"By the end of the year, we hope to stand on our own two feet" - ZC chairman

[The Robot]

In the last five years, Zimbabwe Cricket has gone from the brink of insolvency to being debt-free, allowing the game to see a brighter future. In an interview with Cricbuzz, ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani talks about the effects that the organisation's debt was having on cricket, why the ICC stood by his board during last year's suspension, and how ZC intend to retrain their focus on the domestic game now that there is money to do so.

With the ICC distributions coming through in July, does this mean that Zimbabwe Cricket is now debt-free?

Our situation has been quite different from other Members because of controlled funding, so the way we have been working with the ICC is we haven't been following the biannual distribution system. It's been going on on a month-on-month basis. So to a large extent that has allowed us to get our house in order. So yes the July payment has been made but . We have had a good run-in because of the controlled funding.

Last month you announced that you were just $1million in debt. It's worth putting this in context to where ZC was when you took over as chairman in 2015. What was the situation then and how was it impacting cricket?

In 2015 we had loans with local banks, we had a $6m loan with the ICC and we had a whole line of creditors both at home and abroad who needed to be paid. The total amount at the time was $27m. When we did the debt restructuring of the local bank loans, by putting them under ZAMCO (the Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation) we reduced that from about $19m to $10m. We negotiated to repay that in 2023 with a lower interest rate and a haircut of about 30 per cent. Since 2015 we have been actively trying to reduce our creditors list. We have been able to pay off the banks, we have paid off the remainder of the balance from the ICC loan, and part of the process of the controlled funding was to deal with the creditors, which we have really moved in terms of clearing them. So we were down to $1m last month, and that has gone down further because we have continued clearing the creditors list.

As for how it was impacting cricket, very little money was going towards the actual game. When money came we had to service the debts, and what was really sad was that what we were dealing with with the banks was the interest.

How much of your income was going directly to repaying interest on an annual basis?

I think it was something like $3m at first, which we managed to reduce substantially to about $1m. We were getting $9m per year, and $3m of that was just going to interest, and then we had our salary bill. By virtue of being a Full Member, you have to pay your players like other Test nations - of course not dollar for dollar, but they need to be paid well - so after the interest and paying those salaries you realise that what was left for cricket was very insignificant.

A big part of shifting that was getting the ICC to support you in making some changes. Given the history and that ZC had become a pariah at ICC level, how difficult was it to gain their support?

When I started sitting on the ICC board in 2015, to be honest it wasn't easy. A lot of Members, even friendly Members, had given up on the Zimbabwean case. They felt Zimbabwe had been given enough chances, there wasn't that willpower from our end to get things right, so it took a lot of effort to try and convince the other Members (to help us). But I must say, Shashank (Manohar) was willing to listen and to try and work with other Members to give us a chance. We had a number of presentations to the Board to come up with a plan. The turning point was when we managed to invite Shashank to come to Zimbabwe and interact with the various stakeholders and get a feel for how they see cricket, what they want to see in cricket - from the government, the Ministry of Sport, the Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC).

That helped, and then of course the hosting of the World Cup Qualifiers was a major turning point. When people saw stadiums full - for the final game we actually had to close the gates - people at ICC felt there was a cricket culture in Zimbabwe and there are cricket fans that still need to be serviced. Also we hosted those matches when we were still in serious financial trouble, and we managed to go all-out to host a successful event. That softened the positions of the other Members and within the ICC management.

That seemed to be quite telling last year when ZC was suspended by the SRC, but the ICC stood behind your Board and said that they weren't willing to tolerate that sort of government interference. While that might have been a technical decision of the ICC saying that they don't want any such interference, the fact that they had been working very closely with you to get Zimbabwe Cricket back on a firm financial footing must have had a big impact as well?

Certainly. The issue of the suspension and the conflict between ZC and SRC had a lot to do with the fact that we had a new SRC board, and a lot of the issues that were coming up were historical, and a lot of them had been overtaken by events. So to present those issues to ICC was literally taking Zimbabwe cricket back to 2015, whereas in the ICC corridors, those were issues that had been sufficiently dealt with. Everything that was happening at ZC was happening with the blessing of the ICC, so for anyone to come and say that things were not going right at ZC, they were literally saying: 'ICC, your plan is failing.'

From an ICC point of view, that plan was not failing; it was working. What was also confusing from an ICC perspective is that they were aware we had been working with the previous Minister of Sport and the previous SRC board. So what was new now that there was a change of guard at the Ministry of Sport and the SRC? It was only that there was a new Minister and new SRC, whereas nothing about how we were operating had changed. So it explained why the ICC stood by ZC. I'm happy that as the conflict dragged on, we all managed to find each other and to say that we were fighting in the same corner but with different facts.

Has it been useful to shed that legacy both at home and abroad so that you can look forward with organisations like the ICC and SRC behind you, towards hopefully a future with more opportunity?

I've always said that, yes we are expected to be autonomous, but you can't operate a national association and a game at the national level without working with the SRC and the government. You need to work hand in glove with them, appraising them at every stage as to what is happening to the game. And as you rightly said, it's important that we have them behind us for the future growth of the game.

In terms of opportunity and growth, in a post-Covid world there is uncertainty for everybody but where do you expect Zimbabwe to sit in this new reality?

