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Stance on the Zimbabwe Tour

Langeveldt

Soutie
So, already it looks as if Englands next tour to Zimbabwe may be off...

Why is it that they have a different stance to, say other commonwealth nations when it comes to playing in Zimbabwe??

It is definitely not an issue of safety...

And when will they learn that Robert Mugabe is not really concerned about cricket in his country?? If England dont play there, it changes nothing ... it just deprives a nation of there cricket, and Zimbabwe's players of a good contest...

And it isnt setting an example, because it appears nobody much cares about the Zimbabwe situation... So again, England pulling out will affect nothing ....
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
What's your opinion on the validity of the International almost-boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era?
 

Craig

World Traveller
Well the West Indies toured, and nothing was mentioned AFAIK, and yet England or any other white nation will tour there and a whole political frace would start up.

The politications would jump on and have their bit and man it drives me up the wall, but if black cricketers go, nothing happens.
 

Magrat Garlick

Global Moderator
Yet it's OK for Zimbabwe to tour England, because then the players can jump off and become English? Hypocrites. Either stop playing cricket with them altogether or play both home and away tours.

I think they should play. Sport is about the only good thing happening in Zimbabwe at the moment...of course, if you take that as well, it could increase the will to throw the regime, but I don't think so. International isolation doesn't work, the will to revolt must come from inside (South Africa - did work but took over 20 years...). Sport should not be meddled with politics IMO.

And don't tell me it's an issue of security. Mugabe wouldn't dare attack the English players while playing a game, and you can't breathe in Zimbabwe without Mugabe's permission.

:( :( :(
 

Craig

World Traveller
Samuel_Vimes said:
Yet it's OK for Zimbabwe to tour England, because then the players can jump off and become English? Hypocrites.
Andy Flower rings a bell. He now holds a British passport despite never properly living in England for the required time.

Samuel_Vimes said:
I think they should play. Sport is about the only good thing happening in Zimbabwe at the moment...of course, if you take that as well, it could increase the will to throw the regime, but I don't think so. International isolation doesn't work, the will to revolt must come from inside (South Africa - did work but took over 20 years...). Sport should not be meddled with politics IMO.
Unfortunatly that is really is the dipolmatic answer. Sports and politics regrettably go hand-in-hand.

The end product is a whole lot of hyporciscy.
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Samuel_Vimes said:
Yet it's OK for Zimbabwe to tour England, because then the players can jump off and become English? Hypocrites. Either stop playing cricket with them altogether or play both home and away tours.
Agree. IMO they shouldn't be playing anywhere.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Craig said:
Andy Flower rings a bell. He now holds a British passport despite never properly living in England for the required time.
Isn't his wife English though?
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
Neil Pickup said:
What's your opinion on the validity of the International almost-boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era?
Well the apartheid era was completely different from the Zimbabwe crisis... Mass separation and deprivation of the vast majority of the countries inhabitants, not isolated violence and land seizures)

Zimbabwe is land seizures and violence, which is also widespread in lots of South Africa...So should we in fact ban and boycott SA?

I'm not convinced at all that the boycotting of international sport in SA did anything to stop apartheid... A few cricket tours will do nothing to alter the mindset of a whole regime.... Simple as that...
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Langeveldt said:
Well the apartheid era was completely different from the Zimbabwe crisis... Mass separation and deprivation of the vast majority of the countries inhabitants, not isolated violence and land seizures)
And large scale abuse of the political/electoral systems, and a government-meddled-with cricket board.

FIFA have employed (or threatened to employ) exceptionally harsh (complete ban) sanctions on Bangladesh and Azerbaijan in the past two years when the governments have even tried to mess with the FAs. The ICC doesn't have the balls.

I'm not convinced at all that the boycotting of international sport in SA did anything to stop apartheid... A few cricket tours will do nothing to alter the mindset of a whole regime.... Simple as that...
There's a lot of evidence to suggest that the isolation of South Africa did help bring apartheid to its rightful death.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Kimbo said:
I agree. It is idealistic to think politics and sport can be seperated.
It is idealistic to think ANYTHING can be seperated from politics.
It's a shame because some things (sport included) can do without it, but it's everything, so, sadly, it's everywhere.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
This is a perennial issue and a very sensitive one for obvious reasons.
I agree entirely with Langeveldt that a cricket tour is of total insignificance to the Mugabe regime - if England don't tour, it's not going to make the slightest difference.
The GlenEagles Agreement was NOT an agreement that England wouldn't play cricket in South Africa. It was a multi-sport agreement amongst the commonwealth to boycott all sport there. If anything is to have the same effect in Zimbabwe, it must be exactly the same thing. Personally I don't believe it would anyway; I'm too young to understand whether the GlenEagles Agreement really had any effect on the disposal of Apartheid, and I simply don't see that the Mugabe regime will be affected by no-one playing sport in his country.
The one thing we can say, IMO beyond a question, is that the cancellation of ONE tour won't make an iota of difference. Unless it's a uni-cricket, uni-World-sport, thing, no good can come of it and it simply provides disruption to cricket without valid reason.
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
Neil Pickup said:
There's a lot of evidence to suggest that the isolation of South Africa did help bring apartheid to its rightful death.

I'd agree with that, but id say it was solely trade isolation and lack of foreign investment that did it, not sport....
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
Langeveldt said:
I'd agree with that, but id say it was solely trade isolation and lack of foreign investment that did it, not sport....
As a political activist in the 1970's, I'd like to think that it did help a little. I had real mixed feelings - I make no secret of my adoration of Graeme Pollock, Colin Bland et al, but it HAD to be done.
 

Craig

World Traveller
From what I have read from Mike Proctor, cricket was one of the leading sports in braking down the racial barriers. I mean the SACA (South Africa Cricket Association as it was called then) encouraged coloured cricket fans to sit wherever they wanted to, not just in a segregated area.

IMO rebel tours did a lot for South Africa cricket in the 80s.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Maybe they did, but I'd still say anyone who undertook them was wrong to do so.
Unlike the situation with England in WC2003, there was an agreement in place not to converse in sporting engagements with South Africa, and they broke it.
There is something in the argument that rebel tours were immoral IMO. Rebel tours being connected or compared in any way with the current Zimbabwe situation is rank idiocy.
 

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