aussie cricket team has a tour coming up to zimbabwe

should they go?

i hate to see sport get involved in politics, but on the other hand
zimbabwe is pretty f***ed up right now (and has been for a while)

i guess australia not going would only really hurt zimbabwean(sp?) cricket fans .. . ..

will it even be safe for the aussies to go there?

i think they've got to go, but i can't blame any of them that dont.

it's a lose/lose situation for the aussies really.

Don't go. If not for the political situation, for the fact their cricket team is complete balls and all their good players have been forced to move abroad/retire early. In some cases the ones that are still there are contractually forced to play even though they would prefer not to.

s*** no, Zimbabwe is pretty heavily f***ed up.

Sorry Zim, but no cricket for joo.

IIRC, Haydos scored his 380 against Zimbabwe. I think the political reasons are enough, but seriously, why put the team at risk when it's almost certain that they won't even make a game of it?

They would be mad to go,most of their team has been banished or fled the country. That place is far to messy, the aussies would be targets for who knows what, they might aswell go and play in iraq.

Zimbabwe are a joke and should be stripped of their test playing status (man up ICC). I think the fact that this is a direct result of political reasons means they should be boycotted by us and everyone else.

IIRC, Haydos scored his 380 against Zimbabwe. I think the political reasons are enough, but seriously, why put the team at risk when it's almost certain that they won't even make a game of it?

didn´t lara score his 400 against england? better cancel the ashes!

Zimbabwe are a joke and should be stripped of their test playing status (man up ICC). I think the fact that this is a direct result of political reasons means they should be boycotted by us and everyone else.

I thought they did lose their test status when streak et al departed for England. If they haven't I agree they should be boycotted. Why we would want to validate a country that supports genocide is beyond me.

they are a s*** country with a s*** team. don't go imo

thought they did lose their test status

I think that was just a temporary suspension - it needs to indefinite/till they get their s*** sorted.

I'm only opposed to the tour from a safety perspective.

I'd like to think that international sport should be a whole different world outside of politics. Unfortunately, the politics dicate who can, and who cannot play a sport. (Apartheid anyone?)

If aus don't go they have to fork out over 3 million dollars, thats alot of dollars.

It sort of reminds me of the time no-one toured South Africa for similar reasons.

looks like the government is going to sort it out for the boys by banning them from going

probably not the worst thing that could happen

banned

zimbabwe is screwed... see what happens when the US don't get involved.

Somalia is just as screwed and the US got involved there.

That said though my mate is renting a room to a white guy from Zimbabwe, he and his family pretty much lost everything the day Mugabe took power. Bunch of dudes with machetes came up to his farm and basically said "this is ours now f*** off". Interesting story cause they then had to escape through South Africa to get here.

I don't understand why they have to go or cop a fine, didn't South Africa get banned from competing in cricket for ages? Why doesn't the international cricket body ban Zimbabwe?

take the politics out of sport imo

better take the money out of it too then

see what happens when the US don't get involved.

Comment of the year

hahaha and the bite of the year

they should tour

i don't understand downer et al's position of "oh touring would give a huge boost to a big dictator etc etc"

after the tour mugabe'll still be the racist head of a s***house poverty-nation with a legion of people who want to bust a cap in his arse

It won't be a victory to most, but it would be a propaganda victory for him in his own country, being able to say (lies) like "see the Australians support me".

It's lose lose, the reasons the ICB/ICC don't want to suspend zimbabwe is because they want more countries playing to take away the huge power india/pakistan/sri lanka hold with the financial weight.

The cricket community really does need to start standing up and making tough decisions instead of reasons to make an excuse valid. Banning on drugs should be done by a international commitee, not left up to each country, those sort of things need to be dealt with very quickly.

And the scheduling of games needs to be done alot more fairly to avoid summers like 08 for Australia.

Theres many more, but as a whole, the ICB/ICC are now just becoming a spineless useless organisation for fat old men to get fatter and older.

I vote we just ban cricket full stop. It's about as sporty as chess.

u idiot

nah, f*** no. zims are worse than saffas! :P