Zimbabwe cricketers demand 90 per-cent pay hike

Zimbabwe Herald: Zimbabwe's under-achieving cricketers are demanding an immediate 90 percent pay hike and threatened to boycott their maiden Test against England which got under way at Lord's on Thursday.

The test players are also understood to have tried to influence members of the Zimbabwe A team to abandon their tour of Sri Lanka and join them in their strike if their demands were not met.

According to sources close to the team, the Zimbabwe players want their salaries to match those of other Test nations and believe the 90 percent hike will cushion them against the fall of the local currency against the major currencies.

The sources, who were speaking from London, said yesterday the players had contacted Zimbabwe A skipper Angus Mackay in Sri Lanka in a bid to coerce him to influence the national second-string cricketers to strike if their demands were not met.

The Test players then presented this demands to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union president, Peter Chingoka, and chief executive Dave Ellman-Brown when the pair stopped over from an International Cricket Council meeting.

But just when it appeared the simmering row had been resolved after the ZCU chiefs' meeting with the players, the cricketers are said to have spent most of their time entertaining the international Press rather than preparing for their crucial tour.

The sources said the misunderstanding between the ZCU and the players might be emanating from the latter's decision to compare their earnings with the strength of the British pound.

"One of the players has already been sanctioned by the ZCU for telling reporters that their tour bus driver was actually on better wages than any of the cricketers in the party. The same player also charged that they were barely making enough money to cover phone calls from their plush England Cricket Board-funded hotels and he now faces a fine for his outburst," the source said.

The other players, the source said, were only too happy for the story to appear in the British Press but the Zimbabwe cricket authorities were riled by the player's comments.

Skipper Andy Flower and his younger brother Grant, former skipper Alistair Campbell, vice-captain Heath Streak, all-rounder Neil Johnson, number three batsman Murray Goodwin, fast bowler Henry Olonga and medium-pacer Mpumelelo Mbangwa are Grade A players, who are the highest paid members of the team.

The eight "elite" members of the squad are believed to be earning just over $2 million per annum while those in grade D are the least paid players earning about $12000 per month.

Apart from the salaries, the players also get match fees with those in grade A earning about $26000 for a Test match and $12000 for a one-day international. Grade D players get about $12000 as Test match fees and $6000 for one-day internationals. They also get daily allowances while in camp and on tour and considering the number of matches they have played this year and the amount of time they have been away on tour, the sources said it was unreasonable for them to demand such a huge pay hike.

The Zimbabweans have been away for three months now, two of which they spent in the West Indies, and still have two more months left of their tour of England before returning home at the end of July.

The Zimbabwe team is playing terribly at the moment and were humiliated in both the Tests and one-dayers by West Indies and Pakistan in their two months tour of the Caribbean.

Although the Southern Africans beat Sussex and Essex in one-day warm-up matches in their current England tour, they were walloped by Kent in a four-day match right in the middle of their pay revolt and could only draw with Hampshire and Essex in the other four-day matches.

Chingoka and Ellman-Brown were not available for comment as they are both away in England watching the on-going Test at Lord's.

Note: Sums mentioned are Zimbabwe dollars; currently US$1 = Zim$37.95.