Lift Media Ban or Tour is Off, Says England Cricket Chief

England will call off its controversial tour of Zimbabwe unless the ban on journalists covering the match is lifted, England and Wales Cricket Board chairman David Morgan said this morning.

Mr Morgan is in Harare trying to persuade the authorities to reverse their decision to ban reporters from the match ahead of England's five-match tour, which is due to start on Friday.

The Zimbabwean government refused accreditation for 13 of the 36 British journalists from nine media organisations who had applied to cover the tour, citing political grounds. Applications by other organisations including the Guardian and Reuters have been successful.

"We certainly will not proceed with the tour unless a significant number of the 13 are accredited," Mr Morgan told BBC radio from Harare.

"In the event of some not being accredited we would need to know the reasons why before bringing the cricketers here to play cricket."

The England team plane, due to fly from Johannesburg to Zimbabwe on Wednesday, was cancelled because of the controversy.

England have asked cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council, to decide whether the media ban gives grounds for the ECB to cancel the tour.

Under the ICC's rules tours can only be cancelled on the advice of a government or because of overriding security and safety worries.

The ECB could risk a $2m (£1.06m) fine and suspension from the international game if England pull out for any other reason.

Last year England pulled out of a World Cup one-day match in Zimbabwe, citing security concerns.

The British government has expressed its "deep concern" about the media ban to a senior Zimbabwe diplomat, with the Foreign Office saying the ban was "further evidence of its [the Harare government's] refusal to allow the international and domestic media to operate freely in Zimbabwe".

Relations between Zimbabwe and Britain have been strained since President Robert Mugabe's government launched a campaign in 2000 to seize land from white farmers, including some British passport-holders, to give to landless black Zimbabweans.