Hain Backs Cricket Ban As Tourist Killed in Zimbabwe

The England and Wales Cricket Board came under renewed pressure to pull out of England's World Cup match in Zimbabwe yesterday when Peter Hain, the Welsh minister, added his voice to those calling for a boycott.

Mr Hain, who led the campaign for a sporting boycott of South Africa in the 1970s, compared Robert Mugabe's regime to Nazi Germany and said that if England fulfilled the fixture they would be granting him "a propaganda victory".

His call came as an Australian backpacker was stabbed to death at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe's prime tourist location, raising fresh security concerns for players and supporters in Australia, where there have been similar demands for a boycott.

Mr Hain said: "We [the government] don't think we should be handing Mugabe a propaganda victory any more than we should have handed Hitler in 1936 a propaganda victory that he got by staging the Berlin Olympics." Calling on England's cricketers to show "moral backbone", Mr Hain said a boycott was justified by the looming famine in Zimbabwe that threatens an estimated 5 million people.

"If international cricket does not care about this, then what are its values? What does it really stand for except the right to bat on regardless? The odious Mugabe regime would gain an enormous propaganda victory if the World Cup went ahead."

Mr Hain's intervention comes as ECB officials prepare for a crunch meeting on Thursday with Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, and Lady Amos, a Foreign Office minister. The ministers are expected to reiterate the government line that while it opposes England's participation in the match, it remains a decision for the ECB.

The board has effectively made financial compensation a condition of any boycott. It believes it could face fines of up to £1m if the game does not go ahead and will ask the government to foot the bill.

Even if the ECB does comply with the government's wishes, relations between the two will be severely damaged.

Police at Victoria Falls told Zimbabwean state radio the Australian man, who has not been named, was killed as he came out of the rainforest at the waterfall on Saturday. The Australian Cricket Board will look at the incident to establish whether it affects its World Cup match against Zimbabwe on February 24.

Political pressure has been building on the Australians to boycott the game because of human rights abuses by Mr Mugabe's regime, and the attack on a tourist will add to the uncertainty surrounding the six matches scheduled for Harare and Bulawayo.

An ACB spokesman said early this morning: "We have just become aware of this situation and will be making no comment until we have digested its implications."