Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza has written to sports minister Kirsty Coventry to ask for "urgent intervention" after Zimbabwe Cricket's suspension by the ICC, reports ESPN.
"It is important to note that ICC, as the world cricket governing body, has made its ruling and at this stage it is pointless to argue whether they were right or not," Masakadza wrote in a letter addressed to Coventry.
"We implore you to get the SRC to give the game a chance and reinstate the recently-elected ZC board," Musonda had written in her letter to Coventry. "Police action, anti-corruption action all that can always be done while we are playing and those found on the wrong side can then be arrested. As for now only one decision needs to be made: reinstatement."
"The SRC expresses its total confidence in the ability and willingness of the suspended Board members of ZC in ensuring for an outcome that is in the best interests of Zimbabwe's cricket, particularly the players themselves, in the shortest time possible," SRC's statement had said, leaving the situation deadlocked as it placed responsibility for action on Mukuhlani and his board.
Masakadza detailed the "catastrophic" effects of Zimbabwe's suspension, emphasising the human cost of the sanctioning and warning of the dire consequences for cricket in the country should Zimbabwe not comply with the ICC's directive. He also bemoaned the power struggle that has put Zimbabwe in this position, and hinted at a rift within the national team.
"At this stage the whole issue has regrettably been reduced to a contest of who has the strongest argument or who has the power, when what is at stake are human lives and the very future of the game.
"I wish to have it on record that our meeting last week was the first official communication by the Zimbabwe senior men's team since the suspension of the ZC board by the SRC. I am doing this because it has come to my attention that there are some players who have been making statements saying they are speaking on behalf of the team. Their actions are divisive and in fact compromised change-room harmony during our tour of Netherlands and Ireland," he wrote.
Masakadza added that he would like to "dissociate the team from the actions of those players who were seen at the ICC meeting in London," adding weight to a rumour that at least two players tried to talk directly to the ICC at their board meeting.
