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By Hasan Suroor
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the England captain, Nasser Hussain, want the Government to take the hard political decision instead of passing the buck to them. Mr. Hussain hit back after the Prime Minister, Tony Blair's office and the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, advised cricketers to "reflect" on alleged political repression and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and suggested that they reconsidered their plans. Mr. Hussain said it was "ridiculous" that cricketers were being told to make a "major political judgment. It must be right that the decision is made at a higher level. The Government should set up a body of some sort to make this moral decision on our behalf, and we will then happily abide by it," he said, writing in the Sunday Telegraph. This was also the line taken by the ECB, whose spokesman, John Read, said if the Government believed that the tour involved political or diplomatic implications, it should "come to us directly and speak to us and express their concern. So far that has not happened but if and when it does happen we will be very happy to sit down with the Government and talk about it." The ECB chief executive, Tim Lamb, made it clear that it was not the job of a sporting body to "make political judgments about the appropriateness of regimes in host countries for playing cricket". The head of the Professional Cricketers' Association told Mr. Blair to "put up or shut up" as pressure grew on the Government to take an explicit decision if it felt strongly about the need for a boycott. A Foreign Office spokesman, however, said, "While it is not for us to tell the International Cricket Council or the ECB what to do, it is Mr. Straw's personal view that it would be better if England didn't go." Another senior Cabinet Minister, Clare Short, said it would be "deplorable" to play cricket in Zimbabwe where "people are being starved because they dared to vote freely" in elections earlier this year. Several former England captains, including David Gower and Mike Gatting, opposed the tour but said it was for the Government to take a decision. The Conservatives accused the Government of trying to "slide out of making a decision" by putting the onus on the players. England is to play Zimbabwe in their opening match of the series in Harare on February 13. PTI reports: Meanwhile, the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying in Adelaide that the Australian "Government's opinion is that it is very regrettable that these international, high-profile cricket matches are going to go ahead in Zimbabwe. We are not telling the Australian Cricket Board what to do. It's a matter for them. But we are entitled to an opinion." "We are certainly not going to intervene and stop the Australian cricket team from going. If the Australian team doesn't play and all the other teams do, then the Australian team will be penalised in the World Cup," Mr. Downer said. "It's a matter for the Cricket Board to judge and it's a matter for the International Cricket Council but we are very concerned about the decision." The statements come 10 days after the ICC gave its go ahead to Zimbabwe to host the matches following a report of its fact-finding committee which had representatives of all the six countries scheduled to play matches there. However, Mr. Lamb supported the ICC's decision and accused the British Government of adopting "double standards". "Cricket is a soft target and is being treated differently to the 300 other businesses which continue to trade with Zimbabwe, which Ministers aren't discouraging. There's double standards here," he said reacting to the Government's stand.
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