A tour of Zimbabwe by Australia’s World Cup-winning cricketers would be a propaganda coup for President Robert Mugabe and the team should not go, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Monday.
”We can’t formally ban them but I’ll be meeting with … Cricket Australia … during the course of this week and we’ll be having a series of discussions about how to manage this,” Downer told a Perth radio station.
”Normally I’m not a great fan of bringing politics into sport but in this particular case I think it is appropriate we should … take a very [tough] stand against Mugabe’s regime and do our best to stop the cricketers.”
Western governments have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe to protest Mugabe’s human rights record, including a brutal clampdown in March on opposition activists.
Cricket Australia would be subject to International Cricket Council (ICC) sanctions if it boycotted the matches, unless the tour was prohibited by the Australian government or if the safety of players became an issue.
Downer reaffirmed the federal government would pay a $2-million fine which the ICC could impose on Cricket Australia for breaching its tour obligations.
”But we haven’t reached that point yet and I need to talk through all the details of their contracts with them,” he said. ”My view is that the tour shouldn’t go ahead and if it were to go ahead then Australia — which is after all the world championship team — would give Zimbabwe’s regime and its president, who has been the patron of Zimbabwe Cricket Association, a propaganda victory, a propaganda coup.
”This is a horrific regime in Zimbabwe and we should take a stand against it, and included amongst those who should take a stand are our cricketers.”
Australia is set to tour Zimbabwe for a limited-overs series in September, although no matches have been scheduled.
The Australians last toured Zimbabwe in 2004, despite calls for them to boycott, and won three limited-overs internationals. Two proposed test matches were cancelled. – Sapa-AP