zimcricketnews.com

I was wondering only a few days ago how long it would be between last week's ICC wranglings and the next calls for a cricketing boycott. Ignoring the ongoing rumblings over the ICC's "fudge", the focus is now moving to the scheduled visit of New Zealand in July 2009 - already there's pressure on New Zealand Cricket to withdraw from the tour. As this is a Future Tours Programme tour, NZC would face ICC fines if they withdrew without Government instruction, but so far NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark has restricted herself to calling on NZC to consider their position. The last scheduled tour between the two countries was called off after the NZ Government indicated they would refuse visas to the Zimbabwe side - with this tour due to take place in Zimbabwe, they would need to find another way of preventing the tour.

New Zealand have been through all this before, of course, with their 2005 tour of Zimbabwe - NZC indicated then that it was not up to them to take political decisions - NZC Chief Executive Justin Vaughan is sticking to that approach, while also pointing out that the tour is still a year away, and a lot can change in that length of time:

"No ICC team has unilaterally pulled out because they haven't agreed with the politics of the host nation; that's always been a decision for the government of the day. It's a political question and requires a political solution; it's not a decision NZC should have to make.

"We are a group of cricket administrators. We might have strong feelings about the situation in Zimbabwe but judging international politics is not what we're about. There are other, far more qualified people to do that job, politicians for example.

"The tour to Zimbabwe is a year away. There'll be another ICC conference before then; undoubtedly, a lot will change in Zimbabwe in the next year, and by that time the ICC sub-committee appointed to investigate ZC will have reported back, and we'll have a clearer idea of the situation. You never know, we might not have to make a decision. Time is on our side at the moment."

You can bet the pressure on NZC won't diminish in the meantime, though. In related news, ZC Chairman Peter Chingoka has stated in a recent interview that Sri Lanka are committed to fulfilling their FTP-mandated tour to Zimbabwe in November.
CricInfo - NZ will tour Zimbabwe unless ordered not to