Entered on 07 February 2003 at 8:38 a.m..
The English Cricket Team
Today I'd like to take some time and praise the English Cricket Team. Why, you may ask. Well let me just say it isn't because they are very good, it is because in the past month they have done something very rare. They have taken a stand.
Perhaps, I should give some background to this. Cricket is about to play their "world cup", which is similar to the world series of cricket. Now the first match that England plays is against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe. For those of you who don't live in a "commonwealth" country this may not mean much to you. But not unlike many african countries, Zimbabwe is ruled by a dictator, and this dictator, Robert Mugabe, has been particularly ruthless in the past 2-3 years. He has systematically given large white-owned farms to veterans of the civil war that brought him to power. This in itself is not too terrible (because the way in which the white people came to have these farms probably isn't much more legal), but the economic consequences of re-distributing land to people with no experience in large-scale commercial farming have been cripling. It has plunged the country into a famine and economic ruin. This has of course prompted the delivery of food aid, which has been distributed by Mugabe's government to Mugabe's supporters only. As for the rest of his ill deeds I won't take the time to mention them here, but if you want to know more you can go here .
Needless to say it's not been good, and no one feels particularly strong enough about it, to do much politically. Europe had imposed a travel ban on Mugabe's high-ranking officials, which might have had some impact. However the day it expired, France invited him to Paris to attend a sumit. Oh well, the West doesn't really care about africa anyway. The only people really apalled are the BBC, and they've been kicked out of the country.
Back to cricket.
So the first game is scheduled to be played there. And then the Culture Minister asks the English cricket board (the guys in charge of the English team) to not play. To which the board answered, "no we don't make political decisions we just play sport. Plus if we don't play we'll be liable for a few million pounds for breach of contract." Now this is rather typical, "I just do what I'm told to do" mentality. But just to satisfy the government the ECB went to the International Cricket Association ICA to ask for the game to be moved to South Africa (which I guess is the closest country with a decent cricket field), because if the ICA moved the game then the ECB wouldn't be in breach of their contract. Well the ICA said the same thing, "We just play cricket, we don't make any moral or political decisions."
And there things stood, until last week when the players exercised their rights and took both a moral and political stand. They publically announced they would not play in Zimbabwe. Now this was news. And subsequently they have managed to get th e ECB to change it's mind as well. So they went back to the ICA and said we don't want to play in Zimbabwe because it isn't safe. ICA board met yesterday and decided that it was safe, and effectively threw the ball back to the ECB. Now they have on chance at appeal, and the decision hasn't been made yet.
But the amazing thing about this is the power a couple of not-so-great cricket players have exercised. And how they, managed to make a sound moral judgement in the face of so much adversity. People may argue how important is cricket to a country like Zimbabwe, when so many people are starving? I don't honestly know, but at the very least this sends a message to those content with their lives in Zimbabwe that things aren't going on as business as usual. And maybe if enough little annoyances creep into their daily life, they will begin to act as they should to protect and empower their people instead of starving and terrifying them. People may also argue, well Pakistan isn't really much better than Zimbabwe. Again I cannot answer to this, but I feel it better to take a stand somewhere than to take a stand nowhere at all.