England board preparing for an about turn

Protestors ouside Lord's last summer: the ECB can expect more of the same if it decides to tour Zimbabwe this winter © Getty Images

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is considering what it will need to do if it is to complete an about-turn and sanction October's tour of Zimbabwe without attracting the fury of many groups in the UK. It has been under pressure from the international cricket fraternity even since it revealed that it was considering cancelling the tour on moral grounds back in January.

At its meeting in Auckland last month, the International Cricket Council (ICC) made it abundantly clear that moral grounds didn't wash. The only reasons acceptable were player safety or government intervention. Abhorrent regimes and mad despots cut no ice. The motions passed in Auckland were thinly-veiled shots across the ECB's bows.

Faced with the possibility of fines, the tit-for-tat cancellation of the ICC Champions Trophy and the one-day series against India, and even suspension from international cricket, there are signs that the ECB is prepared to bow to pressure and rethink its objections to playing in Zimbabwe. It is likely to delay any decision until after the Australians have toured in May to assess the level of protests and any security issues which might arise.

A report in The Guardian claims that the board is preparing to ask players if they are willing to tour and to allow them to opt out of the trip if they want. There are also plans being discussed to remove logos from the players' kit in an attempt to appease sponsors - some are known to be extremely unhappy with the prospect being associated in any way with the tour.

A possible problem is that several of the England players who were caught up in the will-they, won't-they farrago during last year's World Cup are understood to be very much against touring. Nasser Hussain has made it clear that he is against the series going ahead on moral grounds, and there is the real possibility that England could end up sending a very third-rate squad.

The Guardian adds that the players were briefed before they left for the Caribbean and told that the ECB was against the tour taking place, and that even if it did, they would not be pressurised to go.

While it is being squeezed by the ICC on the one hand, the ECB is still under considerable pressure from many within the UK to stay at home on the other. However, the financial penalties it faces are so substantial that it simply cannot afford not to go. The only thing that could save it was if the British government were to ban the tour, but that is highly unlikely to happen.

The difficulty of their position was highlighted by John Read, the board's director of communications: "The ECB is once again in an invidious position because of the utterly tragic situation in Zimbabwe," he explained. "If we undertake the tour we will face condemnation from a number of key stakeholders in the game. If we don't go, however, and are unable to convince the ICC that the government's disapproval of the tour as voiced to date constitutes force majeure then we risk a fine. The ICC now has the power to suspend countries that breach touring regulations and ban us from international cricket."

The ECB has calculated that the worst-case scenario of England being suspended from the ICC could cost it as much as £50 million. While common sense would indicate that such action would amount to international cricket cutting off its collective nose to spite its face, there are those at Lord's who believe that the ICC is prepared to do just that. There are various vested interests, notably Jagmohan Dalmiya, who stand to gain from England being punished. "When the ICC have specifically put these powers in place only last month," a source within the ECB told the Daily Telegraph, "yhey may feel that if they refuse to use them, they will look either silly or weak."

The ECB hoped that Des Wilson's report would provide them with an escape route from this whole sorry mess. It's now clear that it won't.

As it is, the ECB stands accused of operating with double standards, and will probably be financially hammered, and certainly condemned, whatever it does. It's going to be a tough few weeks for the board.