West Indies board committed to Zimbabwe tour

The West Indies Cricket Board [WICB] is planning on sending a full-strength team for an ICC-listed tour of Zimbabwe in December, but with a reduced itinerary.

Julian Hunte, the WICB president, said that that the board had hired an "independent security expert" to go to Zimbabwe to assess the situation in a report that would also be passed on to the West Indies Players Association [WIPA]. The expert is an Australian working in South Africa who has undertaken similar assignments for other members of the ICC.

"We have an obligation to go [to Zimbabwe] and, unless we get adverse reports we will fulfil it," Hunte said. "What we're looking at is five ODIs and dropping the two four-day matches they wanted in addition."

Neither he nor WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine, both presently in South Africa for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 tournament, would visit neighbouring Zimbabwe, Hunte said.

A planned tour to Zimbabwe by West Indies A last July was cancelled because of players concerns about the situation in the country. "The players have heard such negative stories about Zimbabwe, that they are reluctant to go," Hunte said. "As I understand it, it is not so much a question of security because South Africa had only just gone [with their A team]. It's more a question of [the availability of] food."

India A took the place of West Indies A for the July tour and made no complaints.

While the ICC was not involved in the scheduled A team cancellation, since it was a bilateral arrangement, West Indies would face a financial penalty if they opt out of an engagement on the ICC Future Tours Programme (FTP). The series to Zimbabwe would immediately precede a tour of neighbouring South Africa for three Tests and five ODIs.