MCC contemplating Zimbabwe tour

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is planning to send a team to play in Zimbabwe next year, if a fact-finding mission to the troubled African country comes back with a positive report.

MCC's world cricket committee, chaired by former England captain Tony Lewis and featuring fellow former Test skippers in Steve Waugh and Rahul Dravid is keen to see whether Zimbabwe is ready to return to Test cricket.

During a two-day meeting at MCC's Lord's headquarters, former Zimbabwe captain and current England coach Andy Flower, spoke about the position of cricket in his homeland.

Concerns about the impact of Robert Mugabe's regime led Flower to quit the country at the 2003 World Cup where he and team-mate Henry Olonga staged a black armband protest to mourn the "death of democracy" in Zimbabwe.

But recent reports suggest cricket structures within the country may be on the mend although whether nations such as Britain are prepared to reverse their stance on banning entry to Zimbabwe Cricket officials linked to Mugabe remains to be seen.

"The reason for going there is we don't know what we will find, or want to find - the political situation is so fractured, as far as we can believe," Lewis told a news conference at Lord's on Friday.

"But the one person urging us to have a look is Andy Flower, and we believe greatly in his judgment - so we will go with open minds," the former Glamorgan batsman added.

"We will go through all the correct processes you would expect first; we won't blithely go to Zimbabwe and start playing games again.

"But we felt as if, unless we started to do something now, it would be too easy to let the situation freeze."

Amidst accusations of racially-motivated selections and government sponsored maladministration, Zimbabwe witnessed a player exodus and a collapse in their on-field performance which has led to their exclusion from Test cricket for the past four years.

Although it is more than 40 years since MCC, which owns Lord's, stopped running English cricket, it remains responsible for cricket's laws and likes to see itself as the 'conscience' of the game.

Lewis believes its freedom from national allegiance allows MCC the chance to test the water in Zimbabwe in a way not open to leading countries.

"It's very difficult for the established governing bodies in cricket to make that suggestion and leap," added Lewis.

"With MCC's independence and global reach, it is easier for us to go and look and find out and come back and recommend to the great decision-makers.

"We don't run cricket but we can act as 'Polyfilla', I think, in tricky situations. Unless someone says 'let's have a go', nothing will happen - and I would like to think that one day they will be back in the (Test) cricket fold.

"We may come back at the end and say 'we had a really good look, and it's not right'.

"But there is an optimum time to go, and we think it should be shortly."