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Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC) board chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani said his refusal to budge on outrageous perks demanded by director of international cricket and commercial affairs Alistair Campbell led to his recent resignation. The former national captain, who played 60 Tests and 188 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe, tendered his resignation in mid-October, but did not specify why he was quitting, simply asking ZC to back-date his resignation to October 1, allowing him to serve his three-month notice period by the end of the year.

He further stated that his continued presence at ZC was not in the best interests of both parties and suggested that he be allowed to leave by November 15 to allow his successor ample opportunity to get “his feet under the desk”. Reports say Campbell was unhappy that his position as managing director of cricket was changed to a new position as director of commercial affairs, international and franchise cricket following a restructuring in June.

The reports alleged that his administrative powers were greatly reduced following the ZC annual general meeting in August, which ushered in Mukuhlani, saying Campbell was stripped of his franchise cricket and commercial portfolios, leaving him to run only ZC’s international cricket affairs, thus reducing his influence within ZC considerably.

However, in a no holds barred interview, Mukuhlani said Campbell’s decision to quit was triggered by the board’s decision to turn down his proposal to be a ZC consultant, working three months a year, but on a $10,000 per month salary.

Mukuhlani also revealed that Campbell wanted ZC to pay school fees for his two sons at Falcon College that charges $4,370 per child a term.

He said the former skipper also demanded that ZC pays him $400 in fuel allowances monthly and an equivalent amount as a phone allowance.

“As ZC, we believe issues to do with contracts are private and confidential but it’s not true that Campbell was frustrated as he claims. We never took away the commercial assignments, but I believe as ZC it’s our responsibility to assign duties to employees,” said Mukuhlani.

“I’ve communication whereby Campbell said he was leaving because his son didn’t make it into the national Under-19 squad. ZC also turned down his proposal to work as a consultant three months a year on a package that was going to see him earning a huge monthly salary of $10,000. He also wanted us to pay for his kids at Falcon College. Campbell demanded that ZC pays for three regional trips and three international trips per year. We declined that,” said Mukuhlani.

He also said Campbell could have unprocedurally awarded himself ZC tenders, with his company billing the organisation $100,000 for some equipment that included computers, which he supplied.

The ZC boss said they had also discovered a number of anomalies in Campbell’s operations.

“He wanted to run two bank accounts without reporting to the CEO or director. He also negotiated with local sponsors on his own and as we speak, he invoiced ZC $100,000. Isn’t that corruption? There’s also the Ihsan deal, which ZC got into with Campbell and (former ZC chairman Wilson) Manase in charge. The deal sees ZC getting equipment worth $600,000 but it’s written we’re to give Ihsan business worth $2 million and that money is paid up front. We said no, we can’t do that,” Mukuhlani said.

Responding to David Coltart’s Facebook post claiming ZC is ruthlessly eliminating whites, Mukuhlani dismissed the allegations as baseless.

“Coltart claims that the current board removed key responsibilities from Campbell. The only change is that domestic cricket was assigned to the Game Development Department and rightfully so because domestic cricket falls under development. The Manase board had created the post of director game development without assigning the responsibilities. And so when the new board came in, it had to assign the domestic cricket function to the new director of game development.

“The commercial aspect was never taken away from him. Even if any responsibility had been taken from Campbell, we can’t work on the basis of comments from the gallery. ZC must be able to evolve on its own,” said Mukuhlani.

He defended ZC’s decision to relieve Andy Waller of his duties as batting coach saying: “Coltart’s views are misplaced. We’re not in the business of rewarding effort; we reward results. We don’t consult him (on) who we hire and fire. And as a matter of policy, we don’t discuss employee issues in the media beyond making necessary announcements.

“Coltart doesn’t need to be satisfied by our actions. The statistics he’s quoting are not good enough to win us games. They’re just numbers. They may be right in terms of statistics, but that does not win us matches. The scurrilous allegations that Coltart has made will not force us to deviate from the norm.”

Mukuhlani said ZC had approached Grant Flower to return home and take up the batting coach position but the former national team batsman informed the board that his contract with the Pakistan national team runs until July 2016.

He said Trevor Gripper and Raymond Price had turned down ZC’s cricket committee offers. He said Price even declined the Under-19 specialist bowling coaching job. To prove that they are not purging whites, ZC say they had given Gregory Lamb the Under-19 batting coach job, a position that he has accepted.

Mukuhlani also took a swipe at Coltart for overlooking racial remarks made by Mark Vermeulen and directed at Prosper Utseya. Vermeulen called Utseya an ape.

“It would appear that to Coltart the only thing that is deemed correct is when a black man appoints a white man. Racism is only racism when Coltart feels that a white man has been hard done. He has been silent about Utseya and Vermeulen. We never heard him strongly condemning Vermeulen’s remarks,” said Mukuhlani.

The ZC boss laid damning allegations against Coltart, who he said praised former chairman Manase because he had control over him. Mukuhlani claims Coltart once instructed Manase to engage Stuart Carlisle, John Rennie, Price, Heath Streak and Wayne James. He argues that any names suggested outside Coltart’s bank of white cricketers are incompetent and not good enough.

Mukuhlani said in one of Coltart’s “instructive” emails to Manase, he suggested that (former captain Tatenda) Taibu be brought in as a selector, so that the race card would not be played and that Manase would not appear to be an “Uncle Tom”.

Mukuhlani said Manase was Coltart’s favourite because he took orders from the former Education Minister.

“For example, soon after his appointment as interim chairman of the ZC board, he (Manase) was given a four-point action plan by Coltart through a lengthy email which is in my possession. The action plan started by firing (Stephen) Mangongo, then national team coach, before the World Cup. Manase worked as Coltart’s subordinate at (the) Legal Resources Foundation and as his protégé, he can only believe in him and no one else,” said Mukuhlani.

Manase was on the ZC board since 2006 and became vice-chairman in 2011 and interim chairman in July 2014.