Zimbabwean cricketers yesterday called for the World Cup matches in their country to be cancelled in protest at Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime, in a move that will redouble pressure on England to abandon their tour.
Players, speaking out despite the threat to their careers, said while the matches would give a huge boost to cricket in the troubled African state there were bigger issues at stake.
‘Ethical issues must be taken into consideration. It would be wrong to hold any World Cup matches here,’ said one member of the national squad, speaking anonymously for fear of retribution. Robert Mugabe is patron of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union.
‘With a multiracial crowd and teams playing here, are we not painting too rosy a picture of a country that is battling starvation, terrible poverty, corruption, human rights abuses? The matches will give credence to the organisation that is in charge.’
However, the Zimbabwean team captain, Heath Streak, insisted the games should go ahead to avoid mixing politics and sport and prevent a ‘disaster’ for the national game.
In London, a delegation from the England and Wales Cricket Board will meet Ministers on Thursday to discuss the dilemma.
Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Foreign Office Minister Baroness Amos are expected to repeat the Government’s view that the team should not go to Zimbabwe, but will reject cricketers’ demands for state compensation if they are fined up to £1-million by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for refusing to play.
The meeting is also likely to cover Zimbabwe’s planned Test tour of the UK this year. Ministers are expected to follow the precedent of the Commonwealth Games, when Zimbabwe was told its athletes were welcome but officials were not. ‘Richard Caborn [the Sport Minister] has certainly taken the Commonwealth view that sanctions that have been taken against Zimbabwe are against its government, not its people,’ said a representative for Caborn’s department.
Even on the well-groomed pitch of the Harare Sports Club, where the Zimbabwe team practises, it is impossible to avoid signs of the famine, fuel shortages and human rights abuses plaguing the country. Fuel queues stretch within blocks of the club, and food riots broke out on Friday in the second city of Bulawayo, where three of the six February matches will be held.
The anonymous player criticised the ICC for being ‘wishy washy’ in limiting its investigation into Zimbabwe hosting the matches to safety, and failing to get assurances that international journalists would be allowed to cover the games.
‘They should have looked at wider political issues, because now this has blown up in all of our faces,’ he added. He said if he voiced opposition openly ‘my cricket career would end without a doubt by action from our cricket board’. – Guardian Unlimited