Campbell criticises Zimbabwe on eve of tour

Alistair Campbell, the former Zimbabwean captain, has spoken out against his countrymen and former team-mates, as the team flies out of Harare to begin its controversial two-Test tour of England.

Protests have been planned throughout Zimbabwe's tour, as pro-democracy groups aim to use the matches to highlight the human-rights abuses of Robert Mugabe's government. But, said Campbell, there would be no prospect of any player staging a repeat of Andy Flower's and Henry Olonga's famous black-armband protest.

"The team are a bunch of `yes-men'," Campbell told The Times newspaper. "Heath Streak [the captain] couldn't say a bad word about anything. If you could pick your best Zimbabwean side, not many of these guys would be in it. I used to have a clause in my contract that said if anything from me appeared in the press that was politically orientated, then I'd be suspended without pay, pending investigation. All you'll hear from these players is: `we're here to play cricket'. That's it."

Campbell, however, was broadly sympathetic of the players themselves. "These are young guys who still want to make their way in the game, so they're not likely to do anything wrong. It's a lot of untried youth. I actually feel sorry for them. It's unfair to thrust them into the international arena so early."

Flower, who was forced to retire after his protest and has since expressed mixed feelings about the tour, echoed Campbell's sentiments in an article for the Sunday Telegraph. "In the World Cup, very few of them [the players] were willing to discuss our statement," wrote Flower. "We all got on fine but their shying away from the situation mirrored the fear within the whole of the country, where nobody wants to speak up."

As was the case for much of the World Cup, Zimbabwe's cricketing deeds this summer are unlikely to make many of the headlines. Alan Wilkinson, the leader of the Stop the Tour campaign, has described the touring party as "ambassadors for Robert Mugabe", and intends to carry out a campaign of disruption. "Stopping the tour is clearly what we'd ultimately like to achieve," he said, "but we want to make sure that when every game is being played, people realise that there are others back home whose lives and freedom are under threat."

The opposition will be debated in Parliament as well. Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, gave the tour the green light, but her predecessor, Kate Hoey, will be among those demonstrating at Lord's and Chester-le-Street. "No one who watches the two Test matches and the other matches will enjoy them, knowing that the lives of some of the Zimbabwean players have been threatened," said Hoey in the Commons on April 1. "The Government should say that they do not want Zimbabwe to tour."