ICC delay Zimbabwe decision

Executive board vote will not be held until Thursday

Last updated: 2nd July 2008

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Mali: outgoing ICC president

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Zimbabwe's cricketing future will not be determined until Thursday after the International Cricket Council's executive board appeared to delay talks on

the issue.

Outgoing ICC president Ray Mali decreed that the status of Zimbabwe should be discussed at the two-day meeting in Dubai following the decision by South Africa and the England to sever bilateral links with the African country, which is currently in a state of political turmoil following Robert Mugabe's disputed re-election as president.

It is believed a vote on whether the Zimbabwe Cricket Union retain their full member status within ICC, and the funding and voting rights that go with it, will be taken at the end of the meeting on Thursday.

As a two-thirds majority is required to force expulsion, the views of the Asian bloc are vital, and it is widely expected that India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will all side with Zimbabwe.

That would be leave uncertainty over next year's World Twenty20 in England, with Zimbabwe unwelcome on the orders of the British government, and could lead the ICC to take the event elsewhere.

An ICC spokesman confirmed after the first day of the executive board meeting that no official comments on a raft of ICC executive board decisions would be made until the following day.