Covid has affected us like it has affected everyone else, but you know, this year looked like it was our good cricketing year. From an FTP point of view we had a decent set of fixtures compared to other years. Be that as it may we have accepted the situation. We are hoping to get decent fixtures when the rescheduling takes place, but from where we stand as ZC, it has also given us an opportunity to reorganise ourselves.

Our domestic cricket hasn't been the greatest of leagues, which is the reason why we have had problems at national level. So we have looked back and said that we need to relook at our club cricket, and restart our club cricket in a way that brings competition and quality. Then that will feed into our first-class cricket. When we have that structure correct, the national team will sort itself because there will be a pipeline, which for all intents and purposes hasn't been in existence - for many reasons, but primarily financial. So we are looking at a situation where, from next year we have a proper club cricket structure, and a proper domestic cricket structure that also covers club cricket for ladies and provincial cricket for ladies. From there we have a decent selection pool.

The issue within ZC has been that we weren't active at the grassroots, which I think has been a tragedy. Everyone has been focusing on the national team but not dealing with the grassroots. Now that we're able to go back down, it's great because that's where the future lies.

The other worrying issue is that these guys haven't been playing, and I'm particularly concerned that some of them were not in good form when Covid struck, and some of them are 36 or 37 years old. It's very difficult to come out of a long layoff and start playing again. We may lose a few players and that's not good news for us.

With a lot of fixtures lined up this year it would have been a good opportunity for the senior players to impart their experience onto a younger generation whilst playing alongside them, but now the pressure is on to get playing so that can happen?

Yes, but my hope is that the likes of Brendan Taylor, even as they near their end, we will still have them playing a role within the domestic structure - be it playing at club level or for a provincial side - so that they are still there to help the youngsters come up. Brendan has been playing for the Rangers - the academy run by Alistair Campbell - and those youngsters will have benefited a lot.

With the T20 WC cancellation allowing more clarity over windows for rescheduling, what are the series that you have your eye on and what are you hoping to play in the near to medium-term future?

We were due to play Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ireland, so those are the tours we are going to see where we can place them. We had our India tour which was also postponed, but that was a Super League series so the ICC will have an input into when that can be played.

How confident is everyone at the ICC that the Super League will get up and running?

Because of the nature of the pandemic it's very difficult to predict certain things, but everyone is optimistic that it can be fulfilled, it may just be delayed.

You mentioned that everything happening at ZC has had the blessing of the ICC, and I know that the connection has been very close, with the ICC literally signing off on all of ZC's decisions. Will that ease off going forward?

I think from where we are at the moment, we have fared very well in terms of what we agreed to do. Obviously the Board will take a look and make a call on that, but we hope that by the end of the year we will be out of the controlled funding and stand on our own two feet. But we still need to be supported by the ICC in one way or another.

https://m.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/113 ... c-chairman

[Boundary]

I haven't been around so I don't know if this topic has been beaten to death, seeing there are no replies but I feel like I having a crack at it.

Our domestic cricket hasn't been the greatest of leagues, which is the reason why we have had problems at national level. So we have looked back and said that we need to relook at our club cricket, and restart our club cricket in a way that brings competition and quality. Then that will feed into our first-class cricket. When we have that structure correct, the national team will sort itself because there will be a pipeline, which for all intents and purposes hasn't been in existence - for many reasons, but primarily financial. So we are looking at a situation where, from next year we have a proper club cricket structure, and a proper domestic cricket structure that also covers club cricket for ladies and provincial cricket for ladies. From there we have a decent selection pool.

Chicken and egg situation. Club and first class cricket don't pay for themselves, they can't. But without them the national team - the cash cow - is not competitive and therefore not attractive to opponents and sponsors. But kudos to ZC for clearing debt, I think I may have misunderstood Mukuhlani in that ICC debacle.I have two observations: the first is that the Zim economy will vastly improve over the next 10 years or so but lucrative sponsorships will still be limited, so dog eat dog, leading to my second observation. Rugby has already pulled away, they have a vision (to have a Super Rugby franchise in Zim) and they have a method of getting there and they are actually already on that road, having played an academy side in Supersport Challenge last year and will graduate to the lower division of the Currie Cup next year, using our Zimbos playing for clubs all around the world as a basis to attack this vision and get to 2 world cups with the same lads. When they have built a modern Hartsfield stadium and playing against Western Province in 2030, if cricket doesn't start now they might never catch up.

So bite the bullet, spend money to set up a club system and bring back the Logan Cup with the original 5 franchises, better yet six, the 6th one based either in Hre or Byo with an eye to moving them to Vic Falls. The standards will be atrocious to begin with but they will improve with time. Stream the games online, plenty of diaspora will pay for a regular piece of home, especially everyone on this board. That's 10 first class matches a year for each team, more if we include semis and a final. 3 months of 4 day cricket. Those who won't improve with that amount of play will have to be replaced by graduating school kids.

[TapsC2]

It will be very interesting to see what they do with the extra money. Covid 19 mixed with hyperinflation was a perfect scenario for them. Pay half wages to players who can’t complain now because they are sitting at home plus wipe out their local debts at 10% of their real value.

Hopefully this extra money is used correctly. I heard they had plans for a national league. My focus would actually be on a development side playing in South Africa like the rugby development side. That is a really good initiative. That and bringing back some foreign talent. I don’t think there is much to discover locally that has already not been discovered.