The England and Wales Cricket Board is next week expected to ask the World Cup organisers to move England’s controversial fixture with Zimbabwe to South Africa on security grounds.
The request will be made to the six-man World Cup technical committee, which will assume decision-making responsibility for the tournament on Sunday, in place of the full International Cricket Council board. The move came as the United States government suggested its citizens consider leaving Zimbabwe because of the worsening crisis.
Tim Lamb, the ECB chief executive, on Monday rejected the players’ request for the match to be moved to South Africa and supported the ICC’s position that Harare is a safe venue. But behind the scenes Lamb is lobbying hard to find a resolution to an episode that has put the ECB at odds with the players, some members of the ICC and a large section of British public opinion.
The ECB believes that the full board of the ICC would have voted down any request to move the match to South Africa, which is why the ECB chairman David Morgan did not bring up the possibility at the ICC tele-conference last Friday. Nasser Hussain was reportedly livid that he did not but the view of his employers is that, if that request had been snubbed, there would have been no way out of the Harare match.
Once the six-man committee takes control of the tournament on Sunday, however, the ECB believes it has a chance of getting the game moved.
The committee is made up of the ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed; the South African board chair Ali Bacher; Brian Basson, a South African administrator; Campbell Jamieson of the ICC’s commercial wing, and the former players Sunil Gavaskar and Michael Holding.
An ICC representative said the committee is likely to be called upon at some stage: ”The committee has the authority to make a decision either way. Given there is the possibility that the games could be switched a few days before they are due to be played, it wouldn’t be suprising if they were asked to consider something. It is critically important that every option is explored when it comes to safety and security.”
The ECB’s hopes rest on Lamb convincing a quorum of committee members that it is not in the interests of the World Cup, or cricket’s reputation, for the tournament to be overshadowed by controversy. South Africa is a serious contender for the 2010 football World Cup and will be keen to demonstrate that it can host this tournament with the minimum of upset.
The travel warning issued by the US state department yesterday advised US citizens ”to take those measures they deem appropriate to ensure their well-being, including consideration of departure from the country”.
The hardening of the US line will add to the unease at Lord’s about the wisdom of travelling to Zimbabwe and lend weight to suggestions that unrest during the matches is highly likely.
Duncan Fletcher, the Zimbabwe-born England coach, fuelled speculation that a plan had been hatched when he arrived with the team in Johannesburg yesterday, saying ”there was a good chance the match would be moved to South Africa, anyhow.” The executive board of the ICC is due to confer again tomorrow. – Guardian Unlimited