CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday the Australian government has banned the country's cricket team from touring Zimbabwe in September because he does not want to support the regime of a "grubby dictator."
Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television that his foreign minister has written to the Cricket Australia organization, calling off the tour for the World-Cup champions.
"We don't do this lightly, but we are convinced that for the tour to go ahead, there would be an enormous propaganda boost to the Mugabe regime," he said of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
"The Mugabe regime is behaving like the Gestapo toward its political opponents. The living standards in the country are probably the lowest of any in the world, you have an absolutely unbelievable rate of inflation. I have no doubt that if this tour goes ahead, it will be an enormous boost to this grubby dictator."
Mugabe, 83, has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980. He has been criticized by the West and domestic opponents for repression, corruption, acute food shortages and gross economic mismanagement that has driven inflation above 2,000 percent -- the highest in the world. Mugabe has acknowledged that police used violent methods against opposition supporters.
Critics say Mugabe drove the agriculture-based economy into ruin since the government violently seized white-owned commercial farms in 2000 as part of a program to redistribute land to poor blacks.
On Friday, Howard called for the International Cricket Council to cancel the tour, reiterating that the three one-day matches planned would give Mugabe a moral victory. The Australian government then said it was investigating legal ways to cancel the tour without Australia incurring a $2 million fine from international cricket authorities.
Cricket Australia said it might try to play the three matches at a neutral venue.
Howard said the legal basis of the government's decision was solid.
"We do have power over people's passports," he said. "We have made our position very clear."
He said it was better for the Australian government to take the blame for the ban, and not cricket authorities.
"It's pretty obvious to me that the players and the body wanted to act in conformity with public opinion but in the end, not surprisingly, they wanted a situation where the decision was taken by the government and not the players," Howard said.
"I don't think it's fair to leave a foreign policy decision of this magnitude on the shoulders of young sportsmen. It's much better, in the end, for the government to take the rap."
The team likely would have spent less than two weeks in the country.
In August 2005, the ICC rejected a request from the British government to ban Zimbabwe as punishment for increasing human rights abuses. ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said then that the ICC's policy was that international matches proceed unless blocked by a government ban.
"We accept that the Australian government has the responsibility for making decisions about our nation's international relationships," Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said Sunday.
"Given our commitment to help Zimbabwe cricket develop, we will now explore the possibility of playing the three ODIs [one-day internationals] we are due to play against Zimbabwe in September at a neutral venue outside Zimbabwe."
On Thursday, Sutherland said that while there was "strong sentiment" against the tour, Australia remained contractually bound and obliged to tour as a full ICC member.
Australian team captain Ricky Ponting said he was "comfortable" with the government decision.
"As captain of Australia, I've never had a problem playing against international cricketers from Zimbabwe," Ponting said in a statement. "The Australian squad understands its responsibility to spread the word of cricket throughout the world."
There was no immediate Zimbabwean reaction to the ban. Calls to the Zimbabwe embassy in Canberra were not answered.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television that his foreign minister has written to the Cricket Australia organization, calling off the tour for the World-Cup champions.
"We don't do this lightly, but we are convinced that for the tour to go ahead, there would be an enormous propaganda boost to the Mugabe regime," he said of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
"The Mugabe regime is behaving like the Gestapo toward its political opponents. The living standards in the country are probably the lowest of any in the world, you have an absolutely unbelievable rate of inflation. I have no doubt that if this tour goes ahead, it will be an enormous boost to this grubby dictator."
Mugabe, 83, has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980. He has been criticized by the West and domestic opponents for repression, corruption, acute food shortages and gross economic mismanagement that has driven inflation above 2,000 percent -- the highest in the world. Mugabe has acknowledged that police used violent methods against opposition supporters.
Critics say Mugabe drove the agriculture-based economy into ruin since the government violently seized white-owned commercial farms in 2000 as part of a program to redistribute land to poor blacks.
On Friday, Howard called for the International Cricket Council to cancel the tour, reiterating that the three one-day matches planned would give Mugabe a moral victory. The Australian government then said it was investigating legal ways to cancel the tour without Australia incurring a $2 million fine from international cricket authorities.
Cricket Australia said it might try to play the three matches at a neutral venue.
Howard said the legal basis of the government's decision was solid.
"We do have power over people's passports," he said. "We have made our position very clear."
He said it was better for the Australian government to take the blame for the ban, and not cricket authorities.
"It's pretty obvious to me that the players and the body wanted to act in conformity with public opinion but in the end, not surprisingly, they wanted a situation where the decision was taken by the government and not the players," Howard said.
"I don't think it's fair to leave a foreign policy decision of this magnitude on the shoulders of young sportsmen. It's much better, in the end, for the government to take the rap."
The team likely would have spent less than two weeks in the country.
In August 2005, the ICC rejected a request from the British government to ban Zimbabwe as punishment for increasing human rights abuses. ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said then that the ICC's policy was that international matches proceed unless blocked by a government ban.
"We accept that the Australian government has the responsibility for making decisions about our nation's international relationships," Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said Sunday.
"Given our commitment to help Zimbabwe cricket develop, we will now explore the possibility of playing the three ODIs [one-day internationals] we are due to play against Zimbabwe in September at a neutral venue outside Zimbabwe."
On Thursday, Sutherland said that while there was "strong sentiment" against the tour, Australia remained contractually bound and obliged to tour as a full ICC member.
Australian team captain Ricky Ponting said he was "comfortable" with the government decision.
"As captain of Australia, I've never had a problem playing against international cricketers from Zimbabwe," Ponting said in a statement. "The Australian squad understands its responsibility to spread the word of cricket throughout the world."
There was no immediate Zimbabwean reaction to the ban. Calls to the Zimbabwe embassy in Canberra were not answered.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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