More than a little unconventional : Louis Venter : Blog

Its Time to Act…..surely

As most people have, i have been monitoring the Zimbabwe situation very closely hoping that we would see the end of the murderous dictator. That seems to be a false dawn and since the situation has developed into the completely farcical its time for all bodies to act and make sure that the sanctions imposed hurt him.

The ICC at the moment have another vote on whether to revoke Zimbabwes ICC test playing status and thus removing them from the elite sector of international cricket. As someone who has experienced sporting sanctions as a small boy i can honestly say that was my ownly real experience of apartheid, the one area they couldnt propaganda away, foreign countries would simply not play against us and as proud sportmen that really hurt.

The argument that Zimbabwe people will lose out in this is preposterous. What people need to realise is that the foreign currency that Zimbabwe cricket is clinging onto is being siphened into Mugabe’s coffers and a vote not to expel Zimbabwe is a vote to support the regime. I am all for splitting sport and politics but when the sporting board is completely run by the state and has been found to have serious financial irregularities at the last audit its time to ignore that rule.

The only cricket board in the way of this decision seems to be the BCCI which is clinging onto Zimbabwe as a political ally in its fight to dominate the running of the game. Surely even the BCCI greed cannot support Mugabe, if they decide not to expel Zim they might as well make a USD donation to ZANU-PF.