Cricinfo is saying that there are "up to seven" Australian players with doubts about touring Zimbabwe. McGrath is the only one who has declared himself positively in favour of going (claiming that "people he has talked to" in Zimbabwe are looking forward to seeing Australia there").

Both McGrath and McGill are to be applauded for making their views known at an early stage in proceedings before the selectors have met to discuss the team.

However, James Sutherland, boss of Cricket Australia, can hardly be taken seriously when he claims that touring Zimbabwe will help cricket's development as a global sport. Political interference in Zimbabwean sport is now so blatant that it cannot be ignored, and undermines the basic ethos of sport.

Edit: Adam Gilchrist is also definitely going. As was to be expected from that admirable cricketer, he has thought over the matter long and hard (and discussed it with McGill), and his decision is a moral one. See Why I'm touring Zimbabwe: We must support cricket through tough times.

Nevertheless, I disagree with his reasoning. He states, for instance:

"My World Cup experience confirmed that while acknowledging the moral issues, I did the right thing by playing, and now I again feel that I have to do the right thing by cricket."

I think the situation, both in cricket and in Zimbabwe as a whole, has deteriorated a whole lot since the World Cup.

Nevertheless, Gilchrist is one of those rare sportsmen - one you can respect as a human being as well as a sportsman.