PLAYERS SHIELDED FROM PROBLEMS
By Myles Hodgson, PA Sport Cricket Correspondent, Bulawayo
England's players flew back to South Africa having been almost completely shielded from the problems in Zimbabwe during their controversial four-match one-day series.
Several days of deliberations about whether the tour should go ahead following the media accreditation dispute built up tension among the players as they flew into Harare nearly a fortnight ago.
The players were aware that 99% of British people polled about the tour were actively against England travelling to Zimbabwe because of the tyrannical regime of President Robert Mugabe and his appalling human rights record.
But, after the initial reservations, once the cricket began and it became clear that neither Mugabe or any of his government ministers would attempt to meet the team and politicise the trip - an incident which would almost certainly have caused the team to fly out on the next plane - England settled down to the tour almost like they would any other.
They were confronted with two incidents which reminded them of the sensitivity of this tour and brought home the seriousness of the situation for many in Zimbabwe and provoked further questions about the motivation for continuing with the trip.
On the opposite corner from their luxury hotel in Harare, a message that read: "England Go Home - Shame on England," was on full view and they were also greeted by three protesters holding placards supporting the imprisoned opposition MP Roy Bennett as they boarded the coach for the second one-day international at the Harare Sports Club.
The three protesters ran across the road with the placards reading: "No Justice, No Cricket, Free Roy Bennett," but were quickly moved away by security staff and police reservists and England continued onwards to the ground.
Other than those two minor incidents, however, the England party were shielded from the worst excesses of Zimbabwe - the burnt-out farms reclaimed by the war veterans supported by Mugabe, the thousands of people starving because of his land reclaim policies, the long petrol queues whenever a garage received a delivery of fuel and the vicious and terrible regime which locals are forced to endure on a daily basis.
It is not the players' fault they were shielded from such stark images and in that respect it is no different from any other tour - during last winter's tour to Bangladesh England stayed in a five-star hotel in Dhaka with palm trees around the luxurious pool area shielding guests from the shanty slums just the other side of the wall.
That is the nature of modern international tours and England, like many other international cricket teams, usually do their best to help the local community and have visited Aids centres, orphanages and hospitals on the sub-continent and in Africa in the past.
They did not do so on this tour because every comment and expression was immediately interpreted as positive backing and support for Mugabe and his regime as young batsman Ian Bell discovered when he gave bland but positive comments about the hospitality they had received in Harare during a press conference.
It is to England's credit they did not make the same mistake again but for David Morgan, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, to hail the tour as a success on and off the field is naive in the extreme.
England battered a sub-standard Zimbabwe line-up forced to make do with the best of their young talent by the walkout of 15 experienced rebel cricketers in April because of alleged racism within their selection policies.
Captain Michael Vaughan showed his disgust at the standard of opposition by bowling eight different players in the final one-day international at Bulawayo and it would be no surprise if he raises the point again during the next International Cricket Council meeting of the international captains.
Even for Morgan to claim the tour was successful away from the cricket is surprising to say the least.
This is a country that throws MPs into prison for a year's hard labour for the most minor of offences and censors the media to such an extent that Lovemore Banda, Zimbabwe Cricket's Media Relations Manager, spends the majority of his time studying political comments about Mugabe and the government rather than performing his duties with the national cricket side.
Quite simply, England should not have sent a representative side to this country no matter what sanctions were threatened by the ICC.
Zimbabwe's policies have brought widespread moral criticism throughout the world and just by being here, Vaughan's line-up has helped Mugabe and his Government become more accepted.
Asked if he would come for a Test tour if it was arranged in the near future, Vaughan was non-committal but if the ECB has learnt anything from this 10-day trip it should be never to set foot in this country again while the present regime remains.
The ECB would doubtless argue they are not politicians and their only concern is cricket, but they should perhaps have spoken to Bob, a taxi driver many of the media used during their stay in Harare, for evidence that politics and cricket are closely inter-twined in Zimbabwe.
Bob, like many of the black population in Zimbabwe, has become interested in cricket in the last year or so because of the predominantly black side they are now forced to put out because of the boycott by the 15 rebel cricketers.
He follows all the matches on television and bombarded us with questions about each game.
Asked why he did not go along to a game - even when we offered him a free ticket - Bob declined, saying: "I don't want to go to watch the cricket because that's just what Mugabe wants us to do."