Zimbabwe cricket's dynamic chief executive (shortly to be managing director) Dave Ellman-Brown talks to John Ward about the coming season and reviews the past and present.

"We played a great deal of cricket during the last year, which I think has been good for team bonding and development. Winning the one-day series against New Zealand here was excellent, and showed a recovery from the first game to win the two in Bulawayo, which was outstanding.

I was disappointed that we didn't do better in the ICC knockout, when we lost our first game, against New Zealand, who won the tournament. I think our tour to India was outstanding. It's not easy to play cricket in India – Australia got beaten there – and for us to do what we did in India, with Andy Flower playing as he did, I think was an outstanding performance. To have Andy Flower, who was number two at one time in the ratings, voted the International Cricketer of the Year was an enormous achievement – from little Zimbabwe. It just shows the international quality of a player like that.

India was also special for Campbell and Grant Flower coming back into form – on and off, but certainly a vast improvement. There was disappointment at some players who did not make it due to injury, such as Henry Olonga, whose spate of injuries continues. Injury generally is a big worry to me. There is something wrong, and it worries me.

Then we beat New Zealand again in the one-dayers, where we did extremely well. Heath Streak was the one who got the Auckland match in our favour with an outstanding innings that showed his maturity.

Then came the Carlton and United in Australia, where we only won the one game. We played badly against West Indies, but really well against Australia, much better than the West Indies did, who played abominably against them. That game in Perth, chasing 302 against Australia, was unbelievable. Cricket was the winner that day; we wouldn't have reached the final anyway had we won it, but it would have been nice to beat Australia again in a one-dayer. We came within an inch of beating them.

The gloom-and-doom boys looked back and said, "We've lost Goodwin and we've lost Johnson; how are we going to perform?" It is amazing how we have performed and how people have came through. I think it's significant that Carlisle has come through, and it has been very gratifying to see people like Watambwa and Blignaut coming through. Watambwa has performed well, despite his injuries, and if Blignaut can sort out his character and his self-discipline he is an exciting prospect.

I think we have done well, but there are times when we do not perform as well as we should do. We have had certain off-field `activities' that have deflected the minds and concentration of the players at the time, which has been unfortunate, but I hope we have got over those times. It has gone on too long, and hopefully we can come up with a satisfactory formula that is going to keep everybody happy. We look forward to an interesting year ahead.

DEVELOPMENT
It's been gratifying, although expected, that we did well against Bangladesh. The introduction of our young players against West Indies and India proved positive; I'm thinking of Masakadza and Taibu, who came through. I think another one we are going to see shortly is Matsikenyeri who has been performing well from time to time.

What is particularly gratifying about that is that they are all products of our development programme. I think it is so exciting that we are actually reaping the rewards of a programme that many have criticized for not coming through fast enough. I think for us to produce two 18-year-olds in the national side is outstanding. There are people who say we should be producing double or treble the numbers, but I believe we have done very well and there is evidence that our programme is succeeding. We can't be too wrong.

There is depth, and we have to look there for our future. That is where our future cricketers will come from. I expect future cricketers to continue to come from the small white community in Zimbabwe, but it is a blending of both sectors. But where you have a black population of 12 to 13 million, this is the untapped pool of potential players, and we have to expand our development programme more and more to get these youngsters playing the game. That's where our future cricketers will come from.

There are probably seven serious cricket-playing schools in the country and we need to get more. But that pool of development players has to increase.

DOMESTIC CRICKET
I don't think our domestic programme was as good this year as it was the previous year. I think in the coming season we are going to see our Logan Cup played again when the national side is away. It is a good opportunity for more players to experience first-class cricket, although we don't want to make it too weak.

We have a scheme in place to try to assist the clubs, as many of them are struggling, although not too many of them have taken advantage of it. A few clubs in Mashonaland have put in their returns, but not all. The biggest problem they are having is to try and attract cricketers. We basically pay them for youngsters they recruit, because they are going to battle to maintain their clubs; costs are astronomical now. In the old days, players paying subscriptions was enough to run cricket, but it's not like that any more; costs are too big.

