OMEN
02-23-2009, 04:36 PM
Prime Minister John Key is prepared to intervene if needed to stop the Black Caps touring Zimbabwe.
The New Zealand cricket team are scheduled to play three one one-day internationals in the strife-torn African nation in July under the International Cricket Council's (ICC) future tours programme.
The only way New Zealand Cricket (NZC) can avoid ICC sanctions is if Mr Key orders the team not to tour.
Zimbabwe's new sports minister, David Coltart, on Thursday said Black Caps were obliged to tour and asked New Zealand to give the coalition government a chance.
Mr Key has previously stated his reluctance for the team to go and repeated that today on TV One's Breakfast programme saying there were genuine security risks and health risks for the players.
Asked if he was prepared to step in Mr Key said; "potentially, yes".
"There are some options that I am working through at the moment."
Political repression continues in Zimbabwe and President Robert Mugabe, who ran his country's economy into the ground, remains in power albeit now in coalition with Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his party.
After nearly 30 years of one party rule by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed, with a widening cholera epidemic and spiralling prices.
Last year, official inflation based on the tumbling local Zimbabwe dollar was given at 231 million percent but the state statistics office is no longer able to calculate the inflation rate because of acute shortages of gasoline, food and most goods.
-NZPA
The New Zealand cricket team are scheduled to play three one one-day internationals in the strife-torn African nation in July under the International Cricket Council's (ICC) future tours programme.
The only way New Zealand Cricket (NZC) can avoid ICC sanctions is if Mr Key orders the team not to tour.
Zimbabwe's new sports minister, David Coltart, on Thursday said Black Caps were obliged to tour and asked New Zealand to give the coalition government a chance.
Mr Key has previously stated his reluctance for the team to go and repeated that today on TV One's Breakfast programme saying there were genuine security risks and health risks for the players.
Asked if he was prepared to step in Mr Key said; "potentially, yes".
"There are some options that I am working through at the moment."
Political repression continues in Zimbabwe and President Robert Mugabe, who ran his country's economy into the ground, remains in power albeit now in coalition with Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his party.
After nearly 30 years of one party rule by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed, with a widening cholera epidemic and spiralling prices.
Last year, official inflation based on the tumbling local Zimbabwe dollar was given at 231 million percent but the state statistics office is no longer able to calculate the inflation rate because of acute shortages of gasoline, food and most goods.
-NZPA