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Abstract
The issue of whether England should play cricket in, and with, Zimbabwe has dogged both cricket's governing international body and the administrators of the English and Welsh domestic game since the start of the millennium. In seeking to explain and contextualize this ongoing crisis (with particular reference to the period between 2002 and 2005), this essay will consider cricketing relationships in terms of how commercial imperatives are reconciled with principles of morality, ethics and the upholding of fundamental human rights. As governmental authority declines in comparison to that of a small number of multi-national conglomerates, the development of cricket appears to be driven by the ever-more powerful forces of commodification in preference to anxieties regarding morality.
Notes
1 The England and Wales Cricket Board controversially uses the abbreviation ECB and hence omits the W for Wales from its official acronym.
2 Berry notes in ‘A Real Eye Opener’ that three fifths of the top positions within the ICC are in Asian hands and that two fifths of the full membership are Asian.
3 CitationCalder and Dain, ‘Not Cricket? Ethics, Rhetoric and Sporting Boycotts’, 96.
4 CitationMajumdar and Mangan, Cricketing Cultures in Conflict: World Cup 2003, 2–5.
5 CitationGemmell, The Politics of South African Cricket, 20–1.
6 Simon Barnes, ‘Truth and the Latest Casualty as the ICC Bends to Mugabe’, The Times, December 20, 2002.
7 CitationGupta, ‘The Globalization of Cricket: The Rise of the Non-West’, 257.
8 CitationHaigh, Gideon. The Mandarins. The New Ball Vol 6, 2001 p. 16.
9 Only representatives of three white member states, plus Bermuda and the United States, were in this delegation.
10 David Morgan, Chairperson of the ECB, interview by author, February 21, 2006.
11 Haigh, The Mandarins. The New Ball, 20.
12 CitationAbbasi, ‘Cricket's New Order’. http://content.cricinfo.com/i/content/story/234092.html.
13 CitationBeckles, Development of West Indies Cricket: Volume 2, The Age of Globalization, 21–2.
14 CitationAllison, Taking Sport Seriously, 77–8.
15 Allison, Taking Sport Seriously, 78.
16 See CitationBairner, ‘Sport and the Nation in the Global Era’.
17 CitationRowe, ‘Sport and the Repudiation of the Global’, 287.
18 Ibid., 292.
19 CitationMarqusee, ‘For the Love of the Game’, 21.
20 David Morgan, Chairperson of the ECB, interview by author, February 21, 2006.
21 Malcolm Grey, ‘Government Criticism – What is the Big Concern’, The Guardian, December 12, 2002.
22 Calder and Dain, ‘Not Cricket? Ethics, Rhetoric and Sporting Boycotts’, 97.
23 CitationChesterfield, ‘Zimbabwe Cricket: A Challenge almost Won.’ Cricketing Cultures in Conflict: World Cup 2003, 131.
24 Andy Flower, former Captain of Zimbabwe, interview by author, October 20, 2005.
25 ECB Press Release, January 14, 2003.
26 Malcolm Speed, ‘Lamb Recognition of no Support. Power Structures and the role of the ICC’, The Guardian, November 16, 2002.
27 Ibid.
28 ECB Press Release, January 14, 2003.
29 Majumdar and Mangan, Cricketing Cultures in Conflict, 240.
30 David Morgan, Chairperson of the ECB, interview by author, February 21, 2006.
31 Jack Straw, correspondence with ECB, January 22, 2004. This was confirmed in correspondence between the Foreign Office and the ECB. Further detail is available in the letter from the Foreign Secretary to the ECB in ECB News, January 14, 2004.
32 This was regardless of whether the comments came from Richard Caborn, Minister of Sport, Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Mike O'Brien, Foreign Office Minister, Baroness Amos, Junior Foreign Office Minister, or the Prime Minister.
33 Williamson, ‘Our Remit is Cricket’.
34 David Morgan, ECB Press Statement, November 27, 2004.
35 Andy Flower, former Captain of Zimbabwe, interview by author, October 20, 2005.
36 CitationWilson, ‘Cricket's Shame: The Inside Story’, 23.
38 Discussion amongst the England team was lengthy and sometimes heated: however, Nasser Hussein notes the greater contribution from players who arrived in South Africa, having spent the proceeding weeks in England where they immersed themselves in the detail of Zimbabwe's unfolding political crisis. CitationHussain, Playing with Fire.
39 CitationWilliamson, ‘Counting the Cost of Zimbabwe’.
40 Mike Brearley, Zimbabwe's Tour Runs Counter to the Moral Gain’. The Observer, May 25, 2003.
41 Peter Tatchell, ‘English Cricket puts Money before Morality’. The Observer, April 27, 2003.
42 Eshan Mahni, ICC Press Release, March 10, 2004.
43 Henry Olonga has articulated his beliefs on this question widely since his retirement from first class cricket, notably in The Independent on Sunday, November 28, 2004 and The Guardian, December 16, 2003.
44 ICC Press Release, March 10, 2004. Andrew Cuff, ‘MPs Attack Belated Call for Zimbabwe Cricket Ban’. The Guardian, August 22, 2005.
45 Calder and Dain, ‘Not Cricket? Ethics, Rhetoric and Sporting Boycotts’, 96.
46 CitationWilliamson, ‘Our Remit is Cricket, not Internal Politics’.
47 Steve James, former Captain of Glamorgan who also played in Zimbabwe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, interview by author, August 20, 2005.