Hussain voices concerns over Zimbabwe match
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Your support makes all the difference.Nasser Hussain gave the clearest indication yet yesterday that England's cricketers are distinctly uncomfortable about playing a World Cup match in Zimbabwe. The England captain scornfully dismissed reports that his players were divided on the issue but admitted that they were swaying one way and another from day to day.
"I saw a programme on CNN last night and after that it's very difficult to say 'we should go'. You ask yourself: 'Is it right to go or not?' That's what the boys are doing." It was a dramatic intervention by the England captain and demonstrated that he has deep forebodings about playing the game. Those feelings and almost certainly those of other cricketers around the world are bound to be passed on to the England and Wales Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council.
"Everyone says we're going," said Hussain. "But when you hear things about Zimbabwe you ask yourself some very difficult questions. That's what everyone around the world is doing, even the Zimbabwean cricketers."
Hussain, who has been assured that he will not be put in the embarrassing position of having to meet the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, said he had spoken several times to Andy Flower, Zimbabwe's leading batsman, and was trying to gather as much information as he could about what was happening in Zimbabwe, where millions of people are starving and allegations of corruption are rife. David Morgan, the chairman of the ECB, will be in Sydney today to meet any player who wishes to discuss the position.
"We're probably changing our minds from day to day," Hussain said. "But there is no split in the dressing room. We've got young lads seeing this stuff on television and asking themselves about the issue. It's nothing to do with safety."
From what Hussain said after England's one-day international against Australia it is easy to infer that cricketers from all five countries due to play in Zimbabwe are beginning to question the wisdom of it.
England, Australia, Pakistan, India, the Netherlands and Namibia are scheduled to play pool fixtures in Harare or Bulawayo, starting with England's match on 13 February. The ICC has maintained that its only concern is player safety.
But Hussain said: "Maybe we should divorce ourselves from it but this is a difficult time to be an international cricketer. We're not completely isolated from the world. We see what is going on but we have signed our contracts. Our board says we're going and world cricket's governing body says we're going and we work for them."
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