Who'd want to play for England in this World Cup? Not me

You can see Table Mountain from the Cullinan Hotel, Cape Town, where the England players are staying for this most controversial of World Cups. But, somehow, I doubt if they will spend much time in the next 24 hours contemplating the wonders of nature. For over their heads, and over the prospects of the highest-profile sports event ever staged in Africa, hangs a dark cloud of doubt and indecision: Zimbabwe, and whether they should play there.

You can see Table Mountain from the Cullinan Hotel, Cape Town, where the England players are staying for this most controversial of World Cups. But, somehow, I doubt if they will spend much time in the next 24 hours contemplating the wonders of nature. For over their heads, and over the prospects of the highest-profile sports event ever staged in Africa, hangs a dark cloud of doubt and indecision: Zimbabwe, and whether they should play there.

There have been many occasions since I played my last game of cricket for England when I have enviously watched the team go about their business. But on the eve of the World Cup, I am quite content to be where I am. My room overlooks the hotel in which the England team are staying and I am not at all jealous. This has nothing to do with the security that has turned the players' two hotels into fortresses, with wire fencing, armed guards, metal detectors and X-ray machines. It is because the Zimbabwe question has been through all the appeals mills it can and now rests with the players themselves. They promise to deliver their verdict today on whether they will travel to Robert Mugabe's troubled land.

I am glad not to be in their position right now, which is a bizarre thing to write of a tournament that, in the ordinary way, would promise so much. After an opening ceremony last night in Cape Town whose spectacular safari and ocean scenes involved more than 4,500 volunteers, there follows a six-week festival with 14 nations playing 54 matches over six weeks, climaxing in the final on 23 March.

But until the Zimbabwe issue is settled, there will be little to celebrate here. Yesterday, the reluctance of many in the England, Australian and New Zealand camps to play provoked the unusual spectacle of the president of a host country condemning three of the teams on the eve of the event. President Thabo Mbeki said no country had imposed sports sanctions on Zimbabwe and that only last year Zimbabwean athletes took part in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester without any incident or calls for Zimbabwe's exclusion. "Britain, Australia and New Zealand, whose athletes competed in these games, did not call for the exclusion of Zimbabwe," he said. "And yet, now that we have a tournament held in Africa, an attempt is made to impose a sports boycott against Zimbabwe. Apart from anything else, this raises serious questions about issues of double standards."

As to what the England team are thinking and saying, only those of us who have been part of such a squad can imagine, for there was a strange, if understandable, silence, where normally would be the ritual chirruping for notebook and camera from sportsmen before a major event. The players will be confused, emotional, lonely and tired. Runs, wickets and World Cup glory will be the last thing on their minds.

They will be looking for someone to point them in the right direction because there is too much going on and too much to take in to think rationally.

There will be meeting after meeting which they have to attend. These will be dominated by the senior players and stronger characters who will let their feelings be known. The youngsters tend to say very little. All they are hoping is it ends quickly and that the decision taken proves to be the right one.

At the end of these gatherings the players head off in different directions. After five minutes in their room, with minds racing, the phone will start ringing. This will be a teammate inviting you round to talk something through. Before you know it there are three or four little groups doing exactly the same thing because what seemed right 20 minutes ago is wrong now.

Ignore a sportsman when he says he does not read the papers or listen to what people say on television. He does. Players know exactly what is going on and what people think of them. In every phone call home Nasser Hussain or Michael Vaughan will ask their wife, partner, parent or friend what the view is back in England. Rightly or wrongly, it will influence their decision because they want to get it right.

I have huge sympathy for the men now making their decision behind closed doors. Playing cricket for your country was not meant to be like this. The one good thing is that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has belatedly come on to their side. The board will find it hard to force the players to travel only days after questioning security in Harare. If the ECB attempts to do so, Hussain's squad would have every right to question its motives. And on everyone's mind is the fact that the ECB could be asked to pay a huge compensation bill for failing to fulfil its contractual obligations in the tournament.

There are sure to be problems between countries at the end of the World Cup too. Tit-for-tat reprisals are inevitable and could result in Zimbabwe refusing to tour England next summer. If this were to happen, a split in the ICC could not be ruled out and this would no doubt be along lines of colour. Conversations with Alec Stewart, the England wicketkeeper, reveal that this is something the players are very much aware of.

For the average South African cricket fan, the moral dilemma of the England players is not something that attracts great sympathy. One, Andy Walker of Johannesburg, said: "Everyone here is looking forward to the tournament; they are sick of the politics. If England want to forfeit a match, fine; but we want to get on with the cricket." How liberating it must be to see things so simply.