Cricket in Zimbabwe

It seems that the ICC is today going to allow six matches of the cricket World Cup to be played in Zimbabwe.

Am I the only person that thinks that this is ludicrous? Spokesmen from the ICC say it’s something that the politicians should deal with, and yes, as far as that goes they’re right, the politicians should have done/ be doing more. People are being tortured and beaten daily for their political views. BBC journalists (and, I guess, others) are banned from the country. Mugabe is single-handedly ruining the country by running it for his own personal gain. Sure, most of the land was owned by whites, and this is far from ideal, but by running them (the white farmers) out they’ve lost their knowledge and expertise and the people are starving. All exacerbated by the fact that Mugabe has sold what were extensive grain reserves for his own profit. He’s ruining the ‘breadbasket of Africa’ and the world is doing next to nothing to stop it.

But the world of sport does not exist in a political vacuum. Whatever the ICC says, it does give out a message if they say that the matches can be played there, it’s already being hailed in the (state run) press as a propaganda coup for the Mugabe regime. They can’t say that it’s nothing to do with them because it’s something to do with everyone, especially when the best cricketers in the world (that excludes the English, of course :wink: )are going to Zimbabwe and implicitly condoning what’s going on there.

Now Zimbabwe is not as sport-mad as South Africa was during Apartheid (according to the radio this morning), so whether the games are played in Zimbabwe or not is going to have less effect, but effect it will have.

They should not play the World Cup games there next February.

Couldn’t agree more. Mugabe is a despot of the highest order; a madman and a vicious criminal. Let’s hope some of the individual cricketers have more moral decency than the ICC.

Yep, as you say, sport does not and should not exist in a political vacuum.

Well, if I were a player, I’d boycott the matches and do my best to see that they were moved elsewhere. But of course, my opinion is colored by the fact that I know some of the people who are being thrown off their land without compensation by Mugabe and his thugs.

Didn’t Australia refuse to travel there recently? What are we going to think of it this time?

Should players not play under oppressive and/or non-democratic regimes too (Bangladesh, Pakistan?)? What about countries with poor human rights records? (China is hosting the Olympics) In short, where does one draw the line?

What’s next? A beauty pageant in Nigeria?

Obviously the games shouldn’t go ahead in Zimbabwe as Mugabe is a despicable despot, but land reforms are and were needed in Zimbabwe as the white settlers form a small minority who own the majority of the land. Clearly it is not the Zimbabwe government’s responsibilty to provide compensation to these people as the land situation is a hangover from Zimbabwe’s colonialist past (the British government did offer compensation package for the farmers) and anything more than a nominal amount would be beyond their financial capabilities.

Also it’s interesting to look into the past to see exactly where Mugabe got his hatred of Europeans from. You have to remember that the white farmers who he took the land from are the same people wh created the appartheid regime of Rhodesia and kept the then leader of the black resistance, Mugabe in a tiny prison cell containing only a bucket with only a concrete floor to sleep om for ten years.

In other words, two wrongs makes a right. Got it.

No, but most of the farmers have to leave their land anyway, so there’s no point complaining about it, yes the method used is very wrong, but I can’t feel to much sympathy for the white settlers as Mugabe is a Frankenstein they created themselves.

Gee, let’s make sure we find only Perfect Countries[sup]R[/sup] to have international sports events in.

Yes, it’s important to make sure that sports events are closely tied to politics, because you wouldn’t want to have a situation where the athletes were, like, non-political, would you? That could be a very dangerous idea, something only the ancient Greeks would have come up with, those wild and crazy guys…

Let’s not hold the Olympics in Athens in 2004 because they’ve got too many human rights violations or in Torino in 2006, ditto, or in Beijing in 2008, ditto, or we certainly shouldn’t let Australia have the Winter Olympics in 2010, ditto.

Also, holding sports events in countries that are having human rights problems is a bad idea because it lets all kinds of, like, foreign journalists and media people into the country, where previously they wouldn’t have been allowed in, so they could, like, maybe see something and maybe take some pictures or some video, and of course they really wouldn’t understand what it was they were seeing, so all kinds of horribly biased news reporting would get spread all over CNN.

And that would be terrible, because then we’d all have to hear about it on the evening news, and it would be icky.

Much better to leave the hellhole to steam quietly in privacy.

One of the objections raised against English participation was because Zimbabwe has banned the BBC from entering the country. Although the current policy is that all journalists accredited by the ICC (International Cricket Council) will be permitted to cover the games themselves it is by no means clear whether they will be permitted access to areas of the country where they could gather information Mugabe’s regime would prefer to go unreported.

The ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) have said they are satisfied with security considerations and the British Sports Minister has said the government will agree to back their decision. Opposition to the ICC’s decision not to move games out of Zimbabwe has come from opposition groups within the country itself.

Previously an Australian tour of Zimbabwe was cancelled at short notice over security concerns, not as a political protest. A tour of Pakistan was also cancelled over concerns about players’ safety.

