England left reeling by on-off farce

By last night, though, most of the players looked as though they had been through enough.

England and Wales Cricket Board chairman David Morgan told them to stay in Johannesburg, rather than catch their scheduled flight to Harare, but they would have been in no mood to travel anyway with the tour seemingly set for cancellation.

Now England must try to think about playing - presumably as early as tomorrow if the first match still goes ahead as planned and is not put back 24 hours.

Vaughan, Paul Collingwood, Jimmy Anderson and Ashley Giles went through all of this uncertainty during the World Cup when they were holed up in a Cape Town hotel.

But for newer England players - like Matt Prior, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and Alex Wharf - this week's events will have left them confused and maybe even disillusioned.

This morning they heard that Morgan had stated categorically the tour would be cancelled unless the journalists were allowed to make the 12-day trip. Everyone would have told them there was little chance of an aboutturn by Zimbabwe and, in all probability, most of them were mentally preparing to fly home tonight. Now a flight to Harare, rather than Heathrow, lies ahead of them. But who knows if that will be the end of this story.

The British journalists still have to be allowed through Zimbabwe immigration - and there is the whole question of whether the games themselves will pass off peacefully and without political interference.

England's cricket bosses are back where they started. Morgan has led negotiations for the banned reporters to be reinstated but, now they have been, there is no escape clause.

It will be scandalous, however, if this saga does not count against Zimbabwe in the longer term and stir the ICC into decisive action. The governing body has long followed a policy of keeping politics out of sport - even when dubiously elected politicians clearly rule the sport, as in Harare and Bulawayo.

But Mugabe's decision to meddle in a tour that was only going ahead anyway on a wing and a prayer has clearly tried, and ought to have exhausted, the ICC's patience.

ICC president Ehsan Mani has been in contact with leaders of the game worldwide to gather their views. He wanted to know how they regarded a blatant example of political interference in Zimbabwean cricket - and Morgan's unusually bold statement earlier today strongly suggests sympathy, for once, was on England's side.

Now it is up to the likes of India, South Africa and Australia to take a lead in trying to solve a problem they have been happy to ignore.

There is already a proposal on the table to make Zimbabwe play their 2005 Test matches at home because they are too weak to attract any interest abroad.

But if trips to Zimbabwe are going to result in one problem after another, why offer them even that comfort?

"This is a cause of great concern for us and it has come out of the blue," said Mani in response to questions about the banning of bone fide cricket reporters.

It is only eight years ago that English journalists were royally treated in Harare and Bulawayo during a tour that saw Zimbabwe draw two Tests against a team led by Mike Atherton.

Most of the home players then were white but talented black youngsters, like Henry Olonga and Pommie Mbangwa, were starting to break through and the future for Zimbabwean cricket looked bright.

Those times of promise are long gone, however.