Zimbabwe Cricket rejects ECB pay-off over planned tour

Zimbabwe Cricket rejects ECB pay-off over planned tour

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ZIMBABWE Cricket has rejected the England and Wales Cricket Board's offer of a £150 000 pay off to call off Zimbabwe's planned 2009 tour of England.

ECB chairperson, Giles Clarke, held talks with his Zimbabwean counterpart Peter Chingoka last week.

The British government has hinted at banning the tour, which would put the ECB in a difficult position in terms of its obligations to the International Cricket Council.

Zimbabwe Cricket's managing director, Ozias Bvute, says no amount of money is enough to persuade his country to call off the tour.

A spokesman for Gordon Brown has confirmed that the government is to discuss banning the Zimbabwean cricket team from touring the UK in 2009. While the spokesman insisted that no firm decision had been reached, the England and Wales Cricket Board is expected to scrap the two Test matches and three one-day internationals that are currently scheduled.

Zimbabwe is no longer officially classified as a Test-playing nation, having voluntarily withdrawn from Test cricket in January 2006, so there would be no penalty for England's forfeiture. Refusing to play the three ODIs, however, would result in a £225,000 fine from the International Cricket Council.

In The Sun newspaper on Thursday, a government spokesman was quoted as saying: "We can't pretend it's not a matter for the government any more. It's quite clearly our job to stand up and be counted. Mugabe needs to be given clear signals from all quarters that his regime is unacceptable."

A clarification issued by the government later Thursday stated that "it's very early to be making these sorts of decisions; we obviously will need to discuss this with the ECB closer to the time. A decision will have to be made about this at some point but we are not at that point at the moment."

The willingness of the government to take such a public role in advising the ECB makes for a stark contrast with their previous actions during previous series between England and Zimbabwe. In the 2003 World Cup and again during an English of Zimbabwe tour in 2004 it was felt by the ECB that the government were overly reluctant to intervene in proceedings.

Gordon Brown has consistently taken a higher-profile stance on denouncing the Mugabe regime than that of his predecessor Tony Blair. In 2007 former Australian Prime Minister John Howard ordered the Australian Cricket Board not to tour Zimbabwe.

Any decision to ban Zimbabwe from playing in England would have further financial ramifications in that it would exclude them from playing in the 2009 World Twenty20 championship, scheduled to be held in England. It is believed that the ICC would be keen to relocate the tournament if one of its full members - such as Zimbabwe - was barred from competing.
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