Zimbabwe Boycott

In the late 1960s, protests against the racial segregation of black South Africans under the apartheid system intensified. Beginning in 1970, Test Cricket playing nations joined the protest by refusing to tour to, or to host the South African national team, the Proteas. Despite their unofficial ranking as the world champions at that time, the Proteas did not play an official test match for 22 years, beginning in 1970/71 and some of the games greatest players were sidelined. On the breakdown of apartheid, the team was reinstated in 1991 and has subsequently been welcomed back into the cricketing fold.

History reflects that the many sanctions imposed on South Africa during its racially darkest days helped bring change to an inhumane system. While the lack of cricket played by the national team was no doubt well down that list, the ban sent a message of condemnation – while a continuation of tours would have been seen as tacit acceptance of the policy. Given this stance by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in the past, it is a wonder that Zimbabwe have so far escaped the same rebuke.

Zimbabwe, by all measures has slid significantly in recent times away from democracy and towards violent dictatorship. The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe has been the driving force behind this slide; having led the country since 1980 he has slowly eroded many of the hallmarks of a fair and free society. He is notorious for his seizure and ‘redistribution’ of commercial farms owned by whites, his suppression (and torture) of opposition politicians, his restrictions on free speech and press (Zimbabwe rank 140th in the world on that front), not to mention his transparent persecution of homosexuals (that’d be a whole other post). These policies have devastated the economy, with inflation recently running at 1,730% (seriously), while much of the population remains in the grip of HIV/AIDS.

The cricket team, by analogy with the country has also been torn apart. Most of the damage was done when two senior Zimbabwean players, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga, defied orders and wore black armbands during matches to protest against the "death of democracy in Zimbabwe". Both players subsequently retired from cricket and fled the country and other senior players followed suit. Their Test playing status was nearly revoked in 2004, but for some reason they were granted a reprieve and Australia are due to tour there in September.

This brings me then to my point. We shouldn’t be going. In the International community, to say that Australia is a military and diplomatic lightweight isn’t an understatement. Our sphere of influence is generally restricted to the island nations of the pacific and to supporting the UK and US. As far as cricket goes on the other hand we are a powerhouse. Given the current situation then, it is painfully obvious that we should be boycotting our tour of Zimbabwe and pressing to have the ICC revoke their international status. It is likely that this is one of the few ways we can send a message to Mugabe and his corrupt and violent dictatorship.

In reality, Cricket Australia is fretting over the lost revenue and the likely fine for breaching its contract with the ICC. Alexander Downer for his part is wringing his hands and mincing about, doing very little – which admittedly is no surprise. This Administration, for starters would have a foreign minister who isn’t King of the Fairies, and would be pressing hard to show that we do not condone the actions of the Zimbabwean government. The tour would be scrapped in an instant, for the safety of our players, but more importantly to send a message that suppressing an entire populous is not okay.