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| March 17, 2003 | Monday | Muharram 13, 1424 |
Olonga goes into hiding to dodge secret police
JOHANNESBURG, March 16: Zimbabwean fast bowler Henry Olonga, who announced his retirement from international cricket on Saturday, has gone into hiding to dodge Zimbabwe’s secret police, a British paper said on Sunday.
Seven plainclothes officers from Zimbabwe’s secret police, believed to be from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), arrived on Friday in East London, South Africa where Zimbabwe faced the Sri Lankans, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
Olonga “had been told the officers intended to ‘escort him home’, where a likely charge of treason awaited,” the newspaper said. The punishment for treason in Zimbabwe is death.
In mid-afternoon, officers from the World Cup-appointed Close Protection Unit returned to the players’ hotel and packed all of Olonga’s personal possessions in case he was intercepted after the match, the paper said.
“He was pretty shaken but he seemed to be coping as well as anyone can in a situation like that,” a team-mate told The Sunday Telegraph after the match on Saturday which Zimbabwe lost by 74 runs.
“He sounded reasonably clear about what was going to happen, if it all went well, and was staying positive,” the source said.
England remains Olonga’s most likely final destination, as long as political asylum is granted, the paper said.
Earlier the Zimbabwean fast bowler made a retirement statement:
“I have been receiving threatening e-mails since the protests which I believe have made it dangerous for me to return to Zimbabwe,” Olonga, 26, said.
“It is with great sadness that I am officially announcing my retirement from international cricket,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) on Sunday issued a statement condemning Olonga’s conduct.
“The Union notes with regret that in announcing his official retirement from international cricket, Olonga has, in a clear act of continued insubordination, gone on to yet again use the platform of the World Cup to make a political statement.
“This is in contravention of the advice he got from the tournament’s Event Technical Committee and the instruction the Union wrote to him following his statement before the Zimbabwe Group ‘A’ match against Namibia in Harare last month.
“The ZCU is also disappointed that while Olonga had seemingly followed the provision of his contract regarding making public statements and handed in his retirement news release to the team officials, he had simultaneously released to the media at the Zimbabwe-Sri Lanka match at Buffalo Park the same statement, albeit embargoed until after the match.
“Even when he was advised by the team manager against including political sentiments in his announcement, Olonga did not state that he had already released the statement.”
Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak insisted on Sunday he will not follow Andy Flower and Olonga into retirement and that he would battle on at the head of his shell-shocked team.
“I will keep going as long as my body allows. I love my country, I love my job, I’ll keep going,” said Streak.
The Zimbabwe skipper said he was sad about the retirement of the two men who had won wide international praise for their black armband protest against the regime of president Robert Mugabe.
“They’re both quality players and it will be difficult to replace players of such calibre,” said Streak.
Andy Flower will play county cricket for Essex later this year and had already moved his wife and three children to the safer environment of England.
Another senior player Guy Whittall also quit the game on Sunday to concentrate on his family’s ranching business in Zimbabwe.
Whittall, 30, played 46 Tests and 147 one-dayers for Zimbabwe as a batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler.
Zimbabwe selector Andy Pycroft also resigned his post earlier during the tournament in protest at not being consulted when the team was picked to play the first Super Six match against New Zealand.—AFP
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