Not just a game

Like Jack Straw when he shook hands with Robert Mugabe at the UN last week, the England and Wales Cricket Board has inadvertently bolstered a vile regime. By naming a 14-man squad to tour Zimbabwe in November, the ECB has sent out the deplorable message that the repression and violence President Mugabe has unleashed against his own people should not be allowed to get in the way of a game of cricket. If this trip goes ahead, it will be a betrayal of the brave stand taken by the Zimbabwean cricketer, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga, who called on all cricketers to boycott their country and deny Mr Mugabe his propaganda victory. England's players should heed their pleas, and scrap this immoral tour.

Like Jack Straw when he shook hands with Robert Mugabe at the UN last week, the England and Wales Cricket Board has inadvertently bolstered a vile regime. By naming a 14-man squad to tour Zimbabwe in November, the ECB has sent out the deplorable message that the repression and violence President Mugabe has unleashed against his own people should not be allowed to get in the way of a game of cricket. If this trip goes ahead, it will be a betrayal of the brave stand taken by the Zimbabwean cricketer, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga, who called on all cricketers to boycott their country and deny Mr Mugabe his propaganda victory. England's players should heed their pleas, and scrap this immoral tour.