Australia pull out of Zim tour

John Howard likened Zimbabwe to Germany during Hitler's reign

The Australian government has ordered the country's cricket team to scrap their September tour of Zimbabwe.

Prime Minister John Howard has been infuriated by Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe's brutal crackdown on political opponents, comparing his tactics to those of the Nazis during the Second World War.

"The Government through the foreign minister has written to the organisation of Cricket Australia instructing that the tour not go ahead," Howard said.

"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.

"The Mugabe regime is behaving like the Gestapo towards 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."

Australia captain Ricky Ponting added: "As far as this situation is concerned, I'm comfortable that the Australian government has taken the responsibility for making international affairs decisions on behalf of the country."

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said: “Given our commitment to help Zimbabwe cricket develop, we will now explore the possibility of playing the three ODIs we are due to play against Zimbabwe in September at a neutral venue outside Zimbabwe.”

Zimbabwean cricket has been in crisis in recent years.

Their national team are still recognised by the International Cricket Council despite having withdrawn from Test cricket.