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Loading ...Well,the IPL contracts were signed way before the England series was even though of so its a bit hard to say the players picked the money over country. Doesnt mean I agree to it. I wish they would go to England too, but the reality is that the IPL contracts were already done and the England series was a stop gap for the canceled Zimbabwe tour to England.
Sri Lanka cannot – must not – tour Zimbabwe
By Steven Price 2 years ago, mid-October Add your comment below
Steven Price is a freelance journalist in Zimbabwe
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This week’s news that Sri Lanka’s players and board have opted to play in the Indian Premier League rather than honour a signed commitment to tour England next year has been noted with interest inside Zimbabwe’s dwindling cricket community. They have sent a clear signal: when the choice is between money and playing for your country then cash is king. The question now is what will happen when the decision is between playing for your county and morality.
Sri Lanka are scheduled, according to the ICCs increasingly meaningless Future Tour Program, to visit Zimbabwe sometime in the next few months. According to the blinkered logic of the ICC, there is absolutely no reason the series should not go ahead.
However if you speak to anyone inside the country (anyone, that is, not in the dollar-rich inner circle of the Zimbabwe cricket board) there is increasing incredulity that anyone can seriously consider playing given the current situation inside the Zimbabwe.
The ICC might drone on about sport and politics not mixing (Pakistan might raise an eyebrow or two at that suggestion) but there has to come a point, somewhere, when even the most blinkered logic realises enough is enough.
By the United Nations’ own estimates, almost half of Zimbabwe’s 10 million population are on the brink of starvation. Ignoring the whys and wherefores of the reasons for that, can Sri Lanka’s players really sit in their cosseted five-star hotels in Harare and Bulawayo and eat their bountiful meals while half of the very people serving them are starving?
The tourists will not be harmed. Zimbabweans are peaceful people. And besides, the state-run police and security forces will ensure only the handpicked few get near enough to even shake their hands. But the issue is not security. By touring, the Sri Lankans will be giving credibility to Robert Mugabe’s insane claims that things are OK. How can they not be when cricket sides are happy to tour? No longer can anyone seriously maintain that the cricketers will not be used as a political tool.
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Cricket has all but ceased inside Zimbabwe despite the propaganda of the board. School cricket is dead outside the few surviving private establishments, through no fault of ZC – the schools themselves are dead. Teachers have fled the country in thousands and there is no money for books, repairs or salaries of those that remain. Inflation, now 240,000,000% and rising, saps the will to live.
Club cricket is in a similar state. Almost all the good, qualified coaches have left, along with a steady flow of local players, and for most there is no way of maintaining facilities or buying equipment. The only few clubs that continue to prosper, and the ones where visiting ICC dignitaries are shown, are those such as Tashinga with close links to the government.
The chances of the Logan Cup taking place this season are also diminishing. The veneer of normality and the illusion that the game is thriving across the land was maintained last year by ZC bussing players from Harare to other regions to boost the playing strength of areas where the game was dying.
The decision over the Sri Lanka tour will have been made in Dubai this week where the ICC executives met. The thought that Peter Chingoka, a man banned by the European Community because of his overt links to the Mugabe regime, could fly business class to such a meeting and be wined and dined in a luxurious hotel while his country starves underlines for many the hypocrisy of the ICC.
The question now is whether, given the collapse of the power-sharing agreement and the impending humanitarian disaster, anyone can seriously want to play cricket in Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka’s players were quick enough to take a stand when money was at stake. We can only hope they are as quick to rest on their morals.
Tags: ICC, peter chingoka, politics, robert-mugabe, sri lanka in zimbabwe, sri-lanka, starvation, zimbabwe |
5 Responses to “Sri Lanka cannot – must not – tour Zimbabwe”
October 15th, 2008 at 7.08 am
October 16th, 2008 at 11.57 am
Exactly. Why is everyone conveniently forgetting the fact that the tour of England was not "prescheduled" and signed and all that rubbish ! It was a desperate request from the English to fill up the void in their schedule.
Note up until 1998 England refused to host Sri Lanka for more than a Test and that too once in 8 years. Why are they so fond of inviting Sri Lanka now given that the last Lankan tour was as recent as 2006 ? The answer is simple. They don't care for Sri Lanka or playing tests against Sri Lanka. They care for filling their void. And they are literally USING Sri Lanka – because they feel that they can.
I say it is good that Sri Lanka have refused to be used here.
October 16th, 2008 at 2.48 am
As one of the "sport and politics shouldn't mix" crowd, I have to ask the question- what will be accomplished by the cricketers not going? If the same logic to boycotting cricket in Zimbabwe is applied to cricket outside Zimbabwe, should the national team never have gone to Canada? How about other sports- should they have been banned from the Olympics, as a demonstration of our disgust at Mugabe? I have to think that Zimbabweans wouldn't have been better off- in fact, I'm guessing that they'd have been worse off, having been deprived of the chance to celebrate the success of their swimmer Coventry. If Zimbabweans get to see their national team in action against the Sri Lankans (and maybe get to celebrate a success or two) then how could that hurt them, or affect the political situation there any worse than what Mugabe has already done?
While the political situation there is disturbing, I really believe that the only people who miss out when sports and politics mix are the everyday people who really matter.
October 19th, 2008 at 9.18 am
I agree with Gaurav's views completely.The english board & even australian board are doing everything in their power to devalue the IPL.Australia has been won over with the whole champions league 25% revenue that they'll recieve very 'lovingly' from the BCCI.IPL contracts predated the english tour.They deliberately fixed the dates so as to intrude into the IPL calendar.To dispute that is pretty immature.Anyways the IPL makes sure that the players are paid exactly what they deserve.Free market rates apply & your performance decides your price.The english board go ahead with this 20-20 for 20million rubbish which is shameful & pathetic.The whole country versus cash thing is lame.Why do you care so much about the political situation in zimbabwe??Every country has political issues.Also right now the whole world's economy is going through grief.Really lame & hugely propogandic post.
November 9th, 2008 at 4.51 pm
Sathnam_Mann talks about propogandic (sic) posts – don’t use big words unless you can at least spell them – but just look at his … the kind of unadulterated pro-India-sod-the-rest crap that we expect from too many cricket “lovers” who believe that anything remotely touched by India must be right and anything to do with the West wrong. Can’t wait for the chickens to come home to roost …
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