We need to put the Zimbabwe affair behind us - Lamb

The chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Tim Lamb, has begun the process of rebuilding England's relationship with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, after deciding not to appeal against the World Cup technical committee's decision to award their World Cup match to Zimbabwe.

"I accept this has been a very protracted and difficult issue and it has taken the gloss off not only England's participation in this tournament but there's no doubt it has detracted from the integrity of the event," Lamb conceded.

"It's easy to be wise after the event, but I believe that throughout this whole process right from December 28 which was when the issue really started, as far as myself and the ECB are concerned, when the government said what it did about their view of us going to Zimbabwe, I don't think there is anything we could have done differently.

"It's time to put this behind us, we've given it our best shot, we've done everything possible to try to persuade the ICC of the merits of our case and I think, in the wider interests of cricket and the need to start building bridges with our counterparts in other boards, it's best if we put this issue behind us."

Referring to England's relationship with the ZCU, Lamb stressed: "On a personal level everything has remained extremely cordial and friendly.

"I personally phoned the chairman and chief executive of the ZCU on the day we announced our decision not to play, to express my sympathy to them and the regret in which we had come to our decision.

"We knew it was going to be a massive event for them and I know how disappointed the ZCU would have been but I just hope that they would understand why we took the decision we did and we can move forward as friends in the future.

"I haven't received any specific assurance but I very much hopeful there won't be any repercussions as far as the South African tour to the UK is concerned and certainly as far as the Zimbabwe Cricket Union sending their team to Englnad this summer as well.

"I hope as part of the process of putting this behind us that both the tours that Zimbabwe and South Africa are undertaking to the UK this summer and the tours that England are undertaking to Zimbabwe and South Africa in the winter of 2004/5 will take place without any hitches."

Lamb believes that the death threat posed in the letter to the players from the so-called "Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe" was a serious one.

"I can assure you it totally contradicted much of what we had heard before, it added to our disquiet and our concern about the whole nature of the advice that we had got up to that point and we're still getting from various security, intelligence and police sources.

"The ECB took the decision with the support of the players that in the circumstances and in the light of not having totally satisfactory assurances of whether the letter posed a serious threat that we had no alternative but to approach the ICC and get them to try and locate the fixture.

"The players and the ECB had a major concern about the wholly inconsistent contradictory and inadequate assessments of the threat posed by the letter sent by the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe on the part of the police and of the security and intelligence professionals in charge of security arrangements.

"The new evidence put before the technical committee, including that of the police and security personnel, established that the England players were, in the circumstances, entitled to take the overt threats against them and their families seriously."