To Tour or Not To Tour?
Monday, January 26 2004
Dateline Harare, February 2003 - England pull out of the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup Group game against Zimbabwe, delivering a killer blow to their hopes of qualifying for the second phase. The reason? Safety Concerns.
Dateline London, May 2003 - England give Zimbabwe assurances that they will tour in October 2004 to ensure Zimbabwe's participation in the 2003 English summer series. Zimbabwe tour to protests and are summarily defeated.
Dateline London, January 2004 - England are on the brink of withdrawing from their scheduled tour of Zimbabwe (yes, the same one mentioned earlier) due to "moral concerns". Where's the consistency, I ask?
Fact - the Zimbabwean dictatorship of Mugabe is chock-full of human rights abuses, electoral vote-rigging and all manner of unpleasantries.
Fact - selection to the Zimbabwean national team has racial bias. The recent selections and treatment of players like Blessing Mahwire, Jordan Nicolle and Alester Maregwede are proof of this.
Fact - it was perfectly morally acceptable for Zimbabwe to tour England in May.
Fact - no International side has been the victim of any kind of threat to their safety in Zimbabwe in recent years.
So... when the situation decrees that the ECB benefits financially, moral concerns go out of the proverbial window. It is clear that the facade of safety concern has been shattered, yet now the ECB retreat behind a paper-thin veil of on-off morality.
There is no excuse for the ECB's stance in this situation - it smacks of cowardice and desire for money and kudos from New Labour (as ever reluctant to lean off the fence).
You either conduct relations with Zimbabwe or you do not. Trade is still completely permitted. Picking and choosing to suit the barometer of popularity is unacceptable. There can be no half measures in this kind of situation.
With regards to players not wishing to go - I'm sure that you can find 15 who are willing. If you're reading this, Graveney, Fletcher or Lamb, my e-mail address is at the bottom, I can bowl leg-breaks and googlies - and I'll play for free.
Whilst Zimbabwe - in my opinion - have no rights to a seat at the International table whilst the tyrant remains in power, the fact remains that they do, and whilst they do it is not for the ECB to twist the situation in order to extract money out of it.
This article reflects the personal views of the writer and not of CricketWeb.net - all opinion should be directed to: Neil Pickup
Posted by Neil
Email Us
Forum
Mail Article
Print Article