Myths about the Zimbabwe situation

Take a deep breath, this is going to take a while. Here is a list of the things the press has managed to get wrong so far:

“The New Zealanders just have to stump up a US$2million fine to the ICC and they don’t have to go”. You would have thought this would have been put to bed weeks ago, but most people still seem to believe it – including Don Brash. New Zealand Cricket will probably have to pay around US$30million, the money would go to Zimbabwe Cricket (patron, Mr R Mugabe) and we would also face a suspension from international cricket.

“The New Zealand government just has to ban the cricketers from touring and all fines and penalties will be lifted.” The force majeure clause in the ICC contract applies if a “serious intervening cause” takes place and this makes touring impossible, illegal or dangerous. The key bit most people appear to have overlooked is the fact that a “serious intervening cause” must take place before the clause can be used. Examples given of this include civil commotion, storm, explosion or earthquake. Making a tour illegal by means of passing a law in New Zealand is not enough to invoke the clause unless there is also a serious intervening cause in Zimbabwe that it can be pinned to.

“Martin Snedden did not raise the issue of Zimbabwe at the recent meeting of the ICC”. The matter was not raised as part of the agenda of the meeting because that had been set in concrete months ago, however Snedden did plead New Zealand’s case to representatives of each nation outside the meeting.

“Robert Mugabe’s mouth-piece, the Zimbabwe Independent, is criticising the New Zealanders for thinking of cancelling the tour and says Mugabe wouldn’t care – which means Mugabe actually is worried and that cancelling the tour will actually have an impact on him.” The Zimbabwe Independent is a strongly ANTI-Mugabe publication that is campaigning for action against his government.

“The ICC is an international body, it must have a conscience.” It doesn’t. It is just as Byzantine, corrupt and hypocritical as the FIFA or the IOC.

“Well, if it doesn’t have a conscience then the ICC must be out of step with the rest of the world by forbidding member nations from refusing to tour on human rights grounds.” The IOC, FIFA and the International Tennis Federation all have similar clauses in their member contracts.

“England still toured, and their government didn’t take any action.” The British parliament was just as full of hot air as the New Zealand government. It’s true they didn’t take any action, but then it looks like the New Zealand government won’t either. It should also be pointed out that the English tour happened before Robert Mugabe made 250,000 people homeless in the middle of winter.

“China and Pakistan are just as bad.” China and Pakistan do have authoritative and restrictive regimes, but they are not speaking the language of genocide and nor are they starting to take action which looks like the beginnings of genocide.

“The rest of the world will turn against us if we tour.” The rest of the world is either not looking or is actually opposed to the anti-tour sentiment. Representative football teams from Angola and Gabon both toured Zimbabwe recently and no-one raised an eyebrow while South Africa – who as the next door neighbour shoulders more responsibility than anyone else - is clearly indicating that New Zealand should back off. In places like India our rhetoric is seen as appalling and colonialist – when Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth an editorial in the Hindu stated this action “revealed the scandalous manner in which three countries – Britain, Australia and New Zealand – dominate and set the agenda of [the Commonwealth]” while the 12 Commonwealth members from Southern Africa released a joint statement stating that this action was evidence of our “dismissive, intolerant and rigid attitude”. It is unlikely these views will have improved.

“That thing Martin Snedden said about us losing the chance to co-host the World Cup is rot. The World Cup is six years away.” The decision on hosting rights is to be made within the next 12 months.

“New Zealand Cricket has always been weak when it comes to moral issues.” Cricinfo bought up the 1993 tour to Sri Lanka when pressure was apparently applied to players to make them stay after a bomb went off. Clearly Cricinfo has forgotten how well later troubled tours to the sub-continent were handled by the new management and how grateful the Players’ Association has been for that brave action.

“Sporting sanctions don’t work anyway.” Tell that to Nelson Mandela, who wrote that “every effort to isolate South Africa adds strength to our struggle.”

I don’t think any of this serves to support one argument over the other, but it is pretty hard to have a reasonable debate when so many people just don’t have their facts straight.