Lord Morris calls for Zimbabwe rethink

Lord Morris: 'The chairman will have to show leadership' © BBC

Lord Bill Morris, the former Trade Union Congress leader and director of the ECB, has called for a fresh review of English cricket's position on cricketing relations with Zimbabwe, in particular whether Zimbabwe should be allowed to tour England in 2009.

The thorny issue of Zimbabwe continues to stalk the ECB, largely because of the UK government's failure to take any decisive action. Critics of sporting ties with Zimbabwe have been heartened by indications that Gordon Brown will be more hard-line towards Robert Mugabe than was the case when Tony Blair was prime minister.

"The prime minister is on the record saying that in blunt terms he doesn't want to be in the same room as Mugabe," Morris told Inside Sport in The Daily Telegraph. "That raises the whole question of 2009 when Zimbabwe are due to share the tour with Australia.

"If the PM doesn't want to be in the same room as Mugabe, how fair is it to ask sportsmen and women to be on the same field of play with representatives from the regime?"

Morris had been spoken of as a candidate for the vacant role of ECB chairman, but he declined to stand and earlier this week Giles Clarke won the backing of the first-class counties.

To argue that politics should be kept out of cricket is just a dream

"That is one of the first issues [Clarke] will face and my concern is this is not going to be a private conversation between the ECB, the ICC and Zimbabwe cricket," Morris said. "It will become more and more political as the regime becomes more and more oppressive and this will be one of the things the board will have to grapple with and the chairman will have to show leadership on."

Morris said that had he taken charge of the ECB then he would have implemented a comprehensive review of all the issues. "You have to take into account the ICC view because Zimbabwe are pretty close to returning to Test match cricket. But you cannot see the English situation in isolation. John Howard [Australia's PM] has made his position clear, Zimbabwe will not be allowed to tour Australia. To argue that politics should be kept out of cricket is just a dream."