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No place for Zimbabwe in Test cricket with Streak and co gone

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Pablo Luna - Moonlighting for Betfair. Pablo looks at the political and social issues that have led to Zimbabwe's demise in world cricket

Zimbabwe has been a member of the International Cricket Council since 1992 though they did participate in the 1983 ODI World Cup. I would like their Full Membership terminated and have them moved back to Temporary Associate Member! While I detest the oppressive regime of Robert Mugabe and his odious conspirators the reason for their removal is for the sake of cricket.

Apart from a brief time when that good bowler Heath Streak used to intelligently remove premier batsmen, Zimbabwe Cricket has been in complete disorder and worse! They have not deserved the right to become the ninth Test playing nation. Let's kick them out with a shout of good riddance - now!

They are not a cricketing nation and are not up to the standard required especially concerning Test Cricket. Zimbabwe (and Bangladesh) are not Test playing nations and I cannot see that changing in the near future. Should they improve to the extent that they can beat one of the proper members then I would consider welcoming them back into the fold. I have no objections in principle to them playing matches against England, Australia or Pakistan but these should be considered worthless in regards to averages, statistics and value.

I am totally against career averages counting against teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. They should be scrubbed from the record books and made invalid! It is nonsense for those runs and wickets to count. How can a run scored off Prosper Utseya be measured against a run from Glen McGrath? How can the wicket of Justice Chibhabha be measured against Sachin Tendulkar - of course it cannot! Something needs to be done so that the history of our cherished game is not contaminated with falsehoods. I ask am I alone in this opinion, as I do not often hear this subject raised or discussed?

Another sincere reason for their removal from the ICC is that their administrators and selectors have no concern for the game of cricket itself but more interested with political point scoring and self-gratification. I welcome and applaud any cricketer who refuses to play against Zimbabwe home or away! If I had the power I would stop the West Indies before they reached Harare.

It is time for the ICC to justify its position as the governing body in World Cricket and refuse to acknowledge what is now openly an unconstituted Cricket administration in Zimbabwe.

While I accept Malcolm Speed (ICC Chief Executive) saying, "we cannot have sporting bodies making political decisions" his role is to promote and preserve cricket and if members tarnishes or seeks to undermine it they should be booted out. That is not political.

Speed's ability to turn a blind eye is not helping and I will be glad when his seven-year tenure ends in June 2008. This is the man whose stubborn refusal to admit to the failings of the 2007 World Cup where he claimed that the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007's positives far outweighed the negatives. Negatives included the death of a coach, dullest set of matches ever, dismal playing performance from the hosts and a ticketing system designed in ten minutes by Jade Goody.

On Friday 30th November 2007 the West Indies travel to Harare to play in the first of five ODIs. Will Vusimuzi Sibanda or Chamu Chibhabha be the top batsman for Zimbabwe? Does anybody care? If you fancy West Indies to thrash their hosts then [1.19] is available with Betfair. An unlikely victory for Zimbabwe is [5.0] with Betfair.

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