The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
IN a bid to keep the best talent committed to the national cause for a long time, Zimbabwe Cricket has given players lengthy contracts ranging from 12 to 36 months.
ZC managing director Wilfred Mukondiwa disclosed that 16 players have been offered deals divided into three grades, A, B and C.
“ZC offered central contracts to players as follows: 4 A grade, 3B and 9C. We gave five contracts of 12 months, two of 24 months and nine of 36 months. Emerging squad is being looked into to see if there are any players who deserve contracts, what is important is to identify the players. The main features of the new contracts is that they are of varying durations, this time around the board saw it fit to give contracts of between 12 to 36 months, those deemed to have potential ZC wants to invest in them. Provincial contracts will be done in October so that the players start earning salaries from end of October,’’ said Mukondiwa.
The ZC most senior member of the secretariat said they started issuing contracts from last week after agreeing terms with the players. He pointed out that there are some who are not happy with the deals they were offered and that was being looked into as a matter of priority.
“We did a consultative process, consulting the technical guys and started issuing contracts last week, there are some who have appeals, those are being looked at expeditiously. We have made progress, on Monday we concluded the central contracts, negotiations were done individually. We are looking to give five emerging players contracts. You don’t have to be contracted to play for the national team though,’’ said Mukondiwa.
On how the players get to be put in different grades, Mukondiwa explained that performance determined the system.
“Each year you have each player being graded differently, because of performance you can be in a different grade, the board has taken a decision to prioritise the players, for those with no contracts there is a chance of playing for the national team where they get match fees,’’ Mukondiwa said.
Last year, national team players were given one year contracts which expired at the end of July. ZC then extended the deals by one month to cover the Test series against New Zealand. Even though Mukondiwa could not be drawn to reveal the names of the players given three-year deals, Sunday News has it on authority that left handed batsman Sean Williams is one of those given such a contract.
Meanwhile, the 2016/17 domestic cricket season is due to start next month and run through to end of April next year. ZC public relations and media manager Darling Majonga said four provinces will participate in first class and List A competitions. The four are Harare Metropolitan Eagles, Bulawayo Metropolitan Tuskers, Midlands Rhinos as well as Manicaland Mountaineers.
“Our domestic season is scheduled to start mid-October 2016 and end in April 2017. However, our pre-season meeting which is scheduled for the 27th of September 2016 will deliberate on the proposed 2016/17 structure and come up with the final draft.
We have scheduled 12 weeks of four-day cricket, 18 weeks of 50-over cricket and a Twenty20 tournament to be played over 10 days. Four-day and 50-over cricket will be played on a home-and-away basis,’’ said Majonga.
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