Australian cricket chiefs said on Thursday they would not consider moral issues when deciding whether to tour Zimbabwe later this year, unlike their English counterparts.
Cricket Australia (CA) spokesperson Peter Young said his organisation’s expertise was limited to cricket and left moral questions to the government.
”Safety and security is the key issue for us on any overseas tour and we have always said the broader issues to do with moral issues should be left to those who are elected to discuss those issues,” Young said.
He said the tour of Zimbabwe, scheduled to begin in May, was ”not really on the radar” at the moment as Australia was focused on the one-day series with India and Zimbabwe, then a tour to Sri Lanka.
Australian cricket officials and players’ representatives will visit Zimbabwe in March to look at the country’s security measures.
Australia’s stance contrasts with the approach recommended in a report by a senior English official that concludes that pulling out of a Zimbabwe tour set down for November would be justified on moral grounds.
The report, drawn up by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) corporate affairs chairman Des Wilson, said concerns over Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s human rights record could and should be taken into account when the board decides on January 29 whether to proceed with the tour.
”Can we tour this country knowing what we do about its stance on human rights and the suffering of its people?,” Wilson’s report said.
Australia cancelled a tour to Zimbabwe in 2002 because of safety concerns follwing controversial national elections but played a World Cup match in Bulawayo last year.
At the time, Australia’s official line was that moral concerns about the Mugabe regime were not an issue but vice-captain Adam Gilchrist subsequently contradicted the claim in his tour diary.
”Publicly, it was said the team’s only concern with Zimbabwe was security but I never bought into that,” Gilchrist wrote.
”There was always a lot more to it, and everyone at some point was talking about the moral issues of the regime.”
The International Cricket Council, the game’s governing world body, has warned England that it faces legal action and a compensation claim if it withdraws from the Zimbabwe tour. – Sapa-AFP