If the BCCI is to command respect it must rethink its attitude towards its Zimbabwean counterpart. No longer can India look the other way, writes Peter Roebuck.
India is shamed by its close contact with Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC). Those walking amongst tyrants risk their reputations. It is high time local cricket officials ended this demeaning association. Otherwise the standing of the BCCI will suffer. It’s also time for the elders of the Indian game, including eminent past players, to speak out. If a passion for justice is not enough to rouse them then let patriotism draw them out. India deserves better. After all it is no longer a rising force seeking allies of any description. It is a mature nation responsible for the state of the game.
If the BCCI is to command respect it must rethink its attitude towards its Zimbabwean counterpart. No longer can India look the other way. Arguments that sport and politics must not be mixed are irrelevant. Politics is about choosing between Republican and Democrat, Congress and BJP. It is a matter of opinion. But this goes far beyond debates about right, left and centre. Brutality, murder, starvation, torture and the rest of the foul methods used by crumbling dictatorships to retain power are rife in urban and rural areas of Zimbabwe. After 10 years of repression incontrovertible evidence has finally been presented in newspapers and on television. IPL was fun but this is serious. Murder and mayhem are taking place in a major cricketing country, and it is happening on India’s watch.
Yet India’s senior cricketing men, some of them seasoned politicians, continue to protect Zanu-Pfs’s cricketing arm in the corridors of power. David Morgan, the ICC’s Chairman elect, says that consensus on the issue is difficult because of “India’s long standing support for Zimbabwe.” India insists that it will not allow Zimbabwe to be expelled or isolated or otherwise inconvenienced. It is a position unworthy of any honourable stakeholder.
Suggestions that the viciousness has nothing to do with ZC are false. To the contrary, the current officers prosper precisely because they are closely allied with their vile government. Peter Chingoka’s father was Mugabe’s Police Commissioner. Nowadays Chingoka enjoys the protection of the Vice-President and her military husband. Government ministers are regularly and lavishly entertained at matches in Harare. MDC politicians have not been sighted. ZC’s outside broadcast van has often been lent to government forces. Make no mistake ZC is part and parcel of an iniquitous regime.
And, Zanu-Pf fits them as well as a tailored jacket. Not long ago senior ICC officials met Chingoka, Ozias Bvute (his much less charming CEO) and the Minister of Sport and were appalled by their racism. Even provincial Zanu-pf and MDC politicians have been shaken by their venom. A senior opposition spokesman has described them as common crooks. They will rise and fall with their friends in high places.
Nor can ZC or its senior henchmen claim to be conserving the game in their country in the face of formidable odds. They are conserving themselves. Until his wife was sent packing, Chingoka’s family lived in London and Bvute’s mob was housed in New York. Assisted by sponsors, Bvute has bought a luxurious house in Harare’s plushest suburb.
Chingoka has built a mansion in Cape Town and invested millions in companies. Numerous relations “work” and drive company cars as part of a bulging administration based at ZC’s Headquarters. Nice work, if you can get it.
Meanwhile the players are chased away or paid a pittance. No wonder Tatenda Taibu, once the golden boy of development, has been seeking a club in Melbourne. No wonder most of Zimbabwe’s best players long ago settled overseas. No wonder ousted administrators of all descriptions express their disgust about the way ZC is run. One of them described Chingoka and Bvute as “diabolical”.
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