Zimbabwe cricket will suffer if Mugabe is embarrassed

It is no surprise that this summer's England-Zimbabwe series is set to be disrupted by protests from people opposing the regime of Robert Mugabe. But even though the Zimbabwe team is thousands of miles away from the restrictions of home, there is little chance that any of the players will risk being seen to support any demonstrations.

Few would try to justify the human rights record of the Mugabe government, but those who remain in the country have serious concerns that demonstrations, although well-meaning, could actually have the opposite effect to that intended.

What is clear is that Mugabe won't be toppled by protests - increasingly his aim appears to be to cling to power at all costs - but they may cause irreparable harm to Zimbabwe cricket. Should cricket embarrass the Zimbabwean government, it will be cricket that suffers.

At the weekend Andy Flower backed the principle of demonstrations, but admitted that sporting sanctions against Zimbabwe would be unlikely to make any difference. A source close to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union said that while protests might help raise international awareness of the situation, they would "do nothing to hinder a megalomaniac who will willingly destroy his country's economy and starve half the population so as to stay in power." He added: "Nothing that happens in the cricket world will shake him, but it could shake or destroy cricket in this country, and all the people involved in it.

"Much as they [demonstrators] might like to think they are expressing their hatred of Mugabe, they are far more likely to hurt those who also hate him and are already suffering enough at his hands."

On the same day that Flower's article appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, one of the leading anti-Mugabe activists, Peter Tatchell, lambasted the England & Wales Cricket Board for what he described as playing against "a team that flouts the sporting principles of open selection and fair play by requiring its players to pass a political loyalty test."

But this was dismissed as "rubbish" by the source, and he insisted that a number of players had to be seen to support Mugabe in order to keep playing. Were either the players or the ZCU to oppose him, "Mugabe would ensure that changes were made to ensure a cricket board that did support him and that would be the death of cricket in this country. The ZCU see it as a matter of survival for Zimbabwean cricket to fall in with the government and realistically they may well be right."

The degree of fear inside both the ZCU and among the Zimbabwe players was highlighted by Flower. Following his black-armband protest with Henry Olonga, few of his team-mates were prepared to discuss the issue. "We all got on fine," wrote Flower, "but their shying away from the situation mirrored the fear within the whole of the country, where nobody wants to speak up."

Another former Zimbabwe skipper, Alistair Campbell, who also quit after the 2003 World Cup, was far more critical of the current team, accusing them of being a bunch of "yes-men" and berating the captain, Heath Streak, as someone who "couldn't say a bad word about anyone". Campbell revealed that there was a clause in his contract with the ZCU banning him from any politically-motivated comments.

The England & Wales Cricket Board has tightened security in an attempt to prevent the matches themselves being disrupted, but it will be just as worried by news that its sponsors are likely to be contacted by MPs and asked to re-examine their links with the governing body.

Demonstrations off the pitch, every chance that a young and probably unhappy Zimbabwe side will be rolled over on it, and increasing financial worries dogging English cricket. All that is needed is for May to be its customary wet and cold self and the stage will be set for a depressing start to the summer.