The Daily Telegraph
11th July 2005
By Kate Hoey
In Bulawayo, just a short walk from the Matatabeleland cricket ground I watched as security police forced the poor to knock down their own homes. Further north and within a few yards of the the Mashonaland Cricket Association’s home ground, Harare Sports Club, I saw families gathering together their few possessions remaining from the attack on their homes.
18 months earlier, on a similar undercover visit, I had met some of the young Zimbabweans who had been arrested during the Cricket World Cup match in Bulawayo and later tortured. Yet despite protests the England cricket team’s tour to Zimbabwe went ahead – the ECB refusing to let ‘politics’ interfere with their income.
I did see the one positive outcome of that tour, however. ‘A.G.’ Ndlovu, Deputy Mayor of Bulawayo and a member of the MDC, Zimbabwe’s opposition party, took me to Nketa Emganwini, one of the poorer districts in Bulawayo, to see the newly completed cricket nets donated by Richard Bevan of the Professional Cricketers Association. The £1500 donation was a positive way to nurture cricketers deprived of opportunity simply because they live in opposition areas. Inspecting the nets, I saw excited local children waiting in anticipation to use them. Just a few hours later swathes of the surrounding suburbs were demolished. So far the nets have escaped Mugabe’s axe of destruction.
How can cricket be played in such circumstances? Zimbabwe’s cricket has been in crisis for several years. When some of the World Cup matches were held in Zimbabwe, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands to “mourn the death of democracy” in their country.
Since then many who worked for the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) have been sacked or have had conditions made so unpleasant for them that they have voluntarily resigned. John Ward,who was their ‘media consultant’,a job which combined match reporter, statistician, biographer, historian, compiler of the yearbook and main contributor to the web site is a good example of what is happening inside this Zanu PF controlled organisation.
In March he took his ZCU laptop for repair. Ozias Bvute, Managing Director of the ZCU ordered the technician to examine the hard drive. Bvute suspected Ward of being the ‘Steven Price’ who had written anti-ZCU articles in Wisden. No articles were found but Ward had corresponded regularly with people all over the world and the technician came up with those e mails and personal correspondence that contained criticism of ZCU policy. Bvute immediately sacked him.
Few are left in the ZCU with any significant cricketing background. Those who really care about cricket have been marginalised. John Ward now believes there are no grounds for maintaining normal sporting relations with the ZCU. Even those who had clung to the hope that this was the right thing to do now believe that such links only help Zanu PF’s propaganda. David Coltart the opposition MP for Bulawayo South, himself a big cricket fan told me that it would be obscene to play cricket whilst millions suffer so much.
At last a Government seems to be standing up to Mugabe. Our Government must follow New Zealand’s lead. It really is time to stop all sporting links with Zimbabwe.FULL marks to the New Zealand government for keeping up the pressure on the International Cricket Council over sporting links with Zimbabwe. If my recent undercover trip to Robert Mugabe’s benighted country taught me anything it was how ruthlessly his police state operates. It is impossible to imagine cricket being played amid scenes of devastation where the poorest people’s homes are being demolished.
Last week New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Phil Goff, wrote to the ICC requesting that Zimbabwe be excluded from international tours. He urged that concern over human rights abuse by Mugabe should allow the New Zealand cricket squad to cancel their scheduled trip to Zimbabwe this summer without suffering a fine of as much as £1 million.
In his letter, Goff wrote: “We believe that the International Cricket Council cannot ignore these gross abuses as if they were not happening when scheduling the Futures Tours Programme.
“We therefore request the ICC, as a matter of urgency, to consider revising the Programme to exclude tours to Zimbabwe and by Zimbabwe while this situation continues in that country.”
Prime Minister Helen Clark had already gone much further than other world leaders in imposing sanctions on Zimbabwean politicians and business leaders and stopping them entering New Zealand. The Zimbabwean team will not be granted visas to tour in December. But the request to the ICC to exclude Zimbabwe from all international cricket is a welcome direct intervention from a government.
During my visit to Zimbabwe I saw for myself the devastating effects of the crackdown on the informal economy and the shanty towns. The film I smuggled out showed the rubble of thousands of demolished homes and businesses destroyed by Mugabe’s security police with the homeless sleeping in the open. New Zealand television carried the pictures and those campaigning for the cricket tour to be cancelled are more confident of success.
To get over the border into Zimbabwe I reverted to my days as a PE teacher, carrying a huge bag of footballs as a camouflage to visit sports clubs. In fact, the footballs were in great demand and I could easily have distributed a container load – as well as many other items such as shin pads that are an unimaginable luxury even for football teams in Zimbabwe’s Premier League.
In Bulawayo, a short walk from the Matabeleland cricket ground, I watched as security police forced the poor to knock down their own homes. Further north and within a few yards of the Mashonaland Cricket Association’s home ground, Harare Sports Club, I saw families gathering together the few possessions remaining after an attack on their homes.
Eighteen months earlier, on a similar undercover visit, I had met some of the young Zimbabweans who had been arrested during the World Cup match in Bulawayo and later tortured. Yet despite protests, the England cricket team’s tour to Zimbabwe went ahead – the ECB refusing to let “politics” interfere with their income.
I did see the one positive outcome of that tour. A G Ndlovu, the Deputy Mayor of Bulawayo and a member of the MDC, Zimbabwe’s opposition party, took me to Nketa Emganwini, one of the poorer districts in Bulawayo, to see the newly-completed cricket nets donated by Richard Bevan of the Professional Cricketers’ Association. The £1,500 donation was a positive way to nurture cricketers deprived of opportunity simply because they live in opposition areas. Inspecting the nets, I saw excited children waiting in anticipation to use them. Just a few hours later swathes of the surrounding suburbs were demolished. So far, the nets have escaped Mugabe’s axe of destruction.
How can cricket be played in such circumstances? The game in Zimbabwe has been in crisis for years. When World Cup matches were held in Zimbabwe, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands to “mourn the death of democracy” in their country.
Since then many who worked for the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) have been sacked or have had conditions made so unpleasant for them that they have resigned. John Ward, who was their ‘media consultant’, a job which combined the roles of match reporter, statistician, biographer, historian, compiler of the yearbook and main contributor to the website, is a good example of what is happening inside this Zanu PF-controlled organisation.
In March he took his ZCU laptop for repair. Ozias Bvute, the managing director of the ZCU, ordered the technician to examine the hard drive. Bvute suspected Ward of being the “Steven Price” who had written anti-ZCU articles in Wisden. No articles were found but Ward had corresponded regularly with people all over the world and the technician came up with those e-mails and personal correspondence that contained criticism of ZCU policy. Bvute immediately sacked him.
Few are left in the ZCU with any significant cricketing background. Those who really care about cricket have been marginalised. Ward believes there are no grounds for maintaining normal sporting relations with the ZCU. Even those who had clung to the hope that this was the right thing to do now believe that such links only help Zanu PF’s propaganda. David Coltart, the opposition MP for Bulawayo South – a big cricket fan – told me that it would be obscene to play while millions suffer so much.
At last, a government seem to be standing up to Mugabe. Our Government must follow New Zealand’s lead. It really is time to stop all sporting links with Zimbabwe.