Zimbabwe pull out of World Twenty20 voluntarily after protest

Published on Friday 4 July 2008 10:35

ZIMBABWE have been persuaded to pull out of the World Twenty-20 in England next summer, according to reports.

The International Cricket Council have been discussing the future of the country at a board meeting in Dubai after England and South Africa broke off cricketing relations last week.

However, BBC Sport say that Zimbabwe – who have the support of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – will not be suspended from international cricket.

There had been calls for the ICC to remove the African country's full member status during their series of executive meetings this week.

That would have been a controversial move and would have required at least seven of the ten full member countries to concur.

The majority of the sub-continental teams were against such a proposal and, as a result, a compromise has been reached which allows the inaugural World Twenty20 to go ahead without Zimbabwe.

Without such an agreement, the tournament would have been thrown into chaos as the British Government had made it clear cricket teams representing Robert Mugabe's country were not welcome in the UK.

An alternative venue would have had to have been found even though many arrangements had already been made and some tickets sold.

Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Peter Chingoka said today from Dubai: "We've decided to pull out in the larger interests of the game.

"We have been informed that the British government may not grant visas to our players and that situation may prevail during the Twenty20 World Cup. We don't want to be gatecrashers."

In another major decision to emerge from Dubai yesterday, the result of the controversial fourth Test between England and Pakistan at The Oval in 2006 was changed to a draw.

England had originally been declared winners after Pakistan were deemed to have forfeited the match by umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove for refusing to take the field after Pakistan had been accused of ball-tampering. The new result sees England win the series 2-0 rather than 3-0.