Des Wilson resignes

[Richard Jenkins]

Des Wilson a member of the ECB board has resigned over the England cricket team's proposed tour of Zimbabwe.

link

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=cricketNews&storyID=4965024 &section=news

[Whips_off_the_bails]

Yes, I just read this. He's unhappy with the ECB for not boycotting Zimbabwe, but he really puts the boot into the ICC (and quite rightly too):

"The fact is the ECB has been placed in an intolerable position by the ICC's inflexible and, in my view, malevolent enforcement of its international tours programme with draconian and disproportionate penalties that would devastate the English game, forcing the ECB itself into insolvency and bankrupting upto a third of the first-class counties."

The keyword here is "malevolent". I sincerely believe that the boards of some countries are deliberately using this issue to destroy English cricket, or the ECB, or both.

But Wilson also savages the ECB for not adopting his suggestion that they adopt a tour-to-rule policy and to try to change the ICC's policy so that in future it would take account of moral issues.

That sounds to me like the best compromise, given that defying the ICC and risking bankrupting the domestic game is not an option.

Although, on the other hand, I would dearly love to see the ECB resign from the ICC. As Christian Ryan argues (Why Will No One Follow McGill's Lead?), "If the ICC suspends Australia for taking a moral stand, then the ICC is not worth playing under." Replace 'Australia' with 'England' and the sentence still stands. Let's pull out, cancel all future tours and renegotiate them on a one-to-one basis.

The problem we have is that Tim Lamb is a spineless milksop and will not consider either option.

[Richard Jenkins]

"The problem we have is that Tim Lamb is a spineless milksop and will not consider either option."
Better say that's in our opinion, and not get dragged into being banned!

[R W S]

Bad news this. I had hoped he would stay and fight his case - for he was just about the most sensible person on the ECB. He can't do much from the outside. Poor timing as well. He should of kept his powder dry and waited for a more opportune time to shine a light into the dark corners of the ECB strategy.

We should go nowhere near Zim.

What does a 'tour to rule' include/exclude?

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

The rest of the ECB thinks like me, if you dont tour cricket on a professional level will cease to exist, and the the rest of the world will not bat an eyelid.

[Richard Jenkins]

Excellent article from cricinfo. well done wotb!

[darren cook]

Originally Posted by Richie Benauds Love Child

The rest of the ECB thinks like me, if you dont tour cricket on a professional level will cease to exist, and the the rest of the world will not bat an eyelid.

And if you Tour Countries when the Country is run by an evil dictator. Then we are no different to them. Mugabe is evil and needs stopping. Cricket can't do this but it can make a stand. Also not touring Zimbabwe isn't going to effect world cricket in any substantial way.

[darren cook]

I meant all teams not Touring Zimbabwe won't effect world cricket .

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

By definition, then Darren, the aussies are evil, the Sri lankans are evil and the saffers are really evil as they were the first to put pressure on and threaten to pull out of their tour after the world cup.

[Richard Jenkins]

[QUOTE=Richie Benauds Love Child]The rest of the ECB thinks like me, if you dont tour cricket on a professional level will cease to exist, and the the rest of the world will not bat an eyelid.[/quote]

I'm all for cricket tours RBLC, i think great things can be achieved through sharing sport; If we don't tour certain countries for certain reasons i feel thats a decision that can't be taken unilaterally.
Cricket on a professional level does need tours to feed it , that's what cricket boards do, organise tours.

When England refused to play in Zimbabwe during the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the decision was taken because the players feared for their safety in a country in which the rule of law had collapsed. It was the right decision for the wrong reason: they should have stayed away to protest against the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. This was what Zimbabwe's best batsman, Andy Flower, and their charismatic bowler, Henry Olonga, did when they took to the field in their first World Cup match against Namibia wearing black armbands.


It is often said that sport and politics should never mix. This is wrong. The sporting ban against South Africa was successful because it turned the weapons of the apartheid state against itself. The ruling white minority, so many of them ardent sports fans, were made to feel excluded from respectable society and that there could be no normal relations with an abnormal society. People such as Margaret Thatcher could never understand why South Africa was excluded from the family of sporting nations when the Soviet Union, Iran, China and many other tyrannies were not. Similar things are said today when the issue of England's forthcoming autumn tour of Zimbabwe is discussed.

There are strong sporting and moral arguments for England to tour Zimbabwe. Failure to do so would deprive the impecunious Zimbabwe Cricket Union of valuable television and sponsorship revenue, perhaps condemning the multiracial game there to inevitable ruin. By fulfilling the fixtures, England would avoid a heavy fine and a financially crippling international ban. A cricket tour would allow British journalists back into a country from which the BBC is banned and independent reporters have been exiled, maybe refocusing attention on the full extent of Robert Mugabe's brutal tyranny. This has seen the destruction of the independence of the media and judiciary, political opponents tortured and murdered, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change crushed and the people driven to poverty and starvation.

Now the sacking of captain Heath Streak, who was unhappy at the politicisation of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, the resignation, in support of their captain, of 14 white players, and persistent interference from Zanu officials in the running of the game mean that cricket in Zimbabwe has also begun to disintegrate. Money from tours is no longer reinvested in cricket but used for the personal benefit of a corrupt political elite. The anti-white racism now being directed at Zimbabwe's players by the ZCU, is as repugnant as apartheid. In such circumstances, and with the International Cricket Council seemingly refusing to intervene, the England and Wales Cricket Board must take a lead and cancel England's tour of Zimbabwe. And they must do so solely on moral grounds.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/a...204936,00.html




So lots of buck passing going on there then!

Tours are the raison d'être for cricket board I suppose, not politics; Leave that to the polititians.