Twenty20 cup still bound for England

The answer from David Richardson, the ICC's acting chief executive, was surprisingly emphatic. With the Zimbabwe crisis about to limp into its third day, and the ICC mired in indecision, would England be staging World Twenty20 next summer? "Yes,'' he insisted.

Richardson's response could be dismissed as a polite piece of wishful thinking on behalf of a governing body that cannot find a solution to the Zimbabwe issue so it has been reduced to dreaming of one. But some insisted it carried more resonance – a hint that the ICC has a final strategy in reserve to allow England to stage a tournament without Zimbabwe. Few are confident that it really exists, but if it does we are about to discover it. It is a fair bet that lawyers will be involved.

"I think it would be very sad if we lacked any of our full members at World Twenty20 and in particular England,'' Richardson said. "If England are not around in any international event it loses a lot.''

Barring a last-minute morality check from Zimbabwe's allies – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and, most irritatingly for the ECB, the West Indies – that remains a potential outcome of two days of increasingly heated negotiations. If Zimbabwe are confirmed as Twenty20 entrants then England must carry through their threats to cite a desire from the British Government that Zimbabwe do not compete, prove that they are legally entitled to make such a move, and take pride in a principled stance. Then the ICC has to chose between accepting England's demand or shifting the tournament; running a World Twenty20 either without Zimbabwe or without England.

With South Africa still insistent that Zimbabwe's status as a major international nation is unthinkable while the country remains in such political disarray, Peter Chingkoka, the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket, sparked anger during the second day of the annual meeting when he accused their representative, Norman Arendse of betrayal. "Storming'' Norman, a prominent Cape Town lawyer, responded furiously to the obvious implications.

India's support for Zimbabwe has not wavered, their intransigence seriously questioning in British eyes whether world cricket's most financially powerful nation is capable of putting mature leadership of the game ahead of vainglorious self-interest. For the first time since his arrival, Chingoka looked shaken when he left the annual meeting at the Westin Hotel having been informed that India wanted a meeting at the nearby Grosvenor Hotel. "We are going to see friends,'' he said defiantly.

India, in the first tiny sign that they might compromise, reportedly invited Zimbabwe to consider whether they might voluntarily opt out of World Twenty20 in England next summer. The suggestion that Chingoka might consider returning to Harare to inform President Mugabe that he had voluntarily withdrawn Zimbabwe from World Twenty20 was enough for the Zimbabwe Cricket chairman, flanked by two ever-present lawyers, to leave the meeting in laughter at the impossibility of the suggestion.

Relations between England and India have somehow survived enough for them also to join representatives from Australia and South Africa in a six-hour meeting about the inaugural club Twenty20 Champions League in September. Predictably, these also were largely unresolved, but that did not prevent an ECB spokesman insisting that the tournament will go ahead in two venues in India in late September and that two English counties would definitely be involved.

Whether those two English counties will be the winners and runners-up in England's domestic Twenty20 competition remains to be seen. India still wants English teams who have fielded players from the unofficial Indian Cricket League to be barred. The Australians, who are charged with drawing up the rules and regulations, have understandably felt the need to seek clarification.

The staging of the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in September remains uncertain. The ICC is awaiting delivery of a security report following the Asia Cup tournament, which will be received in the next week. England, Australia and New Zealand have also commissioned an independent report. Sri Lanka is on standby and the ICC has even asked England to act as a stand-by for the stand-by. Richardson played down threats of a player boycott, stating that Tim May, the head of the international players union had "dissociated himself from a boycott'' – although there remains disquiet about Pakistan among players from Australia, England and New Zealand.