Australian government wants Zimbabwe tour scrapped

The Australian government has indicated it might help Cricket Australia (CA) get out of its scheduled tour of Zimbabwe in September, should it decide not to make the trip. Alexander Downer, the Australian foreign minister, said the team could face fines of up to US$1.6 million from the ICC if it failed to go ahead with the series of three ODIs.

"I don't want them to tour Zimbabwe," he told AFP. "I think that is the wrong look." Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe has attracted increased criticism this month over its violent crushing of dissent.

However, CA are under contract to tour each ICC member nation at least once every five years. Downer said there could be ways for CA to avoid the heavy financial penalties.

"We'll sit down with Cricket Australia when they get back [from the World Cup] and we'll go into all that sort of detail about what the contract says," Downer said. "It might be that they are able to get out of the tour on the back of the rising violence in Zimbabwe.

"We'll have to look at the contract in detail. Just simply to breach the contract, that could be expensive but there may be other ways around it."

Downer said cancelling the series was unlikely to hurt Mugabe and his allies. "A lot of them are not interested in or enthusiastic about cricket," he said. "[But] the whole concept of the world's greatest cricket team and the biggest names in world cricket visiting Zimbabwe and giving a blessing to that country is one I feel uncomfortable with."