A Cr-related near-infrared photoluminescence (PL) band in ZnSe with a main no-phonon line at is investigated. Zeeman splitting indicates a tetragonally distorted ground state. The experimental data agree well with calculations using a spin Hamiltonian with parameters obtained from the ground state of . This contradicts a former assignment of the PL band to a emission of . Crystal field calculations demonstrate that the observed no-phonon lines and the corresponding luminescence band can reasonably be interpreted in terms of a transition within the configuration of . Furthermore, the influence of unmodulated supplementary irradiation on transmission and PL excitation spectra is discussed.