Zimbabwean cricketers refuse to come back home

NINE local cricketers who are playing in the Shpageeza Twenty20 Cricket League in Kabul, Afghanistan have refused to return home as they believe that they are safe in the war torn Asian country.

Zimbabwe Cricket announced last Wednesday that they had asked all local players to immediately return home from Afghanistan after a suicide bomb blast outside a stadium where some of them were playing a match.

The order from ZC fell on deaf ears despite the national governing body having been the one which issued the players with the No Objection Certificates which allowed them to play in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan league started on 11 September and concludes on Friday. Hamilton Masakadza, Solomon Mire, Sikandar Raza, Vusumuzi Sibanda, Elton Chigumbura, Richard Ngarava, Ryan Burl, Richmond Mutumbami and Tendai Chisoro are the Zimbabwe cricketers in Afghanistan.

ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani yesterday said they were powerless to act because some of the local cricketers in Afghanistan are not contracted. He indicated that the Sports and Recreation have been alerted from the beginning when the players went to Afghanistan.

With the players adamant that they are safe, ZC have asked the Afghanistan Government to write to their Zimbabwean counterparts to guarantee the safety of the cricketers.

"The SRC does not govern movement of individuals, they only govern national teams. SRC is fully aware of what is happening. On our part as the governing body we have informed the SRC. Players such as Vusi Sibanda and Elton Chigumbura are not contracted. We can't tell people who are out of contract to come back; we can't deny cricketers an opportunity to earn a living because we have no power over players with no contracts. We have asked the Afghanistan Government to write to our Government which has the power to tell its citizens to come back home,'' Mukuhlani said.