Er, OK. I didn’t intend to piss everyone off on this less-than- earthshaking topic. Please forget I said anything, and let the cricket continue. Perhaps my ex’s two uncles, who are getting thrown off their farms near Somabuhla, will be able to watch on the telly from New Zealand. Chances are the emigration papers will have gone through by then. Well, actually they’re much more into rugby, so I don’t suppose it matters.

MC, I too recognize that land reform is necessary in the region, but the way it’s been done stinks. I’m not going to argue with you, though; I’m tired and I’ve got a lot to do tonight. Maybe some other time, in another thread.

I’m a bit disappointed in the topic, though for the opposite reason as Duck Duck Goose. The situation is so serious that the real question should be what big-time actions the world community will take, not merely whether to attend some World Cup soccer matches there.

Calling the problems in Zimbabwe “human rights abuses” is a huge understatement. The government there is conducting policies that are causing the starvation of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.

El Kabong, I’m sorry that people are getting thrown off their land in Zimbabwe, but I’d think that any excuse for inviting a lot of foreign journalists into Zimbabwe would be eagerly seized upon by Mugabe’s opposition. Cricket tournament, beauty pageant, Betty Crocker cookoff, whatever, as long as Nic Robertson shows up with his satellite feed.

Even Geraldo, God help us, would be better than nothing, which is what they’ve got now by way of media attention.

The cricket world is very touchy about boycotts of countries. During a previous World Cup in India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka (somehow, I can’t see that one going down again), Australia and West Indies wanted the ICC to pull their matches out of Sri Lanka because of “safety concerns.” The Cup came at a particularly high point during the civil war, and the Tamil Tigers had caused several bombings in Colombo. The ICC refused to do so–and Australia and West Indies forfeited their matches against Sri Lanka. (Ironically, Sri Lanka beat Australia in that year’s final, in Lahore, Pakistan.) Sri Lanka and Australia are still, eight years after the fact, jawing at each other over the incident.

This time round it’s not just the matches in Zimbabwe that are causing problems. I hear from [http]Wisden.com[/http] that some teams are getting antsy about the scheduled matches in Nairobi, Kenya, after the recent terrorist attacks in Mombasa.

I see the ICC’s point in wanting the matches to go ahead in Zimbabwe and Kenya, although this point will probably not be obvious to all. In Zimbabwe, sport is one of the few, if not the only, integrated organizations. The ZCU (Zimbabwe Cricket Union) has been trying for years to introduce cricket to blacks in “the provinces,” and has been very successful. International stars like “Pommie” Mbangwa, Everton Matambanadzo, and Mluleki Nkala have popularized cricket among blacks to an extent unthinkable only ten years ago. As I understand, the coming World Cup was originally supposed to go to South Africa alone, until former ICC President Dalmiya insisted that Zimbabwe should have a few games, partly to recognise the ZCU’s achievements. To take away the games now, even for the real problems that are occurring in Zimbabwe, might extinguish one of the few bright spots the country has. It is not far-fetched to suggest that Mugabe would blame the ZCU for the boycott and shut it down.

I think this issue is a lot more complicated than it’s made out to be. The history of cricket is littered with political invasion. If the games in Zimbabwe are boycotted this time around, what’s going to happen after the Cup is over? Is Zimbabwe not going to be allowed to host any other Test or one-day matches, for the same reasons? This isn’t like with South Africa in the '70’s and '80’s, when their all-white cricket team was a sporting embodiment of apartheid. Frankly, I’m of the opinion that having the World Cup in Zimbabwe is more important than even one more whack at Mugabe.

Damn. I wish the man who made the quote in my sig would step in. Even better, that Mugabe would read it and think about it.

Psst…

Over here…

[sup]It’s the Cricket World Cup[/sup]
[sub]Not soccer[/sub]

If you think Mugabwe is going to allow foreign press access to speak to the opposition in the country you have another thing coming.

“No normal sport in an abnormal society”

Ring any bells older dopers?

It was the slogan of the anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa. Any cricketer who toured faced a five year ban (vide: Gatting Gooch, Edmonds and ironically, Boycott).

All the arguements about how it would be good to get the western media in so that the opposition could be heard etc were dragged out at the time and were cobblers then and are cobblers now.

Mugabe’s government is evil, not just misguided. They should be turned into international pariahs by all right minded people.

owlstretching, Zimbabwean cricket is close to the only normal thing in Zimbabwe these days. Again, this isn’t like the South African all-white team during apartheid. (We should note that what sparked off the boycott of the South African cricket team in 1970 was not apartheid itself–South Africa had been playing England and Australia for decades under the system–but the refusal of the SA Cricket Union to allow Basil D’Olivera, a non-white, to play for them on a tour of England.) The Zimbabwean national team is integrated, and not by accident but through the conscious effort of the ZCU. I’m all for sticking it to Mugabe but the efforts of the “good guys” must be rewarded.

I know the MDC has called for a boycott of the matches. I understand the motivation for that but I fear what will become of the integration efforts of the ZCU if it does come about. Shouldn’t we be recoginsing their achievements?