We have to be careful clubs don't fold, because they are no longer viable. It is not just cricket; the whole concept of a sports club is becoming very marginal. It costs too much to run a club, and the revenue is not big enough. We have to make sure clubs do not simply disappear down the tube, because if we do the whole structure of cricket will be affected. We have cricket at the nursery stage at primary school level, followed by senior schools, and it has to carry on from there.

If it doesn't, there will be a gap that will affect us badly. We need more than just the Academy; club cricket is linked with the Academy. We have the national league for clubs and the Logan Cup, which we must continue to have as our first-class structure. That all builds towards players eventually representing the A side and the full national side.

Something else that is happening next year is that our A side playing in the Bowl competition in South Africa will participate in the Standard Bank league.

FUTURE TOURS
Our plans for the future are looking pretty good and we have a very busy season coming up now. We have South Africa here now and England are coming in October. We then go to Sharjah, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India, which takes us to the beginning of March. Then we return to play Australia after they have had a long tour of South Africa.

Then we have a break. I am negotiating a tour with New Zealand coming here in September 2002, basically to play one-dayers to prepare for the World Cup. Pakistan are here in October and November, and we have the World Cup in February.

THE NEW COACH
I have discussed that programme with our new coach, Geoff Marsh, and he is happy with it. He will be here as our fulltime coach, on a two-year contract with an option of a third year. He will take charge of the team after the England tour, and I think he will be a big success for us. He had a successful career with Australia, and he was then their national coach for two years, doing very well, and was then a national selector. So his pedigree is great, and I'm looking forward to big things from him.

Carl Rackemann has served us well, but has his business problems back in Australia to deal with. Our bowlers improved immensely under him, and I think he has done a wonderful job. I'm sorry he can't carry on, but I think we are very lucky we have been able to negotiate with Geoff Marsh to come here.

CFX ACADEMY
The development of our young players has been very gratifying. I think another noteworthy aspect has been the success of the Academy. It is now into its third year.

[Director] Gwynne Jones is not renewing his contract and is leaving in September, so we are looking for a new administrator. Gwynne was the man who developed the Academy, but that stage is now finished and we need somebody to administer it. We have Dave Houghton as the coach, and he is doing a good job, so I see the Academy going from strength to strength.

Maybe we can use our Academy for the good of Africa as a whole, where we can assist players from areas to the north of us and dovetail perhaps with Plascon from South Africa.

GROUND DEVELOPMENT
The progress we have made with developing our two grounds in Harare and Bulawayo has been great, and they now nearly finished, ready for World Cup 2003. We are certainly getting very positive and complimentary remarks passed about our development. As soon as England leave we will build a new media centre in Harare and then I believe we will be virtually ready for the World Cup.

Kwekwe will continue to develop as our third ground, while Mutare, our fourth ground, is not developing as fast. The administrators in Kwekwe are very energetic and ambitious; not so long ago there was no cricket in the Midlands but now there is a thriving community, thanks to the enthusiasm of no more than half a dozen people who are making cricket work.

Another factor now is the development of suitable facilities in our high-density areas throughout Zimbabwe. We have the development at Winstonians and Mabvuku in Harare, and also in Bulawayo and Mutare. We have centres of excellence in Bulawayo, Kwekwe and Mutare; we are just about to put in a centre of excellence, thanks to Nissan, at Hippo Valley in the Lowveld; there is another earmarked for Masvingo; and we must also look to the north of Harare as there is still nothing in Chinhoyi or anywhere in that region. It's exciting that this is all happening, and all thanks to Nissan who have always been part of it.

We aim to provide centre hard wickets, concrete pitches, laid perhaps with Astroturf, and nets. Most of these places have a ground, but it is very difficult because of the structure of the schools, where they probably play football and other sports on the same field, to get a grassy outfield, but as long as they have a true pitch they can start playing. We provide the schools with kit, which is always a big problem, but that is something we are constantly looking at.

Basically what we are trying to do is to put into place structures of grounds with hard pitches. We have a project, which we have approved, whereby we will be looking at an increasing number of pitches in these various areas, together with nets. That is all essential. We also need to employ more coaches; we have 50 at present.

