LONDON, Dec 22: Former England captain David Gower has said that England and Australia should refuse to play their World Cup fixtures in Zimbabwe next year.

The ICC has ruled that the matches scheduled to take place in Harare and Bulawayo should go ahead despite the current political an d economic unrest in the country.

Gower said that while he agreed that the safety angle was not an issue, he said that England and Australia should take a moral stand against Robert Mugabe’s government.

Gower is opposed to Mugabe’s policy of evicting white farmers from their land, both from the humanitarian standpoint and because he feels it will ultimately have an adverse affect on the country’s wildlife population.—AFP