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NO SHOW . . . Brendon Taylor was one of the senior players who were conspicuous by their absence in Kwekwe yesterday

THE Pro50 Championship cricket match between Mashonaland Eagles and Manicaland Mountaineers did not take place yesterday following a no-show by the home side and a few seniors from the visitors as the players boycotted over unpaid salaries.  
The Eagles team had travelled from Harare to Mutare for the one-dayer, but without their senior players who had chosen to stay behind and honour the boycott.

They were eventually awarded the match because they arrived at the ground, but the Mountaineers, the home side, didn’t. Another Pro50 match between Southern Rocks and Mid West Rhinos got underway in Kwekwe, but the hosts were severely understrength.

Without any of their senior players who include captain Brendan Taylor, Vusi Sibanda and Malcolm Waller in the starting XI, the match was reduced to a farce of some sort as Rhinos, who were forced to field seven List A debutants, lost by 189 runs after they were bowled out for 55 runs.

The players have extended their deadline to Monday after telling Zimbabwe Cricket that unless monies appear in their accounts, the four-day fixtures, scheduled to start tomorrow at the same venues, will also not go ahead. On Friday, Zimbabwe cricketers had threatened to go on strike following delays in the payment of their salaries and had given their board a deadline of yesterday to pay up.

It was learnt that players on national contract had not received payments for the last four months, while dues to players on domestic contracts had been delayed by two months.

ESPNcricinfo understands Zimbabwe Cricket has asked the ICC for an additional loan of US$3 million but an insider said the ICC may only agree to that if ZC provided an audit of the funds they received from the Targeted Assistance and Performance Programme earlier this year.

Some of that money is believed to have been used to pay match fees for the Pakistan series, over which the Zimbabwe players threatened to strike.

In August this year, the Zimbabwe cricketers had formed a union to participate in salary negotiations prior to the series against Pakistan.
The board’s financial condition also resulted in Sri Lanka’s tour to the country in October being deferred. That delay meant the national team would not play from September until February next year, and a lack of match practice was a major concern ahead of the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. Last week a ray of hope filtered through with Afghanistan willing to pay their own way for three T20s and an ODI in Zimbabwe in January. It has now emerged that ZC is exploring the possibility of playing those matches in Bangladesh, rather than at home. — Cricinfo.com/Sports Reporter.