Australia Bans Cricketers From Touring Zimbabwe

To the people of Australia,

I know very little about your politics, and thus I have no idea whether John Howard is a good or a bad Prime Minister. But by standing up to this vile little man Mugabe when nobody else would he has shown a strength of character that I wish was evident in British politicians.

In short: nice one Australia.


The story - http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070513...auszimpolitics

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SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's government Sunday barred the national cricket team from touring Zimbabwe in September, saying it wanted to avoid giving a propaganda victory to "grubby dictator" President Robert Mugabe.

Prime Minister John Howard, who has repeatedly expressed concerns over the deteriorating situation in the southern African nation, said his government had taken the decision out of Cricket Australia's (CA) hands.

Howard said it was not fair to leave foreign policy matters with sportsmen, preferring that the government accept responsibility. He urged other cricketing nations to follow suit.

"We don't do this lightly, but we are convinced that for the tour to go ahead there would be an enormous propaganda boost for the Mugabe regime," Howard told ABC television.

"The Mugabe regime at present is behaving like the Gestapo towards its political opponents, the living standards of the country are probably the lowest of any in the world and you have an unbelievable rate of inflation.

"I have no doubt that if this tour goes ahead it would be an enormous boost to this grubby dictator and whilst it pains me both as a cricket lover and as somebody who genuinely believes these things should be left to sporting organisations... it leaves me with no alternative."

Zimbabwe reacted angrily, describing the ban as "desperate" and "racist."

"The Australians are mixing politics with sport and the decision shows how desperate the Howard government is to isolate Zimbabwe," junior information minister Bright Matonga told AFP.

"Australia is one of the worst human rights violators in this whole world. Look what they have done to the aborigines and yet they have the audacity to stand up and claim to have the moral authority to condemn us.

"This is also a racist ploy to kill our local cricket since our cricket team is now dominated by black players as we slowly transform cricket from being an elite sport."

The International Cricket Council (ICC) indicated Cricket Australia was likely to escape a potential US two million dollar fine for pulling out because the government had made the decision.

"It is not the role of the ICC to make political judgments. That is for politicians," ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said in a statement.

"It is unfortunate for Zimbabwes cricketers and supporters, all of whom need exposure to top-quality cricket in order to develop as players and to encourage future generations to take up the sport," he added.

Cricket Australia (CA) chief James Sutherland said his organisation would consider playing Zimbabwe at a neutral venue.

"Given our commitment to help Zimbabwe cricket develop, we will now explore the possibility of playing the three one-day internationals we are due to play against Zimbabwe at a neutral venue outside Zimbabwe," he said.

Howard indicated his government would enforce the ban, if necessary, by stopping the use of the cricketers' passports to leave the country.

"It's pretty obvious to me that the players and the body (CA) wanted to act in conformity with public opinion but in the end, not surprisingly, they wanted a situation where the decision was taken by the government and not the players," Howard said.

"I don't think it's fair to leave a foreign policy decision of this magnitude on the shoulders of young sportsmen.

"It's much better, in the end, for the government to take the rap.

"I hope the rest of the cricketing world understands that and it would be a very good idea if the rest of the cricket world adopted the same attitude towards Mugabe's regime.

"I'm not going to stand around and allow some kind of aid and comfort be given to him (Mugabe) by the greatest cricketing team in the world visiting his country."

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said he was "comfortable" with the move.

"I'm comfortable that the Australian government has taken the responsibility for making international affairs decisions on behalf of the country," he said in a statement.

The Zimbabwe tour has become a major topic of debate in Australia, with a majority of the public and church groups urging a boycott.

Howard, who has repeatedly urged Zimbabwe's African neighbours to do more to oust Mugabe, said it was difficult for countries such as Australia and Britain, viewed as the "old, white west," to interfere.

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I've never seen the word cricket used so many times in an article. I can hear chirping in my brain :wall: . But Howard seems like an upstanding guy. God bless Aussies. :medievalcheers:

Aussies remind me of Texans. Bruttaly honest and good looking.

