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New information England team delays Zimbabwe boycott decisionPosted: Sunday February 09, 2003 11:30 AMCAPE TOWN (Reuters) -- England's deeply divided camp have decided to delay their decision over whether to play their World Cup match in Zimbabwe, team officials announced on Sunday. England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Tim Lamb told a news conference new information had come to light which the board and players needed to examine. He refused to answer any questions. The new delay, announced during the first game of the tournament between main hosts South Africa and West Indies, came after months of wrangling involving players, administrators and politicians. Nasser Hussain are considering forfeiting Thursday's Group A game in Harare because of deep-seated concerns over security following social and political unrest in Zimbabwe. The team and ECB officials had been agonising over the decision in a string of meetings since late on Friday when their official request to have the game switched to South Africa was thrown out on appeal. A wider debate, however, had been raging since the end of last year, involving prime ministers and leading politicians in England, Australia -- who are also scheduled to play in Zimbabwe -- and New Zealand, whose team are refusing to play a game in Kenya, also over security worries. The confusion in Cape Town reached a climax at the weekend when a rift opened up between England's players and officials. It emerged that the ECB had delayed showing the squad a letter containing death threats to both the players and their families. The board maintained they had chosen first to hand the letter to international experts who had confirmed it as a hoax. The players, however, aware that the ECB feared multimillion-dollar compensation claims from sponsors if the game did not go ahead, felt they were not being fully consulted. Hussain said earlier there were also ethical questions over whether to play in Zimbabwe, where half the 14-million population are suffering food shortages. The main opposition leader is also facing a death sentence after being charged with plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe. Australia are still committed to playing in Bulawayo on February 24 as long as there is no deterioration of the situation, while New Zealand appear determined not to go to Nairobi after a November bombing in Kenya killed 16 people. Australian and Britain have led calls for Commonwealth sanctions against Mugabe, accusing him of rigging his re-election in 2002 and compounding Africa's food crisis by seizing white-owned farms to give to blacks.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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