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Violence fears Security consultants to meet England's World Cup teamPosted: Sunday February 02, 2003 11:43 AMLONDON (Reuters) -- World Cup security consultants are to meet England player representatives this Friday to discuss the team's fears about playing in Zimbabwe. The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) is also due to update their team on the security situation after the country's foreign minister said reports from his High Commission suggested that protesters would picket their match with Zimbabwe. The International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to go ahead with six World Cup matches in Zimbabwe last Thursday although both England and Australia have expressed concerns about the political and security situation in the country. "We've said, and arrangements are in place for this to happen, that on Friday of this week consultants will sit down with the England and Wales Cricket Board, their player representatives and whoever else they want to have there and work through the [security] plan with them," ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed told BBC radio on Sunday. "We don't want copies of these reports widely disseminated because all that does is reduce the security that's been put in place if all the details of the security plan is out and about. "But certainly we are prepared to make those reports available in a confidential setting where the experts work these people through it. We've said that all along." Violent protests England captain Nasser Hussain said no decision would be made on whether his side would play in Zimbabwe or not until everyone had had their say. "There's no point us going and playing a game of cricket for England in Zimbabwe if people don't want us to and we're just getting people's opinions on that," he said after a team practice in Port Elizabeth. "We're having a meeting with the ICC and we'll go through the full procedure that's needed in such a big game and a big tournament and if at the end of that we need to make a decision we will do." India, Pakistan, Namibia and the Netherlands are also due to play in Zimbabwe. Australian Foreign Minister Alex Downer said on Sunday that his government believed protests against their match in Bulawayo could turn violent. Downer said Australian High Commissioner Jonathon Brown had spent the last two days in the African city and reported to the government that Zimbabwean police were likely to meet protests aggressively. "He believes there will be demonstrations mounted by the opposition and others in Bulawayo at the time of the game," Downer told reporters in Adelaide. New Zealand, so far the only country to pull out of a World Cup match, has said it may appeal to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after their refusal to play in Kenya this month. They pulled out of the match in Nairobi because of safety fears after the ICC rejected a request to get the game switched to South Africa. Kenya are now left with just one match in the showpiece tournament, against Sri Lanka in Nairobi on February 24. Security concerns over Kenya intensified after a suicide bombing killed 16 people in an attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in the city of Mombassa in November. Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network claimed responsibility. The World Cup starts on Sunday with a game in Cape Town between South Africa and West Indies. England are scheduled to play Zimbabwe in Harare on February 13. Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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