18 November 2004	Thursday	05 Shawwal 1425

HARARE, Nov 17: Former Test players Heath Streak, Stuart Carlisle and Trevor Gripper are deciding their future after withdrawing from an International Cricket Council-sponsored tribunal to resolve their dispute with Zimbabwe Cricket.

"We are due to meet together in a day or two and will issue a joint statement on our future plans. Basically, we couldn't afford to go through with the tribunal, especially as there are only three of us left. It would have been extremely expensive," Gripper said.

"All the other players have made new lives for themselves. "Whatever we decide, we will act together. Basically it is a decision about going back to cricket or not." Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Peter Chingoka has said this is possible "provided there are no pre-conditions".

That would mean dropping all their complaints about racially-motivated teams and Streak's axing as captain. ZC vice-president Justice Ahmed Ebrahim said the tribunal never met formally, even though it was set up more than four months ago.

"There was in fact a 52 days deadline, so that is long past anyway." An earlier ICC inquiry was abandoned because the same three players refused to give evidence in the hearing of ZC directors, who refused to leave.

Since the revolt, a Zimbabwe team with an average age of 21 has suffered a long sequence of losses in their preparations to resume Test cricket in January against Bangladesh.

Zimbabwe is due to meet England for five ODIs, two in Harare and three in Bulawayo, starting on Nov 26, before England move on to South Africa for a full scale five-Test series. -AFP