Australian board denies government pressure on Zimbabwe tour

Cricket Australia has denied that the Australian government has put pressure on it to cancel Australia's forthcoming tour to Zimbabwe. In a media release, James Sutherland, CA's chief executive, emphasised that the decision of whether or not to tour Zimbabwe will not depend on what the government feels on the matter.

"We welcome the government's consistent position that the decision is ours to make," said Sutherland. "Our long-standing position is that we are cricketers, and our visits have no other symbolism than that." CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association are due to visit Zimbabwe to assess the levels of security there, and Sutherland insisted that a decision to tour would be taken solely on the basis of that.

"We are aware of the difficult situation in Zimbabwe, just as we are aware that there are diverse political, social and economic issues in other countries we visit," he said.

Earlier in the day, Alexander Downer, Australia's foreign minister, had said in an interview to 3AW, a commercial radio station in Melbourne, that going ahead with the tour would "send the wrong message" to Zimbabwe.

"We'd rather it didn't go ahead, obviously the Zimbabwe government would be pleased if it did," he said. "It would send the wrong message to Zimbabwe and to southern Africa, that oh well, we are not too happy with President Mugabe but it's not that bad and, you know, the games can go on. I think frankly that's a bit of a pity."