Cricketers say they will tour Zimbabwe despite worries

Heath Mills

New Zealand's cricketers remain certain they will be touring trouble-plagued Zimbabwe in August but say they will be discussing ways to stop themselves being used as pawns of the Robert Mugabe-led regime.

Concerns are growing internationally about the state of human rights in Zimbabwe with reports of thousands of people's homes being bulldozed.

With the Black Caps contractually bound to tour Zimbabwe under International Cricket Council (ICC) rules, the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association executive manager Heath Mills says the team will be taking steps to protect itself.

"We expect the tour to go ahead," he told NZPA.

"In an ironic way I think that the New Zealand cricket team touring Zimbabwe has actually highlighted the issues in Zimbabwe for New Zealanders.

"When the players get to their pre-tour camp they will be discussing ways in which they will not be seen to be supporting the Mugabe regime or the political system in Zimbabwe -- very similar to what the English cricket team and the Australian cricket team have done in the last few months."

Minister of Foreign Affairs Phil Goff had asked the players to do that.

Mills said the biggest concern was the security situation -- the one reason that could stop the tour going ahead.

"The players are very used to going to parts of the world where there are security issues, where there are cultures, ways of life and political systems that are vastly different to New Zealand and ones they find hard to accept."

No New Zealand players had contacted the players' association with concerns about touring.

"If a player had concerns about going to Zimbabwe, they are all well aware that they can bring those concerns to the players' association. Then we will go to New Zealand Cricket with those concerns and attempt to get them addressed," Mills said.

Despite no formal approaches, the Zimbabwe situation was on players' minds.

"Clearly the players are talking about it -- they're talking to their friends and families."

The players had been given information about the situation in Zimbabwe but "ultimately they are contracted to New Zealand Cricket and they are international cricketers -- that's how they earn their money," Mills said.

"They are used to going to parts of the world that have human rights issues. They are certainly not accepting of those issues in those countries.

"When they go to Pakistan, none of the players would agree with the fact that the army runs the country as the result of a coup a few years ago.

"When they go to India they are used to walking outside the hotel room and there are people living on the streets with no housing simply because of who they are born to because of a caste system."

Mills said the players were contracted to New Zealand Cricket, and in turn the ICC, and the financial penalties were "massive" for breaking the contracts.

Mills would be talking with New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden when he returned from an ICC meeting in London.

The Government has already signalled it will stop Zimbabwe's return tour to New Zealand in December by denying visas.

Mills said that represented a significant loss to the Black Caps' summer programme.

- NZPA