Britain denies Brown wants blanket ban on Zimbabw

LONDON—The government has no plans for a blanket ban on sportsmen from Zimbabwe, Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman said Tuesday, rebuffing a report from the BBC.
The spokesman said Downing Street had been “surprised” by the report suggesting that Britain was considering a ban in a bid to step up the pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. “It is not the case that the prime minister is considering a blanket ban on Zimbabwe’s sportsmen,” the spokesman said. He said it was up to the English cricket authorities to decide whether a planned tour to England by the Zimbabwe cricket team went ahead. “If they decided they want to ban Zimbabwe, we would support them,” he said. Citing “Downing Street sources”, the BBC’s Inside Sport programme said Brown was keen to take a tough stance against Mugabe and that might include banning Zimbabweans from competing on British soil.
The Zimbabwe cricket team are due to play two five-day matches and three one-day internationals next summer. Any ban would meet strong opposition from the International Cricket Council. The England and Wales Cricket Board would have to pay an estimated 225,000 pounds in compensation under ICC rules if the one-day matches were cancelled. The England and Wales Cricket Board have already held talks with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union to try to reach a financial settlement to call off the tour. There would be no penalty for scrapping the five-day games as Zimbabwe is no longer classed as a Test-playing nation. Any ban would also jeopardise England’s hosting of the ICC’s World Twenty20 tournament, a shortened version of cricket, in 2009.
The BBC said the 2012 London Olympics would not be affected by a ban because the government has signed the host city contract that guarantees entry into the country for anybody with International Olympic Committee accreditation.
A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said there were “ongoing discussions” between the government and the England and Wales Cricket Board, but no decisions had been made.—Agencies