse, further savaging cricket’s already damaged credibility.

Overseas officials privately claim that as of last night Australia had just five of the 10 so-called Test-playing nations on-side. A minimum of seven is needed to confirm Howard as vice-president for two years then president for a further two years.

Cricket Australia was unavailable for comment last night.

There is a suggestion the Asian bloc is splitting, with Pakistan and Bangladesh willing to join Australia, New Zealand and England in supporting Howard.

Worryingly, India is yet to declare a position, despite incoming ICC president Sharad Pawar, an Indian government minister who is not on the BCCI, supporting the “process” of the ICC’s regional rotation system. It was Australia and New Zealand’s turn and they eventually nominated Howard.

Sri Lanka is waiting for India’s lead but has a long-standing animosity towards Howard after he publicly endorsed the widely held view in Australia that spinner Muttiah Muralidaran, Test and one-day cricket’s leading wicket-taker, was a “chucker.”

Outgoing ICC president David Morgan of England has been concentrating his efforts on persuading all-powerful India to back Howard’s nomination.

Officials believe Morgan is making progress. He did not return calls from The Australian.

There is also doubt about how much was achieved by the dash Howard and Cricket Australia chairman Jack Clarke made to Harare earlier this week to meet Zimbabwe Cricket officials.

Zimbabwe sports minister David Coltart facilitated Howard’s visit to Zimbabwe after ZC officials claimed they did not have the chance of discussing the issues with Howard face to face.

ZC president Peter Chingoka is banned from travelling to Australia, the UK and EU because of his close links to the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe regime.

Coltart introduced Howard to the ZC officials on his arrival in Harare but was not part of the meeting.

“Generally it has been welcomed,” Coltart said. “In the Zimbabwean context it received favourable press coverage.”

One state-controlled newspaper wrote an editorial ridiculing Howard.

“I view that editorially very positively because although it takes the line of (Mugabe’s) Zanu PF it concludes with the statement: ‘Zimbabwe holds no grudges and we urge Zimbabwe Cricket to give him all the support he needs if he is the man for the job.’ That’s quite remarkable,” Coltart said.

“It is such a fragile political process in this country. Everything is tentative. We must await Singapore. The visit went as well as could be expected.”

While ZC officials continue to tell Coltart that ZC is not leading the anti-Howard push, officials in South Africa have privately confirmed Chingoka is leading the charge. ZC officials resent Howard’s strong opposition to Zimbabwe during his 11 years as prime minister and Cricket SA is supporting ZC on political grounds.

Zimbabwe Independent

By Associated Press

25 June 2010

ZIMBABWE Cricket officials said yesterday they met with former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a long-time critic of Zimbabwe and cricket in the country, and reached a ‘’better understanding’’ with him on the future of the sport.
But Ozias Bvute, managing director of Zimbabwe Cricket, stopped short of saying the nation will drop its opposition to Howard’s candidacy to head the world’s governing body, the International Cricket Council.
Bvute said Zimbabwe officials ‘’managed to clear the air on many outstanding issues’’ with Howard in talks on Wednesday in Harare.
As the Australian leader, Howard had campaigned for a cricket boycott of Zimbabwe, citing the nation’s human rights record. He left Harare on Wednesday after a secretive 24-hour visit.
‘’We had a good meeting. He pledged his support for Zimbabwe Cricket’’ after touring cricket facilities in Harare, Bvute told   the Associated Press.
Howard discussed his campaign for the vice presidency and then the presidency of the ICC.
‘’We are now fully in the picture on his plans for the cricket world,’’ Bvute said.
Last month, Zimbabwean officials said they opposed Howard’s candidacy and enlisted the support of Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka who all played against Zimbabwe during its isolation by Australia, England and their cricketing allies.
Howard had called for the southern African nation to be stripped of its Test cricket status in 2003 at the height of often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms.
Howard arrived in Zimbabwe on Tuesday on a trip held under wraps by Australian diplomats in Zimbabwe who hosted him and referred reporters to the main cricket website in Australia for information on the trip.
Howard’s nomination by Australia and New Zealand for the ICC vice president’s post and elevation to the presidency in two years time is up for discussion at the world body’s annual meeting in Singapore next week.
Earlier this month, Zimbabwe sports minister David Coltart met with Cricket Australia officials in Melbourne and Bvute and the head of Zimbabwe Cricket Peter Chingoka met with their counterparts in neighbouring South Africa in preparation for the Singapore meeting.
Howard needs support of seven of the ten Test cricket nations to carry the vote.
Zimbabwe Cricket reported in a brief statement on Wednesday that Howard told its officials: “My personal wish is to see Zimbabwe fully reintegrated into the world cricket family and see the sport continue to grow in all parts of the world, including Zimbabwe.”