It's now all up to Vaughan

David Lloyd|Wayne Veysey|Evening Standard

14 April 2012

The future of England's cricket tour to Zimbabwe was back in the hands of Michael Vaughan and his players this afternoon.

David Morgan, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced this morning that the trip had to go ahead after Robert Mugabe's government dramatically lifted its ban on British journalists.

But the controversial tour took another twist as it emerged that Vaughan and his squad, still holed up in their Johannesburg hotel, might need convincing all over again about the merits of the trip.

Captain Vaughan has been a reluctant tourist all along, only agreeing to make the five-match one-day series because he accepted the ECB faced a heavy fine for not sending a team to Zimbabwe.

Now even the younger members of his 14-man party, who viewed the tour as an opportunity to impress Vaughan and coach Duncan Fletcher, are confused, and in some cases, angry about being used as political pawns. John Carr, the ECB's director of cricket operations, left Morgan in Harare to meet Vaughan, Fletcher and the players in Johannesburg this afternoon.

Tomorrow's first match in Zimbabwe has been postponed, in order to give England time to travel and prepare but officials are rescheduling the fixture list and are confident the tour will be completed.

ECB spokesman Andrew Walpole confirmed that the board was "committed to playing a five-match series against Zimbabwe" and that the players had been booked on a morning flight.

But the big question now is whether Vaughan's men still have the will to tour after once again raking over all the moral reasons for steering clear of Mugabe's regime.

Morgan, who stressed the players needed time for acclimatisation and practice, praised the "superb" commitment of the team and said the requirement now is to "come to the party and play the cricket". The Zimbabwe government lifted the ban on the journalists shortly before 11am today. They blamed the delay on insufficient information provided by the journalists.

Earlier, Morgan had threatened to cancel the trip unless the 13 blocked media organisations were allowed in.

Speaking on radio early this morning, the ECB chairman said: "We certainly will not proceed with the tour unless a significant number of the 13 (journalists) are accredited."

Morgan was confident that the last obstacle to stop England pulling out of the tour had been removed after being assured by the International Cricket Council that the ECB would not be penalised for failing to fulfil their touring obligations while the media ban remained in place.

MORE ABOUT

Cricket

Johannesburg

Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwe

It's now all up to Vaughan

Read More