ECB questions Zimbabwe tour

England's cricket team has asked the head of the International Cricket Council whether Zimbabwe's decision to bar most British media is grounds to cancel a tour, an official said on Wednesday.

England and Wales Cricket Board spokesman Andrew Walpole said on Tuesday the majority of British media organisations hoping to cover the tour, including the BBC, had been denied accreditation.

Applications by the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, The Independent, The Guardian and Reuters, however, appear to have been successful.

"The acting chief executive of the ECB, Hugh Morris, has emailed ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed and asked if the Zimbabwe government's action constitutes an acceptable reason for non-compliance with the tour," Walpole told a news conference in the Namibian capital, Windhoek.

Speed is in the Far East and so far has made no response, Walpole added.

However, ICC president Ehsan Mani told Sky Sports from Lord's in London: "I'm very concerned and very disappointed. We are trying very hard to have this decision reversed."

The England team left Windhoek for Johannesburg in South Africa earlier on Wednesday. From there, they are due to fly on to the Zimbabwean capital Harare later in the day.

ECB chairman David Morgan planned to meet Zimbabwe cricket chief Peter Chingoka "to try and put pressure on the government to have this decision overturned", Walpole said.

NO DISSENT

Players who decided not to continue with the tour would not face any sanction from the ICC, he added, although coach Duncan Fletcher said there had been no dissent among players. The team intended to continue to Harare as scheduled.

"I think it's very wrong. The media is part of our set-up as a touring team," said Zimbabwe-born Fletcher, adding the players had not formally discussed the possibility of withdrawing from the tour.

"There has been no formal discussion. It would be difficult to reach a decision with the facts that are known to us."

Under the ICC's Future Tours Programme, tours can only be cancelled on the advice of a government or because of overriding security and safety worries.

The ECB could risk a $2 million ICC fine and suspension from the international game if England pull out for any other reason.

Last year England pulled out of a World Cup one-day match in Zimbabwe, citing security concerns.

Top strike bowler Steve Harmison boycotted the tour before the squad was announced and several players, including captain Michael Vaughan, have aired reservations about travelling there.

Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial power, has campaigned for Commonwealth sanctions against Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe over his redistribution of white-owned farms to landless blacks and his 2002 re-election in a poll which international observers said was flawed.

Zimbabwe Cricket said on Wednesday it could not comment on why its government turned down applications by British media organisations to the tour.

(Additional reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa in Harare)