England face protests from civil groups in Zimbabwe

Civil rights groups in Zimbabwe will hold a series of demonstrations to coincide with the staging of World Cup matches in the country next month.

Opposition groups are unhappy that Zimbabwe is being allowed to host the matches because of the human rights record of Robert Mugabe's Government. Zimbabwe is due to host six matches during the World Cup but is affected by political unrest and is threatened by famine.

Lovemore Madhuku from the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) said the protest marches were not aimed at cricket. He said: "The focus is to expose to the international community the excesses of the Zimbabwean regime. You cannot treat Zimbabwe as a venue for international gatherings because Zimbabwe cannot be classified as part of the civilised international community."

The NCA has organised several protests against government policy in recent years. Earlier this week, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed that England would travel to Zimbabwe despite pressure from the British government to boycott the fixture.

The World Cup director Ali Bacher said he will visit Zimbabwe to make sure it is safe. Bacher said that he had met the South African police to discuss the matter.

"We can expect a safe and secure Cricket World Cup in Zimbabwe during that period in February," he said. "I'm going up there within the next 10 days, just to get a feel of what the situation is."

Despite the uncertainty in Zimbabwe, Bacher said it would have no effect on the World Cup. "What's happened in Zimbabwe will not, in our view, undermine what we believe will be a wonderful event for South Africa, Africa and international cricket," he said.

The Australian government said yesterday that it had virtually given up trying to persuade the Australian team to boycott their match in Zimbabwe. Elsewhere, Kenya is battling to convince the International Cricket Council (ICC) that it is capable of handling security at its two World Cup matches. Security fears grew in November when 16 people were killed in a suicide bombing at an Israeli-owned hotel on the Kenyan coast.

Kenya's government is due to issue a formal statement reassuring Test nations that their country can take care of security for the matches against New Zealand and Sri Lanka on 21 and 24 February.