Friday, May 11, 2007

[boycott of zimbabwe] here we go again


So, the situation, as I understand it, is that Cricket Australia wants the government to ban the tour to Zimbabwe, as it would be easier to deal with the International Board and not incur a huge fine.

John Howard has said that if Australia had to pay a $2.4 million fine for pulling out of the tour, he wanted to ensure the money did not wind up with Zimbabwe's "grubby dictator", President Robert Mugabe.

The players won't comment.

What we have here again is a sporting team from an iniquitously governed country sparking trouble, just as the Springboks did in the 70s and 80s but with no one wishing to carry the can for boycotting the offending country.

To be fair though - John Howard is at least contemplating it.

Where do you stand on this - do you say sport and politics should never mix, as with the olympics [officially] or do you think there should be no tours of iniquitous regimes?

You might leave your thoughts in the poll in the sidebar.

3 comments:

  1. If sport and politics don't mix, they have got to stop playing the anthems of the winners. Mind you, I'm an awful hypocrite on this, as I can remember, when I was VERY young and daft, protesting about a springbox team playing Wales, then going in to watch the match!

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  2. Ha Ha Ha Welshcakes. That must be one of those left brain right brain things. We can be such hypocrites sometimes.

    The point is moot, since the Australian Government has decided to ban the cricketers from going on tour to Zimbabwe and an official announcement will be made today.

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