POLITICS-BRITAIN: Govt Steps Back from Cricket in Zimbabwe

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Jan 10 2003 (IPS) - British ministers have expressed disapproval for England playing a match in Zimbabwe during the World Cup cricket next month, but say the cricket board can take its own decision.

The decision is a loaded one both in the world of politics and of sports. Politically the British government has been in the forefront of a campaign against Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe over his controversial land reforms. So far as cricket goes, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) would stand to lose millions of dollars and two crucial points if it refuses to play in Zimbabwe.

ECB officials have been saying they will consider abandoning the England match in Zimbabwe February 13 if the British government compensates them for the loss in income arising from that decision. Following a meeting with senior ECB officials in London Thursday, minister in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Tessa Jowell said that "there will be no compensation if they decide not to go to Zimbabwe."

The ECB is now expected to announce at their board meeting next week that England will go ahead with their match in Zimbabwe.

"We have made it quite clear to the cricket authorities that we believe it is wrong that they should go, and I hope they take account of that advice," Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons Wednesday. "Whether they do so or not is a matter for them." Blair effectively separated the cricket body from government disapproval.

ECB officials have been pointing out that more than 400 British companies are doing business in Zimbabwe that brings in substantial profits, and British leaders have not asked them to leave the country. Athletes from Zimbabwe attended the Commonwealth Games last year, held in Britain particularly to mark the Golden Jubilee of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.

At the centre of the dispute are the land reforms and the fate of about 4,300 white farmers. Zimbabwe has a population of 12.5 million, in which the white population is no more than 70,000. Among these the 4,300 white farmers owned until 2000 about 11 million hectares of fertile land, while more than one million blacks own 16 million hectares of land – much of it infertile.

Mugabe had announced that he would restore fertile land to black people at the time of the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980. After much legal wrangling, Mugabe listed 1,500 farms for takeover in 1997. The actual takeover began about two years ago. There are now less than 500 white commercial farmers left on their farms, their representatives say. The move has drawn strong condemnation from Britain and some other countries.

The white farmers are inevitably backing the British government against sending England to play cricket in Zimbabwe (of the four provinces of Britain – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – only England plays international cricket).

"Mugabe is the patron of Zimbabwe cricket," John Worsley-Worswick, vice-chairman of Justice for Agriculture ( JAG), the group representing white farmers told IPS on telephone from Harare.

"Holding of World Cup matches in Zimbabwe will mean endorsing what is happening in Zimbabwe," he said. "This matter goes beyond sports and politics because we are looking at mass human rights abuse here and the cricket tour must be discussed in these terms."

A spokesman for the Zimbabwe High Commission told IPS many claims and reports on the issue were biased and smacked of double standards. "The International Cricket Council (ICC) has assessed the security situation and what they saw was a peaceful country, more secure than Britain." There were no other issues that should hold up the cricket, he said.

The spokesman denied any human rights abuses. "The white commercial farmers have left because they did not want to give up excess land," he said. "The Zimbabwe government had allowed them to keep one farm each."

Prof George Shire, a Zimbabwean academic now with the Open University in Britain told IPS that even opposition leaders were not objecting to the World Cup cricket matches being played in Zimbabwe.

"There is a growing support for cricket in Zimbabwe but that is mostly in the urban areas," he said. "The famine is in the countryside, and people there want food and water, and they don’t care whether anyone plays cricket or not. Cricket is being made a red herring."

Shire said it is "absurd if not preposterous" to suggest that the land reforms are behind the famine in Zimbabwe. Many neighbouring countries that had not introduced such land reforms are also facing food shortages, he said.

Of the six countries due to play in Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan, Namibia and the Netherlands have not raised any objections. Only the Australian government has joined the British in opposing any cricket matches being played in Zimbabwe.