ECB gets ICC response, needs to make up its mind

The ICC today confirmed that it has provided the ECB with its formal response to the issues raise by the England Board last night and has again called on the England camp to make up its mind about what it wanted to do about its game in Zimbabwe.

ICC Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, said that the ICC has confirmed the verbal position it had previously given to the ECB during a meeting yesterday in a letter hand delivered to ECB Chief Executive Tim Lamb late last night.

"The ECB has asked us to keep our response confidential and we will respect this. Essentially this now boils down to a simple question that the ECB must answer, are England going to Harare or not?.

"It is up to them to decide what they want to do and tell us and everyone else who is following this issue whether the England team will fulfill its commitments."

The ICC also confirmed that it had provided the ECB with the complete report of Deputy National Commissioner Andre Pruis, regarding the letter received by the England team.

Deputy National Commissioner Pruis is the second most senior policeman in South Africa and is responsible for the safety and security at the tournament. He has previously been responsible for safety and security at the Earth Summit in South Africa, when 100 Heads of State visited the country, and the Rugby World Cup in South Africa.

He said that this type of threat is commonplace at major events.

"If I said to you that over my career I have seen 1,000 threats like this, I would be understating the situation, 1,000, 2,000 of these types of threats come all the time," he said.

"The issue is if this threat poses a risk.

"After a thorough investigation, my conclusions are:

The letter was sent by a person or persons with the sole purpose of disrupting CWC 2003, especially as far as the co-hosting of the event in Zimbabwe is concerned.

This person/s has no capacity to carry out any threat. From a security point of view it should thus be treated as "propaganda" and not as a direct threat.

In view of the above and from my evaluation of the Zimbabwe Republic Police's security plans applicable to the matches to be played in Zimbabwe, I am of the view that there is no reason why matches should not be played in Zimbabwe."

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