LONDON, March 4: Britain said on Tuesday it would support a ban on a tour next year by the Zimbabwe cricket team in protest at President Robert Mugabe’s rule, but the decision was up to the sport’s authorities.

The BBC’s Inside Sport programme said the government was looking at several options to stop next year’s Zimbabwe cricket tour, including banning all Zimbabwean sports men and women from competing in Britain.

The report provoked an angry response from Harare.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman denied Brown was considering a blanket ban.

“We continue to discuss Zimbabwe with the England (and Wales) Cricket Board. This is a matter for them. If they decide they want to ban Zimbabwe, that’s a decision we would support,” the spokesman said.

Cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, opposes sanctions on the Zimbabwe cricket team and some news reports say a ban on Zimbabwe could threaten England’s right to host the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) could not immediately be reached for comment.

The ECB is expected to be forced to pay large sums in compensation if the Zimbabwe matches are cancelled.

There was a similar standoff in 2004, when then Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would prefer an England cricket tour of Zimbabwe not to go ahead, but refused to forbid the team from going and said it was up to the ECB to decide.

The board complained that it faced steep fines by the International Cricket Council if it made the decision itself to pull out of the tour.

A spokesman for Britain’s Foreign Office said Britain was concerned about future cricket tours by countries ruled by “dictators” such as Mugabe.

“International sports should never be a way for dictators to publicise their misrule,” he said.

“If the situation does not improve in Zimbabwe, we would not want to see the Zimbabwe team tour here in 2009, nor the England cricket team tour there in 2012.”

Zimbabwe reacted angrily, saying a ban on Zimbabwean sportsmen would be “racist”.

“This is a racist ploy. If we had an all-white team, they would have allowed it to tour,” said Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga. “Sport should be a unifying force, not a political battleground.”—Reuters