Olonga, absent from the game in his home country since 2003, told The Wisden Cricketer magazine that he has recently reconsidered his stance of urging cricket boycotts of his homeland, which began in protest over gross human rights abuses by President Robert Mugabes government.
It denied those young players the chance to play and Im not pleased about that, said Olonga in an interview with the August issue of The Wisden Cricketer magazine.
Now that change is coming, albeit in a different way than I envisaged, its only fair enough that I should reassess my position. Im sad that having made progress for 10 years we lost it all and went backwards. We lost a whole generation of players.
Olonga says he now backs the slow re-integration of Zimbabwe cricket, but adds that he is aware that certain officials the men I truly despise remain in the game at the highest level, equating the situation to that within the countrys coalition government, formed in February 2009 by Mugabe and the two MDC formations.
Young people of the country deserve better and if the coalition government is one way to ease the turmoil, strife, suffering, brutality thats happened then yes, Ill put my weight behind it. But ultimately the rot is much deeper than anything they will deal with.
As long as those leaders who have been perpetrators of all those human rights abuses are still around its just a facelift. Theyve just tightened things to make it look a little more pretty but the underlying truth exists: youre still an old granny, just with a tight face.
Olonga sang praises of his fellow protester Flower, now the England national cricket team director.
Hes a legend. Im a guy who couldnt get in the side. Im never going to be remembered for my cricket. But in spite of that, two different cricketers, different abilities, different backgrounds, different races, different world views, we were able to put our differences aside to stand up for the common good and I think theres a lesson in that.
Olonga, vilified by the Zimbabwean media after the protest, at one stage being referred to as a Kenyan mercenary, is yet to return to Zimbabwe since the World Cup protest of 2003 and says he still does not know what would happen if he did.
I just dont know what would happen. Its possible there would be no problem. But while Robert Mugabe is still the premier I think its wise for me to say I consider it unsafe.
Post published in: Cricket