BY SPORTSCAST WRITER
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s new mega T10 cricket tournament will be safe from matching-fixing and illegal bookmakers, organisers have said.
On Friday, the African nation became the second full member of the ICC after Sri Lanka to launch a franchise tournament in the newest and shortest format of the game.
The Zimbabwe tournament, to be held first the first time in August and named Zim Afro T10, is bankrolled by a company owned by Indian self-made billionaire Nawab Shaji Ul Mulk.
Six teams – Harare, Bulawayo, Cape Town, Durban, Nairobi and Windhoek – have been lined up and will share the franchise ownership with the organisers for a period of five years before gaining full proprietorship thereafter.
“Before we even signed the signed the contract, we closely monitored the Abu Dhabi T10, with the help of the ICC,” said Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) managing director Givemore Makoni during the Zim Afo T10.
“So following the Abu Dhabi tournament all the other tournaments that came have been a success. We are working closely with Alex Marshall of the ICC anti-corruption unit and we are quite happy with how things have gone so far in terms of offering an untainted Zim T10.”
One of the franchises, Cape Town, has already been bought by an Indian businessman.
