Goff calls for united front to halt Zimbabwe tours

Phil Goff

The Government has sought Britain and Australia's support to stamp out the International Cricket Council's stubborn endorsement of the Zimbabwe regime.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff expected to be in talks late last night with his Australian counterpart Alexander Downer and New Zealand Cricket boss Martin Snedden.

The question of whether the New Zealand team tours Zimbabwe is fast escalating into an international diplomatic stoush.

Mr Snedden is in London for a meeting of the ICC, which insists New Zealand must fulfil its contractual obligation to tour the corrupt African nation - or pay millions in compensation. Mr Goff said he also hoped to speak to UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw, with the intention of making a tripartite representation to the ICC. The actions of Robert Mugabe's regime were "reminiscent of Pol Pot", Mr Goff said yesterday.

"We need to make an approach to the ICC, saying surely there must be circumstances in which your affiliate members can be excused from their contractual obligations. No human being can ignore the atrocities that are going on in Zimbabwe today."

Despite public discomfort in New Zealand, the ICC contract only allows NZ Cricket to escape penalties for such extreme reasons as high risks to team security, or if the team is prevented by the government from touring. Mr Goff has already signalled he will refuse visas to Zimbabwean cricketers planning to tour here in December - a move that would excuse that country's cricketing body and its patron Mr Mugabe from paying compensation.

But short of changing the law or withdrawing the New Zealand players' passports - hard-line options that Mr Goff has ruled out - there is little the Government can do to prevent the team's tour.

And it is loath to offer to cover the damages payments should the team pull out: Around $2.8 million would go to the ICC, whose policies it abhors, and millions more to Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe regime in compensation.

According to confidential Foreign Affairs Ministry legal advice, the only way NZ Cricket could invoke the contract's clause to excuse it from paying compensation, was if the Government took hard-line action.

National Party sports spokesman Murray McCully has asked for a briefing from the Government: "We're not unsympathetic to the Government's stance but we want to be consulted because these are events that will play out after the election," he said.

Former Springbok protest leader John Minto said the Government's position was "weak" and he would encourage a return to protest action on the streets. "I'll be there, and I'll bring a banner and a loudhailer."

Former New Zealand cricketer Adam Parore said the tour was "a disaster waiting to happen".

Parore said he felt sorry for New Zealand Cricket, which was on "a hiding to nothing" over the issue.

It was doing "a pretty good job" of working within its contractual restrictions and the New Zealand Government should also be applauded for its "pretty clear" stance, he said. However, the International Cricket Council should not have instigated the future tours programme, "knowing damn well that half the countries involved in it are unsafe, involved in terrorism, harbouring terrorism, or have civil wars going on."