Bacher: Govts to decide on Zim
2002-12-30 14:07
Johannesburg - Governments and not sports authorities should decide whether to allow their cricket teams to play in Zimbabwe during the World Cup, tournament executive director Ali Bacher said on Monday.
"It's my opinion that you cannot expect cricket boards or sporting bodies to make a political decision of this magnitude," said Bacher. "That decision should rest with the respective governments."
Both the Australian and British governments have urged their teams not to play in Zimbabwe, but said the decision ultimately lay with the countries' respective cricketing boards.
South Africa is hosting the World Cup, which begins on February 9, but six of the tournament's 54 matches are being played in Zimbabwe.
England, Namibia, India, Australia, the Netherlands and Pakistan are all due to play a match each there.
Bacher said he was confident political tensions would not derail the tournament and believed the matches would go ahead as planned.
"It is my current assessment of the situation that the cricket boards and the ICC (International Cricket Council) will not change their stance on going to Zimbabwe," Bacher said.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has received widespread international criticism for his controversial land reform programme and the country is facing a worsening political and economic crisis.
Zimbabwe's chief government spokesperson, information minister Jonathan Moyo, was quoted in the official Herald newspaper on Monday as saying the British and Australian objections were part of a propaganda campaign against the Mugabe government and designed to keep cricket "a white and colonial sport".
The ICC announced last week that the delegation it sent to Zimbabwe in November had decided that the country was safe for players to visit during the World Cup.
ICC officials have said that any team which refuses to play its scheduled matches in Zimbabwe will forfeit its points.