Keeping to the party line

Ricky Ponting faces the media in Harare © AFP

The Australians' first press conference after arriving in Zimbabwe was an understandably cautious affair on both sides. The players and management are aware that this has the potential to be a hugely controversial trip, and so spent most of the time sticking firmly to a pre-arranged and well-rehearsed script; the media know that the Zimbabwe authorities tolerate nothing remotely critical and so didn't probe too much.

There was one point where things got a little political when Steve Bernard, the tour manager, was asked what would happen if Robert Mugabe turned up at a game. "I understand he's not coming to meet us, so I don't really think that's going to matter either way," Bernard said. "Politicians aren't all that interested in coming to see us play, I gather, so we don't expect to see them there. They may well turn up and so be it, but we're here to play cricket and I don't expect we'll be asked to pose for anyone or anything like that."

But Bernard made it clear what the official line was regarding the morality of touring when he was asked about being in Zimbabwe when there was so much international pressure on the Mugabe regime over alleged human-rights abuses. "It's a cricket tour and that is how we are treating it," Bernard said. "We are supporting Zimbabwe cricket and Zimbabwe cricketers."

Otherwise, much of the questioning centred on the strength, or rather weakness, of the Zimbabwe side and how Australia would cope. "That's probably going to be our biggest challenge, Ricky Ponting admitted. "We have to be at our best to maintain the high standards we have set.

"I want us to play the best cricket possible while we're here, if that means finishing games pretty early then so be it. A lot of the guys haven't played any cricket for quite a while and that generally makes you a bit keener."

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