I'm skeptical of any government official who wants to make decisions for other people 'for their own good'.
Are the cricket players somehow incapable of making this decision?

CR

This is the first time in the history of Australia that the government has officially banned a sports team from going to a country. For John Howard it most be hard considering he is such a big cricket tragic.

He approved the selection of the Australian of the Year being a cricket sports captain.

He has been a kind of guest commentator at Test matches with the Aussie side. Imagine George W. Bush being a commentator for a Major League baseball match.

He has also lead the way within the Commonwealth of Nations to try and stop the atrocities happening within Zimbabwe.

I imagine it was a fairly hard call for him to make given his personal love affair with cricket.

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

This is the first time in the history of Australia that the government has officially banned a sports team from going to a country. For John Howard it most be hard considering he is such a big cricket tragic.

He approved the selection of the Australian of the Year being a cricket sports captain.

He has been a kind of guest commentator at Test matches with the Aussie side. Imagine George W. Bush being a commentator for a Major League baseball match.

He has also lead the way within the Commonwealth of Nations to try and stop the atrocities happening within Zimbabwe.

I imagine it was a fairly hard call for him to make given his personal love affair with cricket.

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I think that cricket Australia and the players, might of had his ear on this, he is very close with a good few of them, it means that CA is not to blame for this and will not incur any ICC fines, as well as making the point that the players wanted to as well. (quite a few said that if they had to play they would pull out of the team).

As you said, he has tried in the past to get other countries to put some pressure on the Mugabe government. to little avail.

I think howard might not be the greatest man alive, but he does make for a pretty robust PM.

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Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit

I'm skeptical of any government official who wants to make decisions for other people 'for their own good'.
Are the cricket players somehow incapable of making this decision?

CR

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Had the Australian Cricket Authority banned the players from touring they'd have incurred a hefty fine, payable to Mugabe and his cronies. As it is, I don't think they have to.

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

This is the first time in the history of Australia that the government has officially banned a sports team from going to a country. For John Howard it most be hard considering he is such a big cricket tragic.

He approved the selection of the Australian of the Year being a cricket sports captain.

He has been a kind of guest commentator at Test matches with the Aussie side. Imagine George W. Bush being a commentator for a Major League baseball match.

He has also lead the way within the Commonwealth of Nations to try and stop the atrocities happening within Zimbabwe.

I imagine it was a fairly hard call for him to make given his personal love affair with cricket.

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I hate to be a cynic, but this entire episode is simply a pathetic attempt to win votes in election year...

I'm not saying that Mr Howard doesn't want the atrocities to stop, what I am saying is that he also wants the votes to start up again.

@CR - the govt. did have to make the decision to avoid fines (enough hatred of us in the subcontinent to push them through) but the timing is all to good for this to be out of the kindness of lil Johnny's heart ~;)

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

This is the first time in the history of Australia that the government has officially banned a sports team from going to a country. For John Howard it most be hard considering he is such a big cricket tragic.

He approved the selection of the Australian of the Year being a cricket sports captain.

He has been a kind of guest commentator at Test matches with the Aussie side. Imagine George W. Bush being a commentator for a Major League baseball match.

He has also lead the way within the Commonwealth of Nations to try and stop the atrocities happening within Zimbabwe.

I imagine it was a fairly hard call for him to make given his personal love affair with cricket.

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Does he have a Bradman autograph among his memorabilia? From what I've heard, he's a bit of a Don-Otaku.

Probably got a Bradman shrine - the guy's obsessed :laugh4:

That doesn't make him a good politician, of course :grin2:

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Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit

I'm skeptical of any government official who wants to make decisions for other people 'for their own good'.
Are the cricket players somehow incapable of making this decision?

CR

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Considering that the English cricketeers (or rather their management) were unable to make this decision for fear of the punative ICC fine I'd say that no, they are not capable of doing so.

