"I’d be deeply sceptical about whether they would be going," said Key
at his weekly news conference. "We don’t support that regime. We don’t
support what’s happening in that country, and we don’t want to give a
signal that we do." His comments came after Justin Vaughan, New Zealand Cricket’s chief
executive, sought clarification of his country’s stance on touring
Zimbabwe. Vaughan will meet with Murray McCully, the minister of
foreign affairs, sports and recreation, later this month for further
discussions.
"We’re still assessing the situation and obviously there are numerous
threads there," Vaughan said. "We’ll be looking to understand the
government’s position first and foremost, also the ICC task force are
reporting back on Zimbabwe to the ICC conference [in June]. There’s a
lot of information we need to get before we can make a decision."
New Zealand toured Zimbabwe in 2005 despite public comments from the
then prime minister Helen Clark that she did not want the trip going
ahead. She stopped short of barring the team from going, although John
Howard did ban the Australian side from travelling there in 2007, and
it is possible that this time Key would be willing to take such a
course. "That [a government ban] would certainly take any decision away
from me," Vaughan admitted.
During the ICC board meeting in Perth at the end of January, an
ICC-appointed task team presented an interim report on the state of the
game in Zimbabwe, who voluntarily stepped away from Tests in 2006. The
team was headed by Julian Hunte, the president of the West Indies
board, and included ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat.
Vaughan expected to receive an update on the ICC task force appointed
to assess the current situation of cricket in Zimbabwe, at the chief
executives’ conference in Johannesburg on February 24 and 25.
Lorgat said he expected New Zealand to tour for the good of the game in
Zimbabwe. "I would hope so because whatever exposure those players can
get to good competition would certainly enhance their development," he
told NZPA. "If [NZC] didn’t, we’d have to apply the principles that
we’ve established."