ECB prepare ground for Zimbabwe cancellation

Loading ... Tim Lamb: 'We will make a decision at the right time, for the right reasons' © Getty Images

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has given a broad hint that it will make a decision over next autumn's planned tour of Zimbabwe when its management board meets on February 25. And, more importantly, it has indicated that it has shifted from its policy of only being concerned about cricketing issues, and is now prepared to consider "political and moral arguments".

Reacting to weekend speculation over the future of the tour, Tim Lamb, the ECB's chief executive, said that the tour was still on at the moment but that, "We will make a decision at the right time, for the right reasons and with the right people making that decision. We are well aware of the pressure that we will come under. It's going to be a question of balancing the political and moral argument with our obligations to the international fraternity."

During the World Cup fiasco which culminated in England boycotting their match in Harare, but only after seemingly endless meetings and changes of heart, the official stance was that only the safety of the tour party mattered. At the time, Lamb said: "The ECB is not a political body and we do not take decisions on that basis. We do not believe that it is our role to make subjective moral judgements about the various regimes in the different cricket-playing nations. These are matters for elected Governments to consider and take a decisive and early lead. They are not matters for sports administrators."

The change makes it almost certain that the tour will be cancelled. The political situation in Zimbabwe has continued to deteriorate under Robert Mugabe, repression of anyone opposed to the government has become increasingly brutal, and earlier this month Zimbabwe withdraw from the Commonwealth.

"We are that much wiser now than we were then," Lamb admitted. "But that is not to say this will be an easy decision. We still have our obligations to the ICC and the international community."

Wisden Comment by Martin Williamson
The ECB's change of heart is not because it has suddenly become a more moral organisation. What it has done is realise that it's sport-and-politics-don't-mix line adopted during the World Cup just doesn't wash, with either the public or, far more importantly, sponsors.

Indecisive leadership a and total failure to tackle the issue until it was too late left the ECB looking weak and money-orientated back in March. The cost, image aside, was crippling to an English game hardly awash with money. The full ramifications have yet to be felt, and the ICC are still holding over £2 million as a result of the last-minute cancellation of the match in Harare.

Perhaps the one thing that influenced the ECB the most was the broad hint by Lord MacLaurin, once chairman of the ECB and now heading Vodafone, it's largest sponsor, that if England went to Zimbabwe then they could kiss Vodafone's £3 million-a-year investment goodbye. Another factor is that, unlike the World Cup, the tour is not an ICC event, and so financial penalties for cancellation are unlikely.

Cynical? Perhaps. But in cricket, it's all about the bottom line.

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