Prime Minister John Howard said on Friday that Australian cricket authorities should be the ones to decide whether Australia tours Zimbabwe in May and June.
”I respect in the end it is a matter for them,” Howard told a Melbourne radio station.
”I have had some discussions about it with the people in Cricket Australia. I don’t want to go into those. I simply say in the end it is a matter for them to decide.”
Howard said he would seek the advice of experts on the security situation in Zimbabwe and the possible risks posed to Australian team members.
”If the security situation changes, it could be different,” he said.
Howard said he had always faced a conflict over the issue of politics and sport.
”Going back a long way I have been somebody who thought perhaps idealistically you could separate politics from sport,” he said.
”At the time of the World Cup I had the view that if all of the countries agreed not to play against Zimbabwe then that would be sending a very strong message to (Robert) Mugabe.
”The one thing I wasn’t willing to do then was to try and stop the Australian team going and thereby expose the Australian team to the risk of penalty and therefore disadvantage the Australian team in the competition.”
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he wanted the tour canceled, citing security fears and concerns over the political implications of the visit.
”We’d rather it didn’t go ahead, obviously the Zimbabwe government would be pleased if it did,” said Downer.
Australia is scheduled to play two tests — beginning May 21 in Harare and May 28 in Bulawayo — and five one-day matches in June in Zimbabwe.
On Thursday, the England Cricket Board postponed a decision on its tour of Zimbabwe until March.
England is due to tour Zimbabwe in November but the British government, without giving any orders not to go, has described the economic and human rights situation in Zimbabwe under president Mugabe as ”bleak and deteriorating.”
Fearing that the Zimbabweans would launch a costly legal action over cancelation of the tour, the ECB says it will consider an offer of compensation. But it first wants talks with cricket’s world governing body, the International Cricket Council. – Sapa-AP