Chingoka obstacle to England playing Zim

British sports Minister Hugh Robertson has said moves to reintegrate Zimbabwe into mainstream international cricket remain impossible to achieve while ZANU PF functionary Peter Chingoka remains president of Zimbabwe Cricket.

“The problem is simple. Zimbabwe cricket is headed by a man who sits on the EU banned list and he sits on that list for good reasons. As long as he is in charge of Zimbabwe cricket it is extremely difficult for them to be fully integrated into the global cricketing community.”

“Officially government advice remains we discourage teams from playing. England will be discouraged from travelling over there and it is difficult for them to come here while their chairman remains on the banned list. It is very difficult to welcome a team here if the chairman cannot get a visa to enter this country.”

Chingoka’s inability to travel into the UK forced the International Cricket Council (ICC) to move its annual general meeting in June to Singapore and the Zimbabwe team voluntarily pulled out of the 2009 World Twenty20 once it became clear they too would not be given British visas.

But over the past six months there has been a reorganisation of cricket in Zimbabwe and this summer Andy Flower, the England coach, urged the MCC’s world cricket committee to send a fact-finding mission there.