ECB wrong-footed at every turn by politicians

Flying in the face of the majority of public opinion they may seem to be, but it now appears almost certain that the England & Wales Cricket Board will refuse to bow to Government pressure to pull out of their World Cup match in Zimbabwe on February 13th. What is more, a full understanding of the circumstances justifies the decision to go ahead and play it.

It is little more than a year since England played a series of five one-day matches in Zimbabwe. What political pressure to stay away was put upon them then? Very little by comparison. Was the political regime in Zimbabwe any different? Of course not. The simple difference this time is that it is the World Cup.

The International Cricket Council, as organisers of the competition, have been assiduous in their assessment of security in Zimbabwe, and consistent in their view that it is not for them to make political judgements on the matter. The ECB, whose chief executive, Tim Lamb, was a member of the security delegation that visited Zimbabwe in November, have stood shoulder to shoulder with the ICC in that view.

Many months after the fixture list was finalised, even after the highly publicised security delegation visit, the political hares were set running at last. Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, was amongst the first to speak out against the match. And so the bandwagon rolled. It was Christmas as well, the best of times for news-starved journalists to keep a good, hard story moving.

Not that the stridency of opinion was necessarily reflected in the depth of individual ministers' knowledge of cricket. Only this week the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, toeing the party line on the BBC's Today programme, referred to the game as a Test match.

Lamb said today: "Only at the 59th minute of the 11th hour have they told us what their view is on this." Thanks to opportunistic posturing by politicians, he and his colleagues at the ECB have been put in a virtually impossible position.

The Sports Minister, Tessa Jowell, set the tone for today's meeting before she had even gone into it. "I think it's important to be clear about the role of Government in this," she said outside. "The England and Wales Cricket Board were having discussions with officials as long ago as July.

"They had a meeting with the Foreign Office before they confirmed their intention to play in Harare. It is disingenuous for the England and Wales Cricket Board to suggest they were unaware of the Government's opinion."

Who else was aware of it, then? Certainly no public debate raged in July concerning the rights or wrongs of England's visit. Not a squeak do I remember hearing. Six long months later, Jowell's words were hardly a recipe for negotiation, and with the Government's intractable position on compensation also known ahead of the meeting, the outcome was obvious before it had started.

More meetings will certainly follow, but only one thing is likely to stop England from going to Zimbabwe now, and that is a deterioration in the security situation, which the ICC continues to monitor.