Here are some points to ponder:
The Kiwis are consulting the aussies and the poms on this isuue. What precludes th othe full ICC members from rendering intelligent comment on the Zimbabwe question: the fact that they are not as fair-skinned as the aforemention three, that they reside on the wrong side of the economic tracks, or is it that by and large they are in the camp described by Adam Parore as "countries involved in it are unsafe, involved in terrorism, harbouring terrorism, or have civil wars going on."
If the Kiwis honestly believe that threatening to yank the test status of Bobby's cricketers is going to be a deterrent, they are a tad naive. This call for a mass enrollment of the New Zealand foriegn office in the Kennedy school of Government. While the foreign policy of the US may have been highjacked the Rhumsfeld and the defence establishment in recent years, the east coast school still teaches the best diplomacy in the world.
Let's concede, for the sake of argument that Mugabe does care about being able to play test cricket in Christchurch. Do the Kiwis think that banning them and therefore withdrawing the ICC's meddling eyes from Mugabe's affairs would slow down, or, accelerate his own brand of social change in Zimbabwe?
|