CAPE TOWN, Feb 11: World Cup director Ali Bacher said England’s World Cup match against Zimbabwe in Harare on Thursday would not go ahead as planned.

“The match is not taking place in Harare on Thursday,” Bacher told Reuters from Johannesburg by phone on Tuesday.

“What England have said is that they have new information and they are not going to Harare on the basis of that new information.”

The decision was due to be announced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) at a joint press conference with the International Cricket Council (ICC) around 1630 GMT.

England’s players have been worried about security in Zimbabwe as well as social and political unrest.

They failed to convince a World Cup technical committee to move the game to main hosts South Africa last week in what was supposedly a binding decision but the ECB continued to argue after they lost an appeal on Friday.

Bacher said the game was now being put back in an attempt to find a compromise and avert an England boycott.

“They will now be making a further representation to the technical committee,” he said.—Reuters