"We're going to be hard pushed to have a change in the Zimbabwe team by the ICC trophy," former Zimbabwe captain Streak said.

"But we hope that by the start of Zimbabwe's summer we're near a resolution and can get back to playing as citizens of our country and without any prejudice about what race we are."

Streak was speaking at the launch of the Red Lions team, which is made up of rebels and is touring England this month to raise money for charity and help fund the legal battle with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU).

The row started when 15 leading white players, angry at Streak's removal as captain after he criticised selection policies in April, made themselves unavailable earlier this year and were sacked.

The players are currently involved in a dispute resolution process with the ZCU and the International Cricket Council, the sport's governing body which has postponed all of Zimbabwe's Test matches for the remainder of the year.

The ICC said on Wednesday that the ZCU had agreed to an alternative new arbitration process, but that the players' request for more time to consider the plan had been refused.

ACT FAST

If the ZCU wants their players back they will need to act fast, since some of them have found cricket positions elsewhere and some are starting to consider other career options, Streak said.

"Their livelihood was cricket and they've been forced into other avenues in the interim, and the longer that goes on the less chance we have of getting them back into cricket," he said. "People need to get on with their lives and have some stability and plan ahead."

"We don't want to play in an environment where there's discrimination," he added.

"We're not against integration but picking someone because he's black or white is not the right way to do it. We've got to help players get to the standard where they can be picked, by offering scholarships and so on."

The rebels were almost joined by some of Zimbabwe's black cricketers but those players came under more pressure to stay, said Red Lions captain Stuart Carlisle, one of eight rebels who has been unemployed since the dispute.

"It's not nice being unemployed but we believe in the cause, and we did it to save Zimbabwean cricket," he said.

"It was a very big risk factor that we took, being 15 white people in Zimbabwe, but it's been amazing -- a lot of black people have supported us and always approach us in the streets to ask about cricket and what's happening."