It's going to hit the fan - England 2009

[brmtaylor.com admin]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... 644516.ece

The African state is also set to be banned from the Twenty20 World Cup in England in 2009.

Cancelling the England vs Zimbabwe series is one thing, in fact it probably won't be a shock to anyone when that happens, but barring Zimbabwe from playing in an ICC sanctioned event.... boy oh boy, expect fireworks. I'm pretty confident the ICC will be behind Zimbabwe on this one. Will Pakistan and Kenya also be banned because of corrupt governments and human rights violations? It won't help England's cause that Zimbabwe were more than competitive in the last Twenty20, comfortably beating Australia and giving England themselves a serious run for their money.

Thankfully this is in over a years time, and there is a (slim ) chance that MDC will be voted in in the general elections, which I would expect would alleviate the situation.

So, what will happen if Zimbabwe are banned from playing in England? Could their group be placed in a neutral venue, perhaps Holland?

This will be a very interesting (and ongoing) discussion.

[Kopje]

No No No way!!!! Thats just bang out of order!! Why ban Zim from the Twenty20 World Cup? If Zim is to be banned for human rights abuse and other things, i guess other countries ought to be considered. England have no right to ban Zim, because its not the players who carried out all this.

[maehara]

Guys, it's The Sun - about as far from quality reporting as you could ever hope to get. Don't ever believe a word they print - especially when it's sourced to un-named "insiders". A quick check of the more reliable news sources in the UK turns up not one corrobarating trace of the Sun's story.

Yes, there's a chance that the UK government will refuse visas for the Zimbabwe side as Brown has a harder line on such things than Blair had, but I believe that's still the subject of behind-the-scenes wrangling. Give things time to play out before getting too worried. Personally, I'd be surprised if it happens.

[maehara]

CricInfo's take on any possible ban for Zimbabwe:

It seems unlikely that the ICC would allow a tournament to go ahead when one of its Full Members is barred from participating, and so it is possible that the event might be moved elsewhere. The financial implications for the ECB were that to happen would be far more devastating than any ICC fines.

EDIT: Gotta love the image of Gordon Brown that CricInfo have used to illustrate their report. Makes him look like a complete idiot.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

After the overwhelming success of South Africa, I bet the government will be doing some serious backtracking if there is any threat of the tournament being moved.

[Kopje]

I hope the ICC moves it to India or to the West Indies if Gordon acts like an idiot by banning the Zimmies.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I hope the ICC moves it to India or to the West Indies if Gordon acts like an idiot by banning the Zimmies.

I hope it's not moved to the West Indies. The World Cup was the most poorly organised event in the history of sport.

[maehara]

I hope it's not moved to the West Indies. The World Cup was the most poorly organised event in the history of sport.

More because the ICC had a direct role in it, that the fault of the WICB, I think. They left CSA to their own devices for the World Twenty20 (mainly as I don't think they expected it to be as popular as it was), which worked much better.

If it's going to be moved, I'd bet on the sub-continent. West Indies & SA have both just had a major tournament, Australia & New Zealand would also be likely to bar Zimbabwe at the moment.

[maehara]

The saga continues. Looks like the ICC is set to take a stand on the issue, at least.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

The saga continues. Looks like the ICC is set to take a stand on the issue, at least.