PM: I won’t stop tour of Zimbabwe

Helen Clark says she would not be seen dead in Zimbabwe but she will not tell New Zealand Cricket to cancel its tour of the "pariah" state this year.

The Prime Minister said Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe, re-elected last month in a poll condemned internationally as corrupt, had cast his country into poverty and despair.

But the decision on whether the Black Caps should go on their five-week tour would be left to cricket authorities, she said.

"Personally, I wouldn't be seen dead there," Helen Clark said.

"Zimbabwe has just had a rigged election, which has produced a result which is simply unbelievable. I ... wouldn't go near it."

New Zealand Cricket was refusing to comment yesterday on what will be a controversial tour, but the Prime Minister's condemnation of the Mugabe regime was unequivocal.

Although her remarks were her personal view and not those of the Government, they will put pressure on NZ Cricket to explain any decision to go to Zimbabwe.

Chief executive Martin Snedden has told the Listener the tour would not be cancelled for political reasons.

It is not clear if individual players would be allowed to opt out of the tour on moral grounds.

New Zealand Cricket faces a US$2 million ($2.7 million) fine from the International Cricket Council if it refuses to tour Zimbabwe for anything other than security reasons, a penalty criticised yesterday by Green Party co-leader Rod Donald.

He has asked the Government to support the cricketers by underwriting any financial penalty imposed on them if they do want to suspend the tour.

He also wants Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff to meet New Zealand's representative on the ICC, Sir John Anderson, and lobby for an international boycott of Zimbabwe.

The British Government last year took the unusual step of meeting the ICC after England's tour of Zimbabwe turned into farce and became highly politicised.

Mr Mugabe, the patron of Zimbabwe cricket, tried to ban British journalists from covering the tour and 15 white players, including former captain Heath Streak, could not play because they were banned in a racism row.

England cricket has just bought its way out of two test matches in Zimbabwe, paying about $400,000 to finally cancel the games postponed from last year.

Zimbabwe cricket has not been divorced from politics in the past.

Two years ago, players Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands during the Zimbabwe-hosted cricket World Cup to "mourn the death of democracy".

They said hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans faced death through starvation, poverty and Aids, and railed against the regime's killing and torturing of opponents.

Mr Donald said New Zealand's cricketers should reflect on what Mr Flower and Mr Olonga had done.