Look at the real story behind the rhetoric

Crisis ... what crisis? © Getty Images

At the height of the Winter of Discontent in 1978-79, the British prime minister, James Callaghan, returned from a trip abroad to a country paralysed by strikes and civil unease. When Callaghan was photographed grinning on return from a conference in Guadeloupe, The Sun ran a headline "Crisis, what crisis?" Within months his Labour government had been toppled.

That headline might well be the motto of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. While their country disintegrates round them, as civil unrest and political oppression escalate by the day, as half the country faces starvation, the bosses of the ZCU carry on regardless.

In normal circumstances sport can keep politics at arms length. But In Zimbabwe the situation is about as abnormal as it can be.

Nevertheless, faced with the probable cancellation of England's tour next October, and with Australia's trip five months earlier coming under pressure, the ZCU continues to insist that all is well. In fairness, it can do little else, but what is a worry is that while it's words can be ignored as little more than necessary rhetoric, its actions of late cannot be excused.

The ZCU's hard work in trying to promote and develop a game against a backdrop of increasing chaos should also be commended. But in recent months it has stepped over the line and is now becoming more and more of a mouthpiece and vehicle for the furtherance and legitimisation of the Robert Mugabe government. Vince Hogg, the ZCU's managing director, insisted on Wednesday that "our whole cricket population are looking forward to them visiting. They were very popular when they came here in the World Cup. We expect record crowds. The game will be enhanced by their visit."

Even ignoring the fact that many of the population are possible preoccupied with trying to work out where their next meal is coming from, Hogg's remarks gloss over the brutal suppression of demonstrations during the World Cup. Since then the situation in Zimbabwe has worsened, resistance to the regime hardened, and police tactics become even more savage.

A tour by either Australia or England would have the effect of galvanising opposition as it would be a rare chance for them to get their message across to a bigger audience (dissenting media in Zimbabwe has been savagely silenced, despite repeated court rulings maintaining the right for freedom of speech). The authorities know this, and would clearly respond accordingly. If - and it is by no means unlikely - deaths resulted, then could the boards concerned really sit back and claim it had nothing to do with them?

In case anyone thinks this is alarmist, they should remember the case of Edison Mukwasi, the Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) former youth chairman. In 2002 when Pakistan were playing in Harare, he was arrested for handing out leaflets outside the ground. He died weeks later as a result of torture he received while in police custody. His is a common story.

Before the World Cup last February, Amnesty International reported a wave of arrests and torture of MDC members and supporters. It was, it concluded, part of a strategy to suppress criticism. There is no reason to expect anything different in the future.

In this month's Wisden Cricketer magazine, Bryan Strang, the former Zimbabwe bowler, talks about the politicisation and racialisation of the ZCU. He cites an example where he was racially abused by an official of the ZCU, and that his complaints to the board were "swept under the carpet". He concludes that the ZCU is "a union which promotes racial division".

Accusing the ZCU of acting as an extension of the government is nothing new, but the voices have grown lately and have come from those on the inside - mainly former players - who on the whole have no axe to grind other than dismay at the destruction of their country.

Some of those who advocate the tours going ahead claim that the opposition is racially based, or results from inbred colonial attitudes. That argument might have a little mileage, but it overlooks the flood of desperate voices from inside Zimbabwe, it overlooks those in the MDC who risk torture and even death on a daily basis simply because they do not support Mugabe, and it overlooks the mass of international aid organisations who repeatedly report human rights violations inside the country.

The ZCU is helping, albeit indirectly, to maintain that situation. Tours by England and Australia will do the same. The boards and players of those countries have a moral obligation to stay away. If they suddenly develop consciences when they see the plight of Zimbabweans first hand then it will be too late and the damage will have been done.

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