HARARE - Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) has been ridden with controversies and internal squabbles as far back as I can remember.

The current row between Sport minister David Coltart and ZC’s selectors convenor Givemore Makoni, therefore, sparks a sad sense of déjà vu to me and I dare say all those who have keenly followed Zimbabwean cricket for the better part of our lives and care for its wellbeing.

Unfortunately, the current debate has turned into a despicable campaign of denigration in some quarters, some of which is directed to journalists like me simply because of the lifelong interest and vast knowledge of goings-on in the game.  

The mudslinging turned so nasty that it made my stomach hurt. I’m not going to go too much into detail dear reader, but fortunately, with a clear conscience, I have taken it in my stride — using my experience of dealing with the complex characters in the game — to let sleeping dogs lie.

There was a time, back in the days, when Zim Cricket controversy gave many a reporter an endless source of news to fill sport pages of their papers, but though as reporters we do have an obligation to inform our readers, there comes a time when you feel disgusted by the boundless dose of negativity recycled by the same people year-in-year-out.

You see, the other issue is that it is so hard to detect any sense of a principled stand due to the inconsistences of the people involved in the current row, the same people who have been at the centre of controversies for the better part of a decade.   

If you go back in history, you will find out the people fighting on one corner today have previously waged bitter and unrelenting wars on each other, and the other way round. Are we all being taken for a ride?

The greatest tragedy is that the antagonists in the current row, due to inflated egos, are refusing to look back at the previous conflicts in Zimbabwe Cricket, which are almost similar to the prevailing dispute.

If they ever do, they will realise how destructive these conflicts were and how the game is still probably suffering the consequences to this day.