In the Sunday Telegraph, Steve James writes that should Robert Mugabe be forced from office in Zimbabwe then there will be a bonus for cricket in the country in that it may well signal the demise of ZC chairman Peter Chingoka.
Under Chingoka and his evil-eyed side-kick Ozias Bvute, Zimbabwean cricket has been crippled. Only without them could cricket in the country ever hope to begin dragging itself from its "quagmire of cronyism", as one close observer has described it.
Even if Mugabe and Chingoka are ousted, a return to Test cricket seems impossible. Zimbabwe's cricketing infrastructure appears far too damaged. Their twin pillars of school and club cricket have all but been destroyed. A talent base of players and administrators has left the country. Those that remain have little desire to be involved, change of government or not.
Times of India's Manu Joseph remembers his 2003 trip to Zimbabwe:
One morning, the blonde host began to tell me how much the world hated Robert Mugabe. The world, of course, called him a despot and considered his campaign against affluent white farmers, racist. “Even the blacks hate him,” she said. That, I was not willing to believe. The Third World brain is universal and I knew that between the rich and their despot, the poor will always hate the rich more.
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