Cricket: England Team Will Not Attend State Occasions in Zimbabwe

England's reluctant one-day tourists can arrive in Zimbabwe in less than a fortnight with a clear conscience, according to their England and Wales Cricket Board chairman, despite huge condemnation of the visit.

But David Morgan, the chairman of the ECB, stressed at a Heathrow hotel yesterday before the departure for Namibia, the first leg of a three-month tour of southern Africa, that the team would not be subjected to political opportunism by Robert Mugabe's government while they are in Zimbabwe to play five one-day internationals.

Morgan said that although he could not rule out the possibility of Mugabe or his representatives attempting to make capital out of the visit, the ECB and players' representatives who visited the country recently on a safety and security audit had stressed to Zimbabwe Cricket that no player would be required to participate in any formality.

"John Carr together with Richard Bevan of the Professional Cricketers' Association made it absolutely clear while they were in Zimbabwe that the captain and players would not be involved in any state occasions," Morgan explained.

"We have a significant supplementary management team consisting of these two plus Mike Soper and myself and I will seeking advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office this week to see what our role should be if we were placed in a position where we had to meet Mugabe or any of his ministers. Michael Vaughan and his players will absolutely not be involved in any state occasions."

Morgan, a member of the executive of the International Cricket Council, made a solid if not wholly convincing stab at justifying the trip on the grounds of the damage non-compliance may do to the finances of the game in Britain. Under the current regulations, safety and security rather than moral or political issues are the only grounds for the cancellation or postponement of a tour.

Should England fail to fulfil their obligations they would face the possibility of fines such as were incurred after they failed to play a World Cup match in Harare almost two years ago, or, in the extreme - and unlikely - suspension from international cricket.