ICC promises 'highest levels of security' in Zimbabwe

The International Cricket Council yesterday promised England the highest level of security when they play a World Cup tie in Zimbabwe in Harare in a fortnight's time.

The ICC chief executive, Malcolm Speed, said: "It won't be like backpackers going into countries on their own. These are cricketers who are used to the highest levels of security and that will happen.

"There are very few safe places in the world. The risk of a terrorist attack is not a sufficient reason to move the match away from Zimbabwe.

"Our advice is that it is likely there will be demonstrations in connection with the cricket. There are groups in Zimbabwe who for one reason or another are unhappy and we fully expect demonstrations but we are trying to establish the likely level of them, and how they will be dealt with if they are in or out of the grounds.

"Our security plan has detailed ways for the safety of the players because there will traffic-free zones around the grounds and it will be difficult for any demonstrations to get close. We are told that police in the ground will not be armed and, generally, police in Zimbabwe do not carry firearms."

The Zimbabwe Cricket Union's chairman, Peter Chingoka, said the decision to keep the games in Zimbabwe was a sign the matches would remain in Harare and Bulawayo for as long as decisions are centred on the issue of safety and security for the teams and officials.

He said: "The security situation in Zimbabwe has remained the same since the security visit by the ICC in November last year. Although there will be a continuation of the monitoring process on the security situation in Zimbabwe, we are confident that all the games will go ahead as scheduled and that all the boards will honour their contractual obligations to fulfil matches."

Ricky Ponting, Australia's captain, said he trusted the Australian Cricket Board to make the correct decision about whether or not his team should play in Zimbabwe.

Australia, who arrived in South Africa yesterday, are due to play in Bulawayo on 24 February. The ACB has decided to go ahead with the match having satisfied itself that security arrangements put in place by the organisers were adequate.

Ponting said: "It is not the political issue that concerns me. Player safety is the only issue as far as I'm concerned and we have no reason not to trust the ACB. They have served us well in the past, for example when they cancelled tours to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe."

Ponting did not want to discuss the issue of whether players would shake the hand of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who opponents blame for the country's problems.

The World Cup's executive director, Ali Bacher, said the situation would not arise. "There will be no shaking of politicians' hands, only at the opening ceremony. That decision was taken three months ago," he explained. The tournament's opening ceremony takes place in Cape Town on 8 February.

Heath Mills, of the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association, was not impressed with the decision to keep New Zealand's match in Kenya. He told Radio New Zealand that, considering the information he had received, he would need a lot of convincing that Nairobi was a safe place to send the players. He said: "The players will be very disappointed with this decision."

New Zealand's cricket authorities said earlier this week that a security review had found there were "active terrorist organisations" operating in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, who had the ability to launch an attack.

Mills said the players' association would now await a decision by New Zealand cricket's governing body at a board meeting today.

Kenyan authorities have dismissed their security concerns, calling them outrageous and dishonest. But New Zealand cricketers have twice been close to terror attacks in Sri Lanka and last May the team pulled out of a tour of Pakistan after a bomb exploded outside their hotel in Karachi, killing 12 people.