THE ongoing problems faced by the media in Zimbabwe continued with the barring of several cricket writers, including Standardsport’s Daniel Nhakaniso from covering the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka, which got underway at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
BY SPORTS REPORTER
Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC)’s media and communications manager Darlington Majonga provided no reason why the journalists, who had submitted their applications to the local cricket governing body well within the stipulated deadline, had their applications turned down.
Majonga, who claimed to have been out of the country when the accreditation process for the Sri Lanka series was done, said he was yet to be briefed by ZC’s head corporate affairs and human resources Nesta Vaki, who he said had overseen the process.
He later released a statement to the affected journalists confirming ZC’s decision without giving a reason.
“We regret to inform you that your application for media accreditation was not successful. Please note Zimbabwe Cricket reserves the right to approve or reject applications in its sole discretion,” Majonga said in the statement.
The move, which affected several sports journalists mostly from the private media was, however, hardly surprising as it came barely a few days after journalists, who are deemed to have written negatively about ZC, were removed from the association’s mailing list.
ZC was apparently angered by an article published in The Standard in which directors of ZC’s one-year-old board questioned a dubious loan of over $3 million secured from a local bank in 2011.
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The loan, which has not been serviced, now stands at $6,9 million in interest.
The Standard also exposed ZC’s controversial decision to shield former national team’s captain Prosper Utseya from scrutiny after it emerged that the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Level 2 coaching certificate he possesses was allegedly forged.
