It Just Isn't Cricket!

Even the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website describes Zimbabwe as a basket case and Mugabe is quite obviously responsible. However, I cannot agree with talk of banning the Zimbabwe cricket team from touring England in 2009, as Miliband Senior seems to be calling for today .

If the government, the United Nations and assorted pan-African organisations haven't got the guts to deal with Mugabe and his rancid government, then don't pass the buck to our sportsmen and expect the English Cricket Board to do your dirty work. Will this government be urging a boycott of the Olympics when they roll into China? After all, the human rights abuses and lack of true democracy in China make it just as bad, if not worse by most standards, as Zimbabwe. And is Zimbabwe really any worse than most African states who we continue to deal with?

It's interesting that the current government, containing previous boycotters, such as Peter Hain, now appear powerless to act when in a position of political power. They boycotted everything South African during apartheid but seem incapable of action in the case of Zimbabwe. Perhaps they are only motivated when they see white people as the oppressors of black people but are blind, or just don't care, when it is black oppressing black and/or white.

It's the Zimbabwe government to blame, not their cricketers.