A 10-man International Cricket Council delegation including chief executive Malcolm Speed visited Zimbabwe last month to monitor the security situation in the light of the economic and political crisis gripping the country.

"As things stand at the moment, it is the view of the delegation that there is no good reason in terms of the safety and security of the players to relocate any of the six matches planned to be played in Zimbabwe in February and March, and they should continue as scheduled," Speed told a news conference.

"In the intervening weeks, ICC and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union will continue to monitor events in Zimbabwe very carefully and if there is any significant deterioration in the perceived levels of safety in Zimbabwe this issue will be revisited immediately."

Matches in Harare and Bulawayo involving Zimbabwe, Namibia, England, India, Australia, the Netherlands and Pakistan will be staged in the sport's premier competition in February and March.

Speed confirmed there was a contingency plan if Zimbabwe became "too dangerous" - the matches would be relocated to primary hosts South Africa. The same also applies to the two matches taking place in Kenya.

"There are many problems in Zimbabwe at the moment. Our aim with the World Cup in 2003 is to try to bring a positive element to Zimbabwe, to try to bring some pleasure to those people in Zimbabwe who are interested in the cricket," Speed said.

He said 12 out of the 13 member boards of the ICC had voted in favour of the delegation's report. The Bangladesh delegate was unavailable and had not voted.

Following the ICC decision England said they would play their World Cup match against Zimbabwe in Harare.

"The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announces that in response to today's publication of the report from the ICC Safety and Security Delegation, it has decided to accept the delegation's recommendation that, as things stand at present, it would be safe and secure to play in Zimbabwe during the forthcoming ICC World Cup.

"Consequently, the England team will fulfil its commitment to play against Zimbabwe in Harare on February 13, 2003," the ECB said in a statement.

NO POLITICS

Both the ICC and the ECB said they would leave the politics of Zimbabwe to the politicians and pass comment only on the safety of players.

"As a national governing body for sport, the ECB does not consider it appropriate to make political judgements about the acceptability or otherwise of foreign governments," it said.

Britain is the African country's former colonial ruler and a fierce opponent of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme.

A junior British foreign minister suggested on Tuesday that England should not travel to Zimbabwe. But the ECB said the British government had not put any pressure on it to stay away.

"Several countries over the last nine months have placed limited sanctions against Zimbabwe ... but it's worth noting that no country has imposed sporting sanctions of any kind against Zimbabwe," Speed said.

"Sporting sanctions are not a new weapon, they have been around a long time. Politicians have had many opportunities to use them against Zimbabwe but have not done so.

"Zimbabwe is one of the 10 full member countries of ICC. The cricket community in Zimbabwe has earned the right to host these matches.

Australia have also expressed concern about playing in Zimbabwe. An Australian tour of Zimbabwe was called off in March after their government advised its citizens not to travel there because of fears over election violence.

If the Australian team decide not to play in Zimbabwe during the World Cup, they may be forced to forfeit their matches as happened to the Australians and West Indians at the 1996 World Cup when they refused to play in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.