British government must back Zimbabwe boycott

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Kate Hoey, the former Sports Minister, demands that her successor, Richard Caborn, takes the same stance that the Australian government recently took, and demands a boycott of Zimbabwean cricket.

Mr Caborn was a noted campaigner against apartheid in South Africa and an advocate of the sporting boycott. He should now join all those in Zimbabwe, including the trade unions, calling for a similar sporting boycott of Zimbabwe. It is time for an end to double standards.

And Hoey's article was followed by an announcement that the Liberal Democrats had tables a Commons motion critical of the decision to grant the visa. The party's shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster MP, said:

Considering the way in which Mr Chingoka was appointed to his job, its is frankly ridiculous to argue that cricket has not become a political tool of this deplorable regime.