Anger over ministers' 'late' request

Opposition parties and a former Labour Sports Minister criticised the Government yesterday for objecting so late in the day to the England team playing in Zimbabwe. While the Government claimed that the England and Wales Cricket Board had been told in July of its unease, the ECB insisted it had been made aware of this only last month.

Tim Lamb, the chief executive of the ECB, said: "I think we've been put in a very difficult situation. Only at the 59th minute of the 11th hour have they told us what their view is on this. At no stage until mid-December did the Government make clear that they were disapproving of our playing in this match. We have signed legal contracts.

"This has now left us in a total 'no-win' situation. If they had expressed their views earlier, perhaps this situation could have been avoided."

However, Robin Cook, the Commons leader, insisted: "As far back as early July, the England and Wales Cricket Board was advised the Government would not wish the team to go to Zimbabwe.

"I also think it is rather unreasonable of the ECB to pretend it has only noticed in the last few weeks that there is a problem in Zimbabwe. We could not have been clearer about the Government's position on this – that the cricket team should not go, that it would be wrong for them to go."

Lamb countered: "I have to say that I am astonished that Robin Cook and Tessa Jowell [the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport] are trying to make it clear that they let us know the unequivocal view of ministers as far back as 5 July.

"In a record of that meeting, which I have only seen today, it says that 'Her Majesty's Government might find it difficult to accept that an England team should play cricket in Zimbabwe', but it goes on to say that 'Foreign Office officials had not consulted ministers'. So if ministers had not been consulted then, how can they give their unequivocal view that we should not go to Zimbabwe? It is complete humbug."

Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative party leader, said: "The Government is in a complete mess over this. Tessa Jowell is simply not telling the truth when she says it was made clear to the ECB the Government's policy on this." He backed the ECB demand for compensation, as did the Liberal Democrats' sports spokesman, Nick Harvey, who said: "If the Government wish to persuade the ECB to stay away from Zimbabwe, then compensation for breaking contractual obligations should be paid to the ECB."

There was even dissent in Labour's own ranks when Kate Hoey, the former Sports Minister and the Labour MP for Vauxhall, said: "If Government had said to them [the ECB] behind the scenes very firmly a few months ago, as apparently they were supposed to do, 'we don't want you to go and we think it's wrong', then I am sure we would have been having this debate six months or four months ago, which is when it should have been happening."