Clark says cricketers should not go to Zimbabwe

Prime Minister Helen Clark today said her personal view was that the New Zealand cricket tour of Zimbabwe later this year should not go ahead.

The Black Caps are due to head to Zimbabwe in August for five weeks, and Green co-leader Rod Donald yesterday called on players to pull out on moral grounds.

He said he had written to 25 players contracted to New Zealand Cricket asking them to make themselves unavailable.

Miss Clark said NZC, in deciding on whether a tour should go ahead, usually assessed the issue on security reasons, rather than for political ones.

"I have to say that, if it were me, I would not be going on either ground," she told Newstalk ZB.

"Zimbabwe has just had elections that no reasonable person would agree were free or fair."

President Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, won a sweeping victory in parliamentary elections on March 31.

But foreign critics led by the United States and the European Union dismissed the poll as a sham.

Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said he had yet to see Mr Donald's letter, but was confident the issue would be suitably dealt with by NZC chief executive Martin Snedden.

New Zealand's last tour of Zimbabwe in 2000 was given the go-ahead by Snedden's predecessor, Chris Doig.

However, Snedden refused to let the Black Caps travel to Kenya for a match during the 2003 World Cup because of terrorism fears.

A tour of Pakistan later that year was delayed after Emailed threats were received about touring during the holy month of Ramadan.

Last year, England's tour of Zimbabwe almost didn't proceed after Zimbabwean authorities imposed a media ban on 13 British journalists.

After a two-day delay, England's cricketers finally flew out when the ban was lifted, but cut short their itinerary.

- NZPA