New Zealand boycott puts fresh pressure on England

The 2003 Cricket World Cup was thrown into disarray yesterday following the decision of New Zealand to boycott their scheduled Pool B match against Kenya for reasons of safety and security.

The decision by the New Zealand Cricket Board not to play in Nairobi on 21 February came just hours after Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the International Cricket Council, turned down their original request for the fixture to be moved to a new venue in South Africa.

The decision of the ICC was based on a report supplied to the tournament organisers by Kroll, an independent risk consultancy firm, which came to the conclusion there was no credible reason for this fixture, or indeed England's against Zimbabwe on 13 February, to be relocated. Showing contempt for Kroll's findings and the ICC's intransigence, New Zealand decided to take things into their own hands.

Explaining their decision, Martin Sneddon, the chief executive of the New Zealand Cricket Board, said: "The Board has concluded that the safety and security risk for our players is too high. The information received by the ICC security delegation to Kenya made it clear there is a tangible terrorist threat in Nairobi and the board has seen nothing which changes that. Player safety is paramount. New Zealand cricket believe the ICC decision is not reasonable."

No country is more aware of the dangers of playing cricket in potentially hostile locations than New Zealand, because it was only in May 2002 that a bomb exploded outside their hotel in Karachi during their tour of Pakistan. Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, described the frenzy after the explosion as the worst two hours of his life as he and members of his squad waited for team-mates to come out of the wreckage. Fortunately nobody was injured but it explains the eagerness of the NZ Board to concur with the views of its players.

Such a stance puts enormous pressure on the England and Wales Cricket Board. Nasser Hussain's squad, who are currently preparing for the World Cup in South Africa, will now be looking for the ECB to give them similar support after publicly stating earlier this week that they want their fixture against Zimbabwe on 13 February moved from Harare. A failure to do so would cause a huge rift between the players and the board.

Unlike the NZCB, the ECB has so far failed to bring up the subject of relocating this fixture with the ICC during any of the meetings and tele-conferences which have taken place. This has been seen as a "significant disappointment" to the players, who must be hoping it is for tactical reasons that the ECB has not raised an objection. Responsibility for future decision-making will be passed on to the six-man World Cup event technical committee tomorrow and that body is who