ZCU chief executive Dave Ellman-Brown has recently returned from a trip to Australia, for business and a holiday. He attended the most recent major ICC meeting, and while he was there Sir Donald Bradman died.

"The attention this event received from the media there was absolutely astronomical," Mr Ellman-Brown says of the death of cricket's most prolific run-scorer in history. "Special editions of newspapers were produced, and `The Australian' had a whole supplement on Don Bradman. Channel 7 ran a complete history of his life, which they originally produced about ten years ago, which contained very absorbing footage on cricket generally and the observations of Don Bradman on the game; it was outstanding.

"The Australian public treated it as an occasion of national mourning and the coverage the event got would be comparable to that accorded to royalty. It was a most moving couple of days when they covered his whole life and they certainly went into great detail. When the great man passed away, it was the end of an era in cricket.

"He obviously wasn't well and I understand that the prime minister and the cricketing officials in Australia had been to see him the week before, when he was very poorly at that stage. So obviously they expected it, and we could see from the footage on television how the public went out and lined the streets of Adelaide when his cortege passed for his private funeral service.

"There is a memorial service this Sunday in Australia and we believe our president Peter Chingoka should attend, so he leaves this Friday. He will be representing Zimbabwe, and also the ICC, because unfortunately the ICC president Malcolm Grey is in India at the time. On Friday next week there is the memorial service for Sir Colin Cowdrey in London and the Cowdrey family has asked if I will attend on behalf of Zimbabwe.

"It's sad that cricket has lost two great players and subsequently administrators of the game, and of course it is not long since the West Indies lost Sir Conrad Hunte. So we have lost several of our stalwarts and great names, so this is a sad time for the game."

UMPIRING

Mr Ellman-Brown turns to the ICC meetings in Melbourne, which he attended along with representatives from all the other major cricket-playing countries. "There were several meetings, including one for the cricket committee management, where the chief executives gathered. This was followed by a meeting of the executive committee, which was widely reported.

"I think the most important decisions were those concerning the umpiring situation, and the recommendation from there was that we should have an elite group of eight or ten umpires who would be employed fulltime, and a pool of others. I think that is a move in the right direction and the playing committee will be looking at that recommendation in May."

The present system involves a large pool of umpires, two from each Test-playing country, except Bangladesh who have recently joined the elite, and England who provide four. "We must look at the best umpires," Mr Ellman-Brown believes. "Too many decisions are now seen to be questionable, and I don't believe the human eye and brain can compete with the technology as it is at the moment. We have to do something to give the umpire a better chance. Either we take away technology – and I'm not sure that is the right move – or we have to give the umpire every assistance and allow him to use that technology to assist him in making decisions.

"We must also be careful that we don't hold up the game while we we're waiting for decisions from the third umpire to the point where it becomes too slow. We're concerned about over rates and we have to let the game flow and give the public their moneysworth, but at the same time take away any areas of doubt that will detract from the game and give the umpire a bad name.

"If we expect our players to be professional and act in a manner that befits the code of cricket, then I think we have to ensure our umpires are just as professional, so that when they make decisions the element of doubt in minimal. It's having an effect on both games and the individual, so I think it's a move in the right direction. The playing committee will look at it and come up with recommendations that will be looked at by the ICC when we meet in June in London."

ANTI-CORRUPTION

2000, as Mr Ellman-Brown says, was a nightmare year for cricket, as corruption and match-fixing hit the headlines and brought the game into widespread disrepute. This was another major matter discussed at the ICC meeting.

"The executive had a report from Sir Paul Condon on the progress made against corruption, and I think that is a big move forward. It has been well received, and the sooner we can eradicate corruption from the game the better it will be for cricket. I hope we can get past it, and we have some exciting Test matches at the moment that are taking the mind off this affair. I hope we can reach the stage where corruption is a word that is not even mentioned in cricket circles.

"The ICC have also announced that the new chief executive is Malcolm Speed, who was chief administrator of the Australian Board. He is a very good administrator and I have a high regard for him; I think he will do an extremely good job with the ICC. He has already indicated that one of his prime goals will be the eradication of corruption."

DUCKWORTH-LEWIS

To misquote Sir Winston Churchill, the Duckworth-Lewis method of settling rain-interrupted cricket matches is perhaps the worst possible method of doing so, apart from all the other methods that have already been tried. Cricket is such a complex game that it is probably beyond the ingenuity of man or his computers to come up with a system that will please everybody, but most people will grudgingly agree that Duckworth-Lewis is perhaps the least unfair method used so far. However, that is not to say that it cannot be improved, and Mr Ellman-Brown says it is up for review shortly.

