HARARE - Zimbabwe Cricket were two week ago kicked out of their head offices of more than 20 years after defaulting on rents for several months.

The ZC headquarters at Harare Sports Club had become a symbol of the game and many cricket lovers will have fond memories of their old HQ, which had become the spiritual home of cricket in the country.

The association has been based there since before the onset of Test status in 1992.

From the spacious HSC offices, the entire ZC staff is now crammed at their other office complex at Maiden Drive in Highlands.

Harare Sports Club is owned and run by club members.

Although ZC finance manager Esther Lupepe claims that the association voluntarily moved out, the Daily News has it on good authority that ZC was evicted after amassing a debt of $11 750 in unpaid rentals and late payment.

“Remember those were not our offices, we were renting,” Lupepe said. “So we decided to move everybody to a place we own.”

However, according to documents obtained by this paper, ZC were notified of their eviction through a letter from Harare Sports Club’s lawyers, Gill, Godlonton & Gerrans Legal Practitioners.

“Our instructions are that your arrears now stand at US$ 11 750.00. These include the March and April 2012 rentals, which you have not paid. In terms of Clause 22 of the lease agreement, our client is now entitled to cancel the lease agreement forthwith, read the April-dated letter to former ZC managing director Ozias Bvute.

“Notwithstanding our client’s entitlement to cancel the lease forthwith, we have been instructed, as we do hereby, to give you five (5) days notice to settle the arrears, failing which the lease agreement shall be deemed to have been cancelled without any further notice to you.”

Meanwhile, employees at the financially-troubled association have been hit by a second salary cut inside 12 months.

Employees were last week given new contracts with a 25 percent pay cut following last October’s 30 percent chop.