ZC to disband Southern Rocks

06 Apr, 2014 - 08:04 0 Views
ZC to disband Southern Rocks Lovemore Banda

The Sunday News

Lovemore Banda

Lovemore Banda

Mehluli Sibanda Senior Sports Reporter—
ZIMBABWE Cricket will from next season implement a resolution by the International Cricket Council by dissolving the Southern Rocks franchise as well as retrenching some of its workers. The move, if approved by the ZC Board, will see the franchise teams reduced to four from the present five and some ZC employees joining the unemployed ranks in the country.

Lovemore Banda, the ZC media and communications manager confirmed the development, which he said came about after the ZC Cricket Committee gave its support to the proposal from the world cricket governing body.

“A recommendation was made by the International Cricket Council as a contribution to the Zimbabwe Cricket business plan which we are working on together with them, that considering the resources available to us, it would make business sense to reduce the franchises from five to four.

“After due consideration of the ICC recommendation, the ZC Cricket Committee has endorsed it and, considering the resources available to each franchise to build on the subsistence ZC support and thus take the game to the level we envisaged when we set up the franchises, the committee has recommended to the ZC Board that Southern Rocks be the franchise to be dissolved,’’ said Banda.

The ZC spokesperson said, for now, the matter was a recommendation until after it is ratified by the ZC Board.
Banda also revealed that because of the prevailing economic situation in the country, ZC would not be able to offer new contracts to some of its workers around the country.

“This is just a recommendation at this stage and so a matter on the table. Until such a time as the ZC Board considers it and makes a decision, there is nothing to communicate to the franchise serve that because of the current economic climate which has seen many local companies downsizing and many others closing altogether, ZC will not be able to renew the contracts of some of its employees nationwide, which position is being communicated to the employees around the country right now,’’ he said.

Even though he could not disclose other cost cutting measures that would be implemented by ZC in line with advice from the ICC, Banda did not rule out further moves as ZC aligns itself for survival.

It seems the decision to dissolve the Southern Rocks franchise came about because of their poor performance in the Logan Cup, the longer version format of the game meant to groom Test players for Zimbabwe.

Since the adoption of the franchise system by ZC during the 2009/2010 season, Rocks have found it hard to make an impression in the Logan Cup with their first victory only coming in November 2012 when they defeated Mashonaland Eagles by 141 runs during the 2011/2012 season.
This season, Rocks have drawn two and lost three of the five matches they have played so far in the country’s premier first class domestic cricket competition and find themselves at the bottom of the log with five points.

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