NZ government clears Zimbabwe tour

Zimbabwe's proposed tour of New Zealand in the summer of 2012 will not be opposed by the New Zealand government, the country's Sports and Foreign minister has said. With New Zealand due to visit Zimbabwe in October this year - it would be their first tour of the African nation since 2005 - it is expected that Zimbabwe will tour New Zealand for a reciprocal series next year.

Complicating the issue, however, is the New Zealand government's travel sanction on sporting tours from Zimbabwe that was instituted to protest the political situation under president Robert Mugabe's government. But Sports and Foreign minister Murray McCully told the Sunday Star Times on Saturday that a waiver would be given for the tour to go ahead despite the travel embargo.

"New Zealand Cricket has advised us of their intention to travel to Zimbabwe which, I think, is in October," McCully said. "They have asked us whether we have any concerns about that and, of course, made the point to us that the expectation will be that Zimbabwe is able to make a return visit.

"The return visit runs smack into the travel sanctions that operate in relation to sporting tours from Zimbabwe. So I have taken some advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and what I've said to New Zealand Cricket is that we have no concerns about them touring Zimbabwe. We have therefore adopted the position that we are prepared to issue visas for the Zimbabwe team to come to New Zealand and to provide an exemption from the sanctions for that purpose.

"That is all conditional, of course, on the situation in Zimbabwe not deteriorating in a significant way."

If the tour does go ahead, it would mark the first time Zimbabwe will play in New Zealand for 11 years. In 2005, the government refused to issue visas to the Zimbabwe team, resulting in the cancellation of that tour. That same year, New Zealand's tour of Zimbabwe polarised opinion.

New Zealand Cricket resumed bilateral ties with Zimbabwe last year when a New Zealand A team went on tour."The situation [in Zimbabwe] is not fantastic, but there are aspects of stability there and our judgement is that we shouldn't do anything to derail the planned sporting exchange," McCully said.