English cricket was facing its biggest crisis in 30 years last night after a crucial meeting between ministers and England and Wales Cricket Board officials failed to resolve the impasse over a World Cup match with Zimbabwe.
The government had called on the ECB to withdraw from the fixture because of human rights abuses by Robert Mugabe’s regime, but refused to meet ECB demands to compensate it for losses of up to £1-million it could incur by boycotting the match.
After a ”frank” exchange of views yesterday the gulf between the two sides was as wide as ever.
Tim Lamb, the ECB chief executive, said he was disappointed at the outcome of the meeting and said his first responsibility was to the financial wellbeing of English cricket.
He criticised the government for making its views clear just six weeks before the game was scheduled.
”If we sacrifice this match it will, in effect, be at the government’s request — and for the wider national interest,” he said.
”We don’t understand therefore the government’s refusal to compensate us out of the national purse for any consequential losses we incur. These losses could damage cricket enormously. Surely, it is only fair that the government should at least discuss this with us.
”I’m sorry if people think that is not sufficiently moral. I think we have been put in a really difficult situation. Only at the 59th minute of the 11th hour did the government make their concerns clear.”
He said that if the game did go ahead the ECB was determined not to hand Mugabe a propaganda coup.
Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, reiterated the government’s position. ”This is not the government’s decision, it is the ECB’s decision but we think it would be inappropriate to play the game in Zimbabwe,” she said. ”The ECB’s major concern was the cost to them of withdrawing from the match. We told them there is no question of any kind of public compensation.”
The final decision on whether the ECB will attend will be taken by the 15 members of the ECB management board who are expected to meet next week.
In the Commons, nearly 50 MPs including the former cul ture minister Chris Smith have signed a motion demanding that the ECB back out of all matches in Zimbabwe, while Tory MPs pressed the government to ”stop passing the buck and take some action”.
The veteran backbencher David Winnick said it would be an ”absolute disgrace” for the English team to play when Mugabe was guilty of ”lawless tyranny”.
Robin Cook, the leader of the Commons, insisted that the ECB had known since last summer that the government was opposed to World Cup matches being played in Zimbabwe.
”I think it is rather unreasonable of the ECB to pretend it has only noticed in the last few weeks that there is a problem in Zimbabwe. We could not have been clearer about the government’s position on this – that the cricket team should not go, that it would be wrong for them to go.”
Despite his assurances, the government did not offer an opinion on whether the match should take place until December 27 last year, following remarks by Clare Short.
The match could still be called off on security grounds if the situation in Zimbabwe worsens in the coming weeks.
There are food and fuel shortages in Harare and Bulawayo and at the weekend a government grain warehouse was stormed.
On February 3, 10 days before the game is due to take place, the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two senior colleagues go on trial on allegations of plotting to assassinate Mugabe. – Guardian Unlimited