Readers respond: Should the Black Caps tour Zimbabwe?

There appears to be little doubt that Herald readers, by an overwhelming majority, are opposed to the Black Caps' cricket tour of Zimbabwe. This is a selection of email responses to questions whether the team should proceed with next month's tour and about paying any fines imposed by the International Cricket Council.

I think the rest of the world would respect New Zealand if we were to boycott Zimbabwe. Let us force the issue with the ICC and be the main instigators of a flood of protest against this horrific regime. I'm sure the vast majority of people would support the Government if we had to pay the fine from taxpayers' money.
Alan Gibb, Devonport.

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No way should the Black Caps tour Zimbabwe and no way should the Government pay the fine. The ICC should suspend all play against Zimbabwe until the situation has improved.

If the current members of the ICC don't have the will to make the correct decision then maybe the opposing countries should think of starting their own body, a little like the majority of the F1 motor-racing teams are contemplating.

Perhaps also the African countries should voice their opposition to Mugabe's regime; their silence seems to endorse what is happening.
Ed Harding.

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The simple facts are that Australia still tour New Zealand even though they may disagree with Helen Clark's policies. When you start involving politics in sport there are a hundred reasons sportsmen should not visit many countries in the world. If anything, the tour to Zimbabwe will add revenue or at least some form of entertainment in a shack somewhere under a piece of cardboard in a horribly poor country.

It will also bring more attention to their cause rather than cancelling a tour due to First World idealists' opinions many thousands of miles away.
Alistair Gates.

NZ cricket must not go on this tour. As an avid cricket fan, I will not watch any of this tour if they do.
Trent Fairey.

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We should not tour. But having said that, we should not pay any fine either. If NZ and Australia could pull together, tell the jumped-up ICC to shove their cricket, we may get somewhere.

Both Aussie and NZ would be out for a while, but I think in time the ICC would have to rethink, climb down off their cloud, put their harp back in the trophy case, and have another gin. Without Aussie and NZ I'm sure the rest of the cricket nations would talk tough to the ICC.
Ian Mosely.

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I do not believe the NZ cricket team should tour Zimbabwe. Yes, I would support the Government paying the fine. I would further support political sanctions against the Mugabe Government, and the Government legally pursuing the ICC for their part in this.

What is the acceptable human toll before it becomes evident the world needs to act against this atrocity?

I also don't believe this should be New Zealand Cricket's decision any longer. They are representatives of New Zealand and their first loyalty should be to human life - and the clear opinion of the country they represent - rather than that of an international cricket board.

Since when did sport become more important than human suffering?
Louise Moore.

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The Government should not stop our cricket team from going to play where they want to play. Our Government shouldn't be a body that stops New Zealand people from accessing the world.

The Black Caps, on the other hand, should refuse under basic human morals to go to a country that would clearly use the tour to further oppress its people mentally.

The ICC obviously takes no social, political or moral responsibility for its tours, thinking perhaps that everything conducted on and around international competition happens in a vacuum.

If this is the case, it should be the people who not only boycott the Mugabe regime but also the irresponsible actions of the group which call themselves the ICC.
Leon Cook.

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We wouldn't send our children over to play backyard cricket with the neighbour's kids if we knew their father was a remorseless wife-beater, because you wouldn't want to convey the impression that you found his actions acceptable.

So why send our cricketers over to Zimbabwe to be used as poster boys by Mugabe's vicious regime?

The potential $3 million fine is chicken-feed compared with our international reputation and national conscience. Even if Mugabe eventually ends up getting his blood-stained hands on some of the fine money as compensation for lost tour revenue, it's better than giving him the credibility he so craves.

He needs to be alienated as South Africa was, in conjunction with other more proactive steps from the UN and our own Government. And maybe we can shame the ICC into waiving the fine, but I doubt it.
Greg Sawyer.

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The tour should be cancelled. Didn't we go through this nonsense in 1981 with another brutal regime?
R. Twaddle.