Streak urges Australia to tour

Robert Mugabe: stumbling block © AFP

In less than four months' time Australia are due to visit Zimbabwe to play two Tests and three ODIs and Heath Streak, Zimbabwe's captain, is doing his best to argue the case for the trip going ahead.

"I'd like to think the security side of things is not a major issue and I'm sure our cricket board will make a huge effort," Streak told Melbourne's The Age. "The West Indies have just been out, and obviously they [the Zimbabwe Cricket Union] will step that up even further for Australia, so really it's more the political side of things that could affect it. If anything major happens between now and that tour, that would change, but on the current situation, Australia should be able to come out and I'm sure the security will be fine."

It's not that simple though. Relations between the Australian and Zimbabwean governments are at an all-time low following the recent Commonwealth summit in Nigeria, and Zimbabwe's decision to quit the Commonwealth - arguing that the organisation had been hijacked by racists - will have further deepened the divide.

John Howard, Australia's prime minister, was one of the leading proponents of the extension to Zimbabwe's suspension from the organisation which led to Mugabe's decision. "[It's] because of the criminal ancestry he derives from," Mugabe said, adding "Criminals were banished to Australia and New Zealand by the British".

Cricket Australia is planning to send a delegation to Zimbabwe in March, and it is liaising closely with the department for foreign affairs. The murder of a Perth accountant in Zimbabwe shortly before Christmas will not have gone unnoticed.

"It's very important for the game in Zimbabwe, for the development. To have Australia out is a huge thing," Streak said. "Cricket supporters and spectators in Zimbabwe really cherish and love having the world champs out. People they only see on TV, now they can see in the flesh."