ECB suspends bilateral arrangements with Zimbabwe Cricket

25 June 2008

The England and Wales Cricket Board has today announced that it is suspending all bilateral arrangements with Zimbabwe Cricket.

The ECB deplores the position in Zimbabwe and, like Cricket South Africa, finds this untenable. Therefore all bilateral arrangements are suspended with Zimbabwe Cricket with immediate effect.

The Government has written to the ECB today and has made a clear instruction that Zimbabwe’s bilateral tour scheduled under the ICC Future Tours Programme for 2009 should be cancelled.

The ECB, which has been in constructive and extensive dialogue with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for some time, welcomes the Government’s decision and share the Government’s concerns about the deteriorating situation and lack of human rights in Zimbabwe.

The ECB is now in detailed discussions to identify a replacement country to tour in the early part of the summer of 2009.