"Here in Zimbabwe we probably don't have to refer to it as much as some countries do," he says. "But it will be looked at by the playing committee when they meet, and we await their recommendations as to whether they think it is fair or whether alterations should be made. That decision should be made during our June meeting."

THE TEN-YEAR PLAN

`A great move forward' is Mr Ellman-Brown's view of the ICC's ten-year plan, which draws up a schedule to ensure that all Test-playing countries play each other at least twice both home and away between now and 2011. "It's been at least four years in coming," he says, "and for various reasons we have had to delay it, but I'm glad to say it is now in place. We are now running our tours according to that plan, and I must say that Chris Doig, who is the outgoing chief executive of New Zealand cricket, did a great job for international cricket.

"First of all he had nine teams, and then Bangladesh came in so he had to change it to accommodate them. There are a few problems at the moment as certain countries are a little unhappy with the scheduling of some of their games, but I think we have sorted it out and you will see that by and large that tour programme will go ahead. Certainly we will abide by it, and it will make sure that we get regular cricket. It will also ensure that we get at least one `icon' tour each season – and by that I mean a tour that will command good television revenue. That will assist Zimbabwe in maintaining a viable financial organization."

This will mean much less work in one area for Zimbabwe's chief executive, who since his appointment in August 1998 has laboured long and hard, and with remarkable success, to arrange tours with often reluctant or indifferent opposition. This has culminated in a full winter programme of international cricket in Zimbabwe this year, most notably the Test series and one-day international tournament with India and West Indies between May and July, as it was so difficult to attract opponents during the traditional season of September to April.

"We were at the mercy of some of the countries, and that was not good," says Mr Ellman-Brown. "The plan we have now is that if we play games on an equal basis, both home and away, there will be no financial guarantees required. That was also a very onerous position for some of us up-and-coming countries who had to pay some big guarantee moneys to certain countries, especially Australia. I'm very confident that international cricket is going to go ahead in leaps and bounds.

"I think one of the most important aspects that we have seen is this world sports group and their sponsorship of cricket and the bundling of rights, which includes World Cup 2003 and 2007, which will be held in West Indies. That I think is an outstanding achievement for the administrators and I believe the ICC did a great job in putting that deal together. I think it will ensure there is a lot of money available so that the game of cricket can be developed."

The scheduled timing of most of the tours seems to have taken into account Zimbabwe's particular needs, especially as far as possible to avoid the wettest months of December to February. It also means that it will not be necessary to stage international cricket during the winter again, although Mr Ellman-Brown does not rule out that possibility. The coming winter's programme will be in the nature of an experiment, and the ZCU will no doubt make an assessment at their annual general meeting in July as to how well it has gone and whether it is worth considering again.

"That programme is not cast in stone when it comes to the exact timing of the tour," says Mr Ellman-Brown. "We can shift it if we wish. It was our intention to use this winter to test our situation at that time of year. We believe we have a window of opportunity and it doesn't mean to say that we can't organize our own triangular one-day tournament in the winter if we can find two other teams to participate. We can still find an opportunity outside that programme to play cricket in winter.

"We are going to test it very effectively: between April and September we have four countries coming here and there will be a lot of cricket outside our summer and wet months. The less cricket we can have here outside our rainy months the better! What worries me is the amount of rain we are having now, in February and March, the months when World Cup 2003 will be held. If we have another season like this we will not have many games completed."

TWO OR THREE TESTS?

Zimbabwe's Test cricket at present consists mainly of two-match Test series, which give a team losing the First Test no chance of returning strongly enough to win the series, as both England in Sri Lanka and India against Australia have done so thrillingly in the past week. Many of the players have expressed a preference for longer series, so what are the chances of Zimbabwe being able to play more three-Test series in future?

"When I have organized tours, I have tended to look at two Tests and three one-dayers, partly because of the lack of venues," says Mr Ellman-Brown. "It is something we will be looking at, though. I know it would be nice to have three Tests, but there is also the time factor to consider. Tours that last too long become very expensive, and we don't make any money out of the Tests. We make money out of triangular tournaments, but another Test will usually make no difference to the revenue we receive, unfortunately.

"When we organized the matches for the tours by India and West Indies, we were going to look at three Tests at first. But it made it too long a time away, so we scaled it down to two Test matches each. Our marketers felt that the additional Tests would not bring any increase in revenue, but rather cost us a lot of money. So we have tended to shy away from that in favour of two Tests and three one-dayers.

"In a small country like ours it is quite an ideal tour programme. We have four countries coming here, all playing to that formula, and we have something like 53 days of cricket over a six-month period, which is a lot of cricket. We have just had a long tour away and a very busy 2000/01 since September, so the players have had to perform to earn their money this last year."

Next week we will continue this interview as Mr Ellman-Brown gives his views on domestic cricket in Zimbabwe.

© Cricinfo