The Scottish team was due to play a Zimbabwe XI team in an Intercontinental cup fixture in Harare. Cricket Scotland said they have taken heed of the advice from the British and Scottish governments in London and Edinburgh. Reports in the British media on Tuesday said the match was initially scheduled to be held at a neutral venue in Africa before the Scotland board agreed to a proposal to play the match in Zimbabwe.
But cricket Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith said a change in the UK governments policy has led to the decision not to tour. Cricket Scotland has now informed the ICC of their u-turn. In their letter to Cricket Scotland, the British said they were of the firm view that there has not yet been sufficient progress in Zimbabwe on the fundamental issues of political reform and of re-establishing the rule of law to justify tours by British sports teams.
We therefore strongly advise against such visits. We recognize that the final decision is for the relevant cricket boards, but hope they will consider their decisions carefully in light of our unequivocal advise, according to the letter from the government.
This latest advice from the British government will come as sweet news to many failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the UK. Only two weeks ago they were left in limbo following reports that the UK government had sent a team to Zimbabwe to see if it was safe to send back the failed asylum applicants. A spokesman for the Home Office confirmed that a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and UK Border Agency fact finding team was in Zimbabwe to obtain up-to-date information about the situation on the ground to use in determining the risk of returning to Zimbabwe. This team returned to the UK on the 20th August.
Ephraim Tapa, the founder and President of advocacy group Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR), said; Weve always maintained as an organization that human rights abuses have never stopped in Zimbabwe, even with the creation of the inclusive government. In July alone there were almost 1,200 incidents of violence recorded during the constitution making process, Tapa said.
Tapa said he believed the decision to send a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe was necessitated by the changes in the government. He said the UK coalition government probably needed to come up with its own criteria in dealing with asylum seekers from Zimbabwe.
Like any new government that comes into power, Im of the view the coalition government wanted to draw up their own immigration policy on Zimbabwe before deciding on the fate of the failed asylum seekers. But Im happy to note the new government has seen the situation as it is; that things havent changed at all on the ground, the ROHR founder said.
Thousands of Zimbabweans have sought political asylum in the UK citing political violence. Home Office figures show that 24,085 asylum applications were received from Zimbabwe between 1999 and 2008. The UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in October last year ruled that it was not safe to return failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe.
Post published in: Cricket