Hussain hints at England players' boycott of Zimbabwe match

Nasser Hussain gave the strongest hint yet here yesterday that the England players might take matters into their own hands and boycott next week's World Cup match against Zimbabwe in Harare.

Despite the International Cricket Council's continued insistence that Zimbabwe is safe, the 15-man England squad re-issued their plea for the 13 February fixture against the co-hosts to be moved to South Africa.

England players and their representative, the Professional Cricketers' Association managing director, Richard Bevan, will continue talking to the ICC, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

While Hussain said that the players would "wait for the procedure to take its place", he added: "If at the end of that no one has made a decision for us we will have to make the decision. We are hoping the ICC make a decision and our board help us with our decision. We have issued our statement about an urgent review and we are hoping that things are going on behind the scenes back in England and around the world."

Hussain, speaking after England's first practice session in South Africa, continued: "We want to know what people think about us. There is no point going to play a game of cricket for England in Zimbabwe if people don't want us to. We are just getting people's opinion on that and our representatives and the board are chatting daily about that and about security reasons."

The responsibility for security at matches and potential re-routing of games switched yesterday from the ICC to the tournament organisers, which could mean renewed pressure for matches to be moved. The deadline for relocating the England game in Harare is next Sunday.

England players' fears over security would not have been helped by comments yesterday from the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer. He said that the Australian High Commissioner had spent two days in Bulawayo – where Australia and Zimbabwe are due to meet on 24 February – and had reported that Zimbabwean police were likely to meet protests aggressively. Downer said: "It is our view that the International Cricket Council should move the games from Zimbabwe to more appropriate locations in Africa."

Malcolm Speed, the ICC's chief executive, yesterday rejected fears that the England players' representatives would not be allowed to see a copy of the latest report on the Zimbabwe situation by Kroll, an American firm of security experts. Speed said that on Friday this week the consultants would sit down with the ECB and England player representatives and discuss security.

"We don't want copies of these reports widely disseminating because all it does is reduce the security, but we are prepared to make these reports available with the experts in a confidential setting," Speed said.

Bevan, the England players' representative, will fly out to South Africa this week, which should at least take some of the pressure off Hussain.

"It is a delicate issue at the moment and one stupid line from me or the rest of the team might put everything in jeopardy," the England captain said yesterday. "The whole Zimbabwe question is a major issue for this team and not one of us is taking it lightly in any way."

The England players arrived at their World Cup base here on Saturday evening, having spent three nights in Sun City.

"We needed three days together just to re-group as a team," Hussain said. "The team was torn apart in Australia through injuries and we didn't know if we were coming or going at times. So it was important that we lived in each other's pockets for a few days and we are enjoying being a group again."

Of the gruelling Ashes tour, the 34-year-old, leading England into a World Cup for the first time, added: "There is no point going through tough times without coming through the other end and learning from it."