Australian cricketers pressured to scrap Zimbabwe tour

Australian cricketers pressured to scrap Zimbabwe tour

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By Nkanyiso Moyo

AUSTRALIAN cricketers have come under intense political pressure to scrap a tour of Zimbabwe set for September, including from Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has led an international campaign to isolate President Robert Mugabe’s government over human rights abuses, says his government will pay the US$2 million fine likely to be imposed on Australia Cricket in the event of a boycott.

"We would indemnify Cricket Australia for any compensation that it might have to pay to the international body," Howard told Australian radio.
"It would not be fair to visit the cost of a foreign policy decision on a sporting body.”

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he would meet with Cricket Australia officials this week in the hope of persuading them to scrap the three-match tour.

"My view is that the tour shouldn't go ahead," Downer told reporters on Monday.

"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," Downer said.

"We shouldn't do that -- this is a horrific regime in Zimbabwe and we should take a stand against it."

The Australian officials spoke as Sekai Holland, a leading figure of Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC claimed the cricketers risk getting “bashed” if they went ahead with the tour.

Holland, whose husband is Australian, arrived in Australia last week from South Africa where she was receiving medical attention after being beaten up while in police custody in Zimbabwe.

"That is what will happen to them (getting bashed), because Mugabe is anti-white," Holland told reporters on arrival at Sydney International Airport.

Holland said it was “fantastic” that the Australian government was considering asking Cricket Australia to cancel the tour.

"Zimbabweans would feel that for once, Australia has not dilly-dallied about where its alliances are. There should be no ties with Zimbabwe until Mugabe goes," she added.

Zimbabwe Cricket had not responded to written questions asking for their reaction to the developments late Monday.

Should Australian cricketers boycott the Zimbabwe tour? Send us your shouts to ozzie@newzimbabwe.com

But a boycott by Australian cricketers will likely spark a political reaction in Zimbabwe where President Mugabe accuses the MDC of campaigning for international sanctions against the country.

Mugabe and over 100 of his closest lieutenants are barred from travelling to Australia, the European Union and the United States, and from owning assets in those territories.

Although Western countries maintain that the sanctions are “targeted”, and will not hurt ordinary Zimbabweans, Mugabe’s officials say the sanctions have made it virtually impossible for the country to access lines of credit to kick-start the economy.

Zimbabwe recently regained its Test status, and if Australia were to cancel the cricket tour, that would frustrate Zimbabwe Cricket officials who claim the positions of the England, New Zealand and Australian cricket authorities are influenced by politicians.

England sent a weakened team to Zimbabwe two years ago, while New Zealand has refused to issue visas to the Zimbabwe cricket team.

“Howard's unexpected move means that Zimbabwe's place in world cricket is not only again under the spotlight, but is also far less secure,” said cricket correspondent, Stephen Price, on cricket website, Crickinfo.com.

He added: “With Howard commendably backing his government's stance with money, Cricket Australia no longer has to worry about the balance sheet. It may well decide to spare its players a moral dilemma and opt to stay at home. If it doesn't, then the sympathy for it being caught between a rock and a hard place might turn to open hostility.”

The International Cricket Council has threatened to fine countries who refuse to tour the African state, but Australian leg-spinner Stuart MacGill lodged a personal protest in 2004, refusing to take part in his team's tour and telling selectors he could not "tour Zimbabwe and maintain a clear conscience".

Shortly after his announcement, Australia's tour was cancelled and no fines were issued. Later that year, England's planned tour of the country was also postponed after the ICC took away Zimbabwe's test status, which has since been returned.

In 2005, the New Zealand government refused to issue visas to the Zimbabwe team and declined to pay the ICC fine for cancelling the reciprocal tour, which eventually went ahead.

Australian skipper, Ricky Ponting, said that even if the three-match tour proceeded in September, each player would be allowed to decide whether he would go.
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