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Morgan is a mouse caught in Mugabe trap
Kate Hoey, Daily Telegraph (UK)
November 26, 2004

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Speaking from the Meikles Hotel, Harare, David Morgan told journalists that members of the England cricket squad, in limbo at Johannesburg Airport, would be "confused … very confused".

The truth is that neither they nor the British public, who earlier this week on BBC Radio Five Live voted 98.5 per cent in favour of calling off the tour of Zimbabwe, are the slightest bit confused, nor are they surprised by the behaviour of Robert Mugabe and the agents of his vile dictatorship. The only thing that has baffled us all is why Morgan, as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, and the International Cricket Council should want to cosy up to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union - recently rebranded as Zimbabwe Cricket - who have clearly shown themselves to be tools of the Zanu PF dictatorship, along with the so-called war veterans once led by 'Hitler' Hunzvi and the 'Green Bombers', the youth militia set up to brainwash and dehumanise Zimbabwe's young people.

Every year Zimbabwe Cricket dutifully re-elect Mugabe as their patron and have allowed political vetting by Zanu PF's commissars to become part of their team selection process. Mugabe heads a dictatorship that I witnessed at first hand when I visited the country under cover last year. His government have disregarded their obligations under the Zimbabwe constitution and breached international law on human rights and regional protocols on democracy and freedom of speech. Against such a backdrop the notion that it is a triumph to have the Zimbabwean authorities honour under-takings given to the ECB or the ICC after an 11th-hour climbdown is utterly laughable.

All along, I have, with many others, warned the ECB not to be drawn into a position where they would be used by the master manipulator Mugabe as a pawn in his battle for unfettered power. Now they have ended up looking pathetic with Morgan, in particular, resembling nothing more than a half-dead mouse.

The fact that late in the day British journalists have been allowed into Zimbabwe is unlikely to be the end of this sordid saga. The Daily Telegraph's Mihir Bose went to Zimbabwe in April this year to report on the Sri Lanka cricket tour and was immediately expelled because he might try to foment trouble. The actual danger, of course, is not that journalists will foment trouble but that they will report truthfully to the outside world on the real trouble in Zimbabwe - Mugabe's reign of terror.

My great sadness is that both English and international cricket now look morally bankrupt and that the Government have lamely wrung their hands and allowed Mugabe to make them look like fools. Financial obligations and the threat of penalties have dominated what should have been a straightforward moral judgment. Ministers should have been prepared to beef up their language and, instead of saying they would prefer the tour not to go ahead, they should have made a formal request for the ECB to call it off.

The latest duplicitous talk by officials from Zimbabwe's pantomime Ministry of Information about the accreditation process and their jumpiness whenever the name of Mugabe is mentioned demonstrates the fear that is everywhere in Zimbabwe. I saw it on my visit last year when it was dangerous to even wave to a friend across the street because the symbol of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is the raised open palm of a hand.

I now wait uneasily to hear from my friends in the country what horrors of beating, incarceration and torture might be visited on those opposition activists who dare to stage protests for free speech and democracy near the cricket grounds where England will play over the coming days.

Young cricket fans I met in Bulawayo last year had clubbed together during the cricket World Cup to form 'Cricket Supporters for Democracy'. They showed me the scars and told me of the brutality they experienced for having dared to make a peaceful protest. I'm sure they will be there this time, too. I salute them and all those who are struggling for freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe.

It shames British sport that our national team should be playing cricket in a state that perpetrates such outrages against human rights.

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