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| July 19, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-us-Sani 11, 1426 |
NZ govt won’t stop tour of Zimbabwe
WELLINGTON, July 18: New Zealand will not stop its national cricket team touring Zimbabwe despite an opinion poll suggesting its citizens would support a ban, Prime Minster Helen Clark said on Monday. New Zealand is leading an international push to have Zimbabwe banned from the cricket tour schedule over concerns of human rights abuses under President Robert Mugabe.
A Fairfax/AC Neilsen survey, published in Wellington’s Dominion Post, found that 53 percent of respondents wanted the government to introduce legislation banning sports teams from touring countries that violate human rights.
“The proposition put to the Government was that there should be legislation under urgency to prevent national sports teams travelling to another country,” Clark told reporters. “That is territory no New Zealand government has ever entered into and we don’t propose to.
“(But) we will continue to advocate that the team not go.”
Miss Clark said it was clear New Zealanders did not want the tour to go ahead.
“Obviously it is of concern that our cricketers might get caught up in circumstances which compromise them.”
New Zealand had asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to change its policy requiring teams to tour Zimbabwe.
Foreign Minister Phil Goff said last Friday the government would not step in and legislate, citing the right of individuals and organisations from New Zealand to travel freely.
The game’s ruling body said last week the tour should go ahead unless the New Zealand government ruled it illegal.
New Zealand has already said it will not provide visas for a reciprocal tour it is due to host late this year.
About 1,000 people, led by former Zimbabwe fast bowler Henry Olonga, marched through Auckland on Saturday protesting against the tour.
The poll, which questioned 1,055 people of voting age, also found that almost 70 percent of those in favour of government intervention would still support a ban if the government had to pay fines or other costs incurred by New Zealand Cricket (NZC).
NZC would be hit by a minimum ICC fine of $2 million if they cancelled the tour.
Tours to Zimbabwe by Australia and England were cancelled last year when the ICC took away Zimbabwe’s Test status because of the team’s weakness following a player boycott. The ICC has since restored Zimbabwe’s status.—Reuters
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