New Zealand will tour Zimbabwe 01 Jul 2005 By: James Nixon

New Zealand Cricket have confirmed that their tour of Zimbabwe in August will go ahead as planned despite calls from the New Zealand Government to abandon the tour due to human-rights abuses by Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.

Martin Snedden, the Chief Executive of NZC announced that they had no choice but to tour because of the US$2million fine they will be imposed with by the ICC for not touring.

The issue was raised at the International Cricket Council general meeting last week but Snedden was unable to get a change in policy which would have allowed the tour to be cancelled.

The New Zealand Government have followed on from this announcing that the Zimbabwe cricket team would not be granted visa's for their scheduled tour of New Zealand later this year which is likely to affect New Zealand's joint bid with Australia to host the 2011 World Cup.