Local cricket owes GCB chairman David Piesing a massive thanks for his unstinting work in taking the local game forward. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0107197)
SO WE’RE in.
Guernsey yesterday won associate status at the International Cricket Council conference in Dubai and with it comes a stack of money and an open door into competition around the world.
A wonderful future for the island’s cricketers beckons.
But excuse me if my feelings of joy are tempered somewhat by the fact that the lifeline funding comes from a gutless sporting organisation which again has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in Zimbabwe, refusing to kick them into touch when all the evidence against them is there for all to see.
Under Mugabe, the former Rhodesia has managed to siphon off hundreds of thousands of dollars of ICC funding, allowing cricket in the country to grind virtually to a standstill, unable to buy vital equipment and maintain its own grounds.
If Michael Atherton’s ripping read in Thursday’s The Times is correct, Sark’s cricketers are now better off than many in Zimbabwe.
I do not profess to know what David Piesing, chairman of the Guernsey Cricket Board, made of it all as he attended the Dubai ‘summit’, but I know I would have felt deeply uncomfortable taking the ICC’s money in the current climate, although the decision on Zimbabwe was taken at a level far higher than the associates.
ICC have the money but is so lacking in principle
SO WE’RE in.
Guernsey yesterday won associate status at the International Cricket Council conference in Dubai and with it comes a stack of money and an open door into competition around the world.
A wonderful future for the island’s cricketers beckons.
But excuse me if my feelings of joy are tempered somewhat by the fact that the lifeline funding comes from a gutless sporting organisation which again has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in Zimbabwe, refusing to kick them into touch when all the evidence against them is there for all to see.
Under Mugabe, the former Rhodesia has managed to siphon off hundreds of thousands of dollars of ICC funding, allowing cricket in the country to grind virtually to a standstill, unable to buy vital equipment and maintain its own grounds.
If Michael Atherton’s ripping read in Thursday’s The Times is correct, Sark’s cricketers are now better off than many in Zimbabwe.
I do not profess to know what David Piesing, chairman of the Guernsey Cricket Board, made of it all as he attended the Dubai ‘summit’, but I know I would have felt deeply uncomfortable taking the ICC’s money in the current climate, although the decision on Zimbabwe was taken at a level far higher than the associates.
That said, I would have still taken the money.
Article posted on 5th July, 2008 - 9.29am