PHILLIMON MHLANGA
Billionnaire Nawab Shaji UI Mulk , founder and chairman of the T Ten Global Sports says the T10 league will continue to collaborate with the International Cricket Council Anti-Corruption Unit (ICC ACU) to keep the league free of any corrupt activity.
He was responding to concerns raised about alleged anti-corruption code violations at a press conference held Tuesday in the capital Harare.
To preserve the integrity of the cricket game, Mulk said that the T10 League strictly adheres to the ICC ACU policy.
“We are extremely honoured and happy that the Zimbabwe Cricket board, being a full member board of ICC has selected and licenced the T10 format in Zimbabwe.
“We have a zero-tolerance approach against corruption in cricket and the T10 League has a strict policy of adhering to ICC ACU to uphold the integrity of the game of cricket.”
Tavengwa Mukuhlani, the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket, weighed in, promising that the matches would be played in a setting of the utmost integrity.
He said: “Integrity is top priority in any tournament. We have gone through a whole process of due diligence prior to licensing T10 and that process involves working together with the integrity unit at ICC.
T10 is not being played for the first time in Zimbabwe. It’s been running in Abu Dhabi. This is its sixth year running and obviously the integrity issues have been put in place.
“We are working with the ICC integrity Unit to make sure the integrity of the game is not jeopardized. So, I can assure you that we are on top of our game in terms of making sure that these games are played with the highest of integrity that we expect, the fans expect, and the players expect.”
The inaugural edition of the Zim Cyber City, Zim Afro T10 League gets underway Thursday at the country’s ceremonial home of cricket, Harare Sports Club.
The tournament will run until July 29.
A total of five privately-owned franchise teams.
The teams that compete in the league are Harare Hurricanes, Bulawayo Braves, Durban Qalandars, Cape Town Samp Army and Johannesburg Buffaloes.
Zim Cyber City is the title sponsor.
The league will feature a big pool of local stars including Sikandar Raza, Sean Williams, Hamilton Masakadza, Blessing Muzarabani and Brandon Mavuta.
The league will also have international stars.
These include England’s World Cup winning captain Eoin Morgan, Tim Siefert, Mohammed Amir, Oden Smith and Junior Dala, among many others.
The T10 is a new and shorter version of cricket that sees 90 minutes of fast paced cricket.