The fact that our government was too gutless (sorry, circumspect) to make the choice was not surprising.

Well done the Aussies for doing what we could not.

This kind of reminds me of Peanut (Jimmy "Jew hater" Carter) when he banned the US from the Olympics in the former USSR. Howard's a good guy, but unless the team wants to make a political statement and not go, he shouldn't decide for them. Maybe there was some behind the scened stuff going on.

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Originally Posted by Devastatin Dave

This kind of reminds me of Peanut (Jimmy "Jew hater" Carter) when he banned the US from the Olympics in the former USSR. Howard's a good guy, but unless the team wants to make a political statement and not go, he shouldn't decide for them. Maybe there was some behind the scened stuff going on.

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No-one wants to play in Zimbabwe. Not even the Zimbabweans want to play in Zimbabwe (there was a wholesale sacking of the national team over a protest a few years back, who then had to be replaced by their understudies). The Australian government is merely providing cover for the Australian Cicket Board over something the ACB wants to do, something the British government should have done for the ECB a few years ago.

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Originally Posted by Devastatin Dave

This kind of reminds me of Peanut (Jimmy "Jew hater" Carter) when he banned the US from the Olympics in the former USSR. Howard's a good guy, but unless the team wants to make a political statement and not go, he shouldn't decide for them. Maybe there was some behind the scened stuff going on.

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In a newspaper article I read today, it said the team's captain was glad with Howard's decision. I don't know what specifically prompted Carter to keep the US away from the USSR olympics, but I think in the case of Zimbabwe it's the good thing to do.

Oh, I'm not denying that Ponting and the other players are happy with the decision; I just think that it shouldn't be taken simply as an angelic gesture of goodwill on Howard's part...

In fact if the ICC had any balls (does that count as a pun?) Zimbabwe wouldn't even be listed as a first class nation any more and no one would have to play tests there. Isn't there a rule that you have to pick your best players, which they do not, as they pick on racial grounds, and on pure quality grounds they are not a first class nation. When have they ever given a real side a competitve match, never mind looked like winning?

Apartheid SA actually fielded a good team, but no one would play them because of the racial element, so if that's the rule for racist whites who can play it should be the rule for racist blacks who can't, IMHO.

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Originally Posted by Devastatin Dave

This kind of reminds me of Peanut (Jimmy "Jew hater" Carter) when he banned the US from the Olympics in the former USSR. Howard's a good guy, but unless the team wants to make a political statement and not go, he shouldn't decide for them. Maybe there was some behind the scened stuff going on.

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Carter did this? I thought it was Regan.

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Originally Posted by English assassin

In fact if the ICC had any balls (does that count as a pun?) Zimbabwe wouldn't even be listed as a first class nation any more and no one would have to play tests there. Isn't there a rule that you have to pick your best players, which they do not, as they pick on racial grounds, and on pure quality grounds they are not a first class nation. When have they ever given a real side a competitve match, never mind looked like winning?

Apartheid SA actually fielded a good team, but no one would play them because of the racial element, so if that's the rule for racist whites who can play it should be the rule for racist blacks who can't, IMHO.

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I do not believe that the Zimbabwe team at the world cup was exclusively black. So IIRC, which I may not, the racist element is out.

The ICC doesn't want to get mixed up in international politics, and understandably so.

The national organisations would like to be free to make their own choices, but are restrained by the financial costs of going against the ICC.

So it is left to governments to say "no, we will not honour that country by sending our national team to play there", assuming that this finds favour with the team itself.

It is just a shame that the government in Blighty doesn't know what to do about Zimbabwe in any department.

Not playing a game of cricket is the least the Commonwealth could do. A quarter of a million people have been etnically cleansed, opposition has been brutally silenced and a nation has been brought to ruin. All with little to no protest.

EA is spot on with his comparing the treatment of racist Zim with racist SA.

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Originally Posted by Vladimir

Carter did this? I thought it was Regan.

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http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war.../20/spotlight/