LONDON, May 6: Protesters are set to return to Lord’s on Wednesday and picket the annual general meeting of the ground’s owners, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), as they bid to have Zimbabwe’s cricket tour of England abandoned.

Last Thursday, 10 members of the Stop the Tour campaign gathered outside Lord’s as Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak gave his first media conference of the two-Test tour.

They want the tour called off in protest at the alleged human rights abuses carried out by Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe.

And the object of Wednesday’s protest is to try to persuade MCC to cancel the first Test, which is due to begin at Lord’s on May 22.

Stop the Tour organiser Peter Tatchell said on Tuesday that his group’s demonstrations would continue.

Stop the Tour said they would be handing MCC members a letter calling on them to withdraw permission for the use of Lord’s.

They also want all cricketers playing against Zimbabwe and spectators watching them to wear black armbands in an echo of a political protest at the World Cup.

During Zimbabwe’s opening match in February, against Namibia in Harare, players Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands and issued a statement lamenting the ‘death of democracy’ in Zimbabwe under Mugabe.—AFP