This is exactly what bankrupted ZC to begin with.Googly wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 10:41 amWhat amazes me is how many of the older county players have played here at some point. They all used to love Zim, one of our biggest losses was Gillespie as well.
If you had to pay experts to completely fuck things up deliberately you’d not find better than these ZC guys and their Zanu shamwaris. They’ve not worked out that you can steal AND still run things fairly well.
Franchise Cricket - Highly paid coaches(head, batting and bowling), County players, CEOs etc, plus the local guys. The ICC prescribed this, and they felt the the ZIM grant would cover it. What ICC didn't factor in was the incoming tours A/XI tours ZIM had in preparation (AUS, SA, NZ etc), plus the loss making BAN, PAK and NZ Test tours. For that ZC had to borrow heavily internally.
When ICC realised this, they obviously complained about the T20 Competition which wasn't exactly part of the plan(yes AC's hand in that cookie jar again ). But ZC did argue Stanbic sponsorship plus Supersport TV Rights sold as a form of success despite the huge shortfall. Anyway the compromise was the small loans ICC gave ZC thereafter.
ZC will be a hot potato for ICC for years to come because apart from what they prescribed(just like IMF - ESAP) ZC have been forced to pull out of a tournament T20 CWC too I think, because of political tension, something which should never have happened - and wouldn't be allowed in any sport if ECB & CA weren't so powerful, and cricket big like FIFA - since it affected ZC funds and player development unnnecessarily. More so now with gradual revelations of UK and USA governments sitting on supposed Gukurahundi evidence - which many people can use even in courts to punish the hypocrisy.
Anyway, the point is while it was great to have that, ZC couldn't afford any of it, and everyone knew it. We couldn't afford it too in SA, that's a fact. We've never afforded a Franchise plus Provincial setup. England have County Div 1, Div 2 plus 2nd XIs. AUS stop at Shield and Grade which is below our Provincial, and probably on par with County 2nds - no? Either way, our is/was done for "elitism" really to put it kindly.