‘Disappointed that Zimbabwe Cricket has let Brendan Taylor down’

The statement released by Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) titled “ZC disappointed Brendan Taylor has let cricket down” and found at https://zimcricket.org/zc-disappointed-brendan-taylor-has-let-cricket-down/  is so disappointing that it requires a reply.

First, because it is so factually wrong on a reading of the ICC ruling, which is found at https://resources.pulse.icc-cricket.com/ICC/document/2022/01/28/472f70b9-0c09-4455-a2bd-fff0855ce86c/Decision-of-the-ICC-re-B-Taylor-FV-28-Jan-2022-redacted-for-publication.pdf. Contrary to the claim by ZC, Brendan Taylor did not receive “bribes to fix matches”, and he has not been punished for “receiving bribes to fix matches”.

A reading of the ICC ruling clearly shows that (a) Brendan Taylor only travelled to India on the understanding that he was going to discuss a business arrangement that was above board, (b) the sum of $15,000 that he was given had been the agreed appearance fee and (c) the issue of match fixing was only raised as part of an insidious blackmail plot that Brendan Taylor was wholly unprepared for and, crucially, that made him feel very unsafe. The purpose of the $15,000.00 was also changed by the blackmailer as part of the plot.

That ZC can accuse a faithful servant like Brendan Taylor of “deceit and greed” is rich coming from an organisation that has been in the news for mismanaging millions of dollars of the game’s money.

But claiming that because of Brendan Taylor’s alleged greed “the credibility of our game has been seriously undermined, while our image as an organisation and as a country has been tainted” really takes the biscuit.

The credibility of our game has been seriously undermined by ZC’s inability to run a proper league because they have squandered the money that comes from the game. That money comes to the game not because of  anything that ZC does, but because of the efforts of players like Brendan Taylor.

The image of ZC as an organisation has been tainted by the fact that they clearly pay their marquee player so little that he considered an appearance fee of $15,000 in India an opportunity worth taking up. Given his prowess and status, one would have assumed that his salary was in the hundreds of thousands.

The image of our country has been tainted by the fact a national association that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons fails to appreciate the very serious issues of player welfare, vulnerability and safety that imbue the ICC ruling and quickly jumps to condemning the victim of a serious crime.

Yes, we are a society that has decided, for some reason whose scientific basis escapes me, that taking recreational drugs out of competition is not a good thing, but for ZC to seek to elevate the taking of “cocaine” in their statement as they do is calculated to cause maximum damage to Brendan Taylor.

Calling upon the country to prosecute Brendan Taylor for “sporting fraud” is as stupid as it is unsustainable: there was no match fixing, and the money that was paid to Brendan Taylor (which the ruling makes clear was never used but kept safe) was only received by him under threat of blackmail.

Should Brendan Taylor have put himself in a situation where a video could be used to blackmail him into taking the money? Probably not, but that seems to be an issue more relevant to Mrs Brendan Taylor than it is to the provenance of “sporting fraud”.

Asking that there be custodial sentences for the circumstances around Brendan Taylor’s case appears to me to be an attempt at deflecting attention. Were there custodial sentences around that $6,000,000.00 that we keep reading about as having been misused by ZC? How many lots of $15,000.00 could have been paid out of that money to ensure that one of our best players did not feel the need to go to India for an appearance fee of that sum?

The self-serving statement “On our part, we will, together with the ICC, continue working hard to ensure all players and everyone else involved in cricket receive relevant information and important guidance regarding appropriate standards of conduct” misses a crucial point.

What the ICC ruling on Brendan Taylor shows is that Zimbabwean players do not have relevant information and appropriate guidance of the risks that they face in the world of criminal sports betting.

Clearly, there were many red flags that Brendan Taylor missed, even when at first he seemed to have had a sixth sense that they were there. What measures will ZC put in place to better protect players, if the only reason they get from this case is about “appropriate standards of behaviour”?

It is possible to do something horribly stupid and wrong and still be innocent. Particularly when blackmail is involved. Whatever is on that video, clearly from his wife’s point of view Brendan Taylor should not have done it.

But, having done so and ended up being blackmailed into accepting money from the blackmailers, Brendan Taylor should not have the very same organisation that ought to have protected him accuse him of match fixing. He did not fix any matches. That much is clear from the ICC ruling.

It is possible to do something horribly stupid and wrong and still be a victim deserving of protection. I have never met Brendan Taylor. I have been proud of his contribution to our national cricket team, even though my background means that I have never had any association with anyone that plays this sport.

I think that he has been a victim of a series of unfortunate events, for which he bears primary responsibility. And for which he has rightly been punished by the ICC. But I do not believe that his contribution to our nation deserves this kind of treatment.

And, I find that the ZC statement lets him down. ZC are vicariously liable for what he has done, because if they had been paying him decent money, he would never have been put in this situation in the first place.

Some soul searching, and some effort at putting measures in place to better protect its players, would be a better reaction from  ZC than this hatchet job of a statement.

I am disappointed that ZC, having let Brendan Taylor down when his career was at its height, have let him down once again when his star is at its lost ebb. Shame.

Tinomudaishe Chinyoka is a lawyer in Zimbabwe and currently working as a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Zimbabwe.