EMPLOYMENT
We actually employ about 120 people at present, which includes 18 professional cricketers, 21 player-coaches, 15 ground staff and 15 administrative staff. This is an increase from last year, when we employed 84.

The player-coaches are Academy graduates, who are on contract to us for one year at the Academy, followed by two further years, during which we allocate them to a province where they act as development coaches and play for the province. We are particularly looking at Manicaland and the Midlands, where it boosts their playing numbers and their coaching staff.

We now have the first intake at the Academy who are reaching the end of their three-year contracts. These player-coaches can now aim for a C-Grade contract if they want to stay in cricket; if not, they are free to do what they like. If they wish, they can become part of the administration – stay in the provinces and assist with the administration there.

In each of the provinces we are now looking to employ a full-time administrator, for whom we will pay as part of our structure. It's very important that they look after their own affairs; we cannot have part-timers always referring to this office. That man will look after coaching, development, training and such matters. That will happen quite shortly, as soon as I have a directive from the Board, and we have a couple of people earmarked already for those jobs, especially in Manicaland and the Midlands.

RESTRUCTURING ZCU
ZCU is currently going through a restructuring process and many hours of work have been put in by different people; there has been a certain amount of anguish as a result of certain groups of people but I hope that is now finished and we can get on with administering and playing the game without other side issues coming into the equation.

In August 2000 we had a think tank and decided that the structure of cricket is not right here. From that we formed certain committees to look at this, and we took the matter to PriceWaterhouse-Coopers to give us a business plan. They looked at other models – Australia, South Africa and New Zealand – used those, put it all together, and came up with a structure for us.

We then had a task force, which has sat for a long time and come up with some recommendations, basically to make sure there is a better representation of racial groupings in the administration of cricket and the playing of the game. Their recommendations and guidelines have been issued and we will work on them to ensure that we come up with a structure, both administrative and playing, that falls in line with those goals. That process has already started.

Another process is the restructuring of the Board itself. We had a special general meeting the other day that approved the changes to the constitution which would allow a new board. Previously we had a board that comprised the chairmen of the provinces and the chairmen of certain working committees; instead, we will now have a board of 12 members elected from nominations from the provincial associations and from the integration committee. They are each empowered to nominate 14 people and they have put their nominations in. We have a council of five wise men who will look at those and announce the board at our annual general meeting next Wednesday.

That new board will go forward as a board of directors. The post of chief executive will disappear and become a post of managing director; the Board will be a policy-making board that will pass down its policies to the managing director, instructing him to implement those policies. He will in turn be empowered to appoint certain people on a full-time basis to form committees that will carry out the policies of the board and run cricket. We will no longer have board members as chairmen of committees; there is now a distinct difference between those who set policy and those who implement it.

It will be interesting to see how the new board settles in. It will include outsiders, people who have not been involved before. But the provinces, who are the stakeholders, do have a say in at least 50% of that board.

FINANCE
We have spent an awful lot of money this year, including Z$50 million on capital development alone, and there is still another Z$50 million to be spent on the new media centre at Harare Sports Club. We have the money and we are financially secure even after making a loss last year.

This year we certainly won't make a loss, with India and South Africa being here, and we still have England and then Australia to come. So we have a very good year ahead of us. When we have four icon countries coming to us in one year, that is pretty good.

Most of the money comes from the sale of television rights, and we also have sponsors for the Test matches and one-dayers who produce funds for us. We also have sponsors who provide us with facilities and goods rather than cash, such as Bata, who look after our clothing needs, and ZimSun, our Test-match sponsor, who provide us with accommodation. We have other major companies in other areas, whose names I can't mention yet because the deals have not been finalized.

The days of raising money from cake sales and running casinos have long gone! But that's how it started, and in 1982 that is exactly how we raised our money.

PLAYER RELATIONSHIPS
I think our relationships with the players at the moment are fine. We are negotiating their contracts at the moment. We have a structure that is done through the remuneration committee, and it has been agreed that both the administration and the players will abide by the decisions of that committee.

We do not get involved in the cut and thrust of negotiation with the players; it is done through their representative and our representative with an independent chairman. They come up with a plan and we accept what they say."

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