IT'S JUST NOT CRICKET ANYMORE IN ZIMBABWE!!!

Zimbabwe cricket in fresh crisis.

Zimbabwe's government has taken control of the cricket board, prompting fears the country will lose Test status. Leading players, already on strike in a pay row, could now desert the sport.
"I think we're stuffed, more stuffed than we've ever been. It's not going to be cricket, it's going to be a corpse," said players' spokesman Clive Field. "If this is the bunch that's going to help them deliver cricket for the next six months, I don't know what they are going to be delivering." Field added: "It would be economical suicide for them to be playing for a country that does not have Test status.

World governing body the ICC has so far refused to act on claims of racially biased selection but could act if "the integrity of the game" is put at risk. Captain Tatenda Taibu stepped down in November in protest at the state of Zimbabwe Cricket, claiming he had received threatening phone calls. Other leading players have been on strike since then, after match fees for tours of India and New Zealand went unpaid.

Under the shake-up, controversial chairman Peter Chingoka and his remains in charge of an interim board, which is understood to be without white or Asian directors. Chingoka and ZC managing director Osias Bvute - who also retains a position - were last year questioned by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe amid allegations of financial misconduct. Chingoka's continued presence is the biggest deterrent to the players returning for duty because one of their demands was that he should leave.

Field said: "It is a concern to me that Chingoka continues. "It seems bizarre that although he was head of an administration that they see fit to remove, they now make him the head of a new one." One of the players currently on strike said: "We're dismayed, the future is bleak, we're not at all happy that Chingoka has been retained. "Anyone who can play outside the country is likely to go now." Gibson Mashingaidze, an army brigadier and chairman of the government's Sports and Recreation Commission, announced the new set-up in Harare earlier on Friday. He said: "We are prepared to be chucked out of Test status. The government is saying we are starting afresh. We are not bothered." On the position of the players, he added: "Those who want to stay in can stay, but those who want to go are free to go. They can go to India, Canada or wherever.
"We are not bothered. The government will not be held to ransom by individuals."

The ICC could not confirm late on Friday whether it had received any communication from Zimbabwe Cricket on the changes and would not comment without hearing more. The subject is likely to be debated at a meeting of the 10 Test-playing nations in Karachi next week. Zimbabwe's next matches are on a tour of the West Indies, scheduled for May. With only six members of a national squad of 40 having signed their contracts, Zimbabwe would be putting out a desperately weak side.

BBC SPORTS NEWS REPORT.