The International Cricket Council (ICC) is not expected to bow to demands that Zimbabwe's board be banned, but the organisation is set to discuss a possible suspension for the country's limited-overs side. "It is difficult for the ICC to remove Zimbabwe," an ICC official told Reuters from Dubai, where the governing body's executive board began a two-day meeting on Wednesday.
An ICC spokesman later said no decision was made on the first day and a news conference tentatively scheduled for Wednesday would not take place. "We cannot comment until the board meeting is finished (on Thursday)," he told Reuters from Dubai.
England had led a call to suspend the Zimbabwe board, which is lurching from one crisis to another following the country's controversial presidential election run-off last week, when Robert Mugabe retained power unopposed. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has backed strong action after the British government asked it to suspend cricketing ties with Zimbabwe.
Although South Africa has already suspended all bilateral programmes with its neighbour, the influential Indian cricket board (BCCI) is opposed to the Zimbabwe board being suspended. With seven of the 10 full-member nations required to back any resolution, the executive board could discuss whether Zimbabwe should be temporarily barred from one-day and Twenty20 internationals, another cricket official told Reuters from Dubai. Such a move, if successful, will keep Zimbabwe out of next year's Twenty20 World Cup to be staged in England.
Zimbabwe's national team have not played test cricket since January 2006 following a series of confrontations between senior players and the administration. In March, an independent audit found serious financial irregularities in the board's accounts but the ICC did not call for any sanctions, arguing that no evidence of criminality and no individuals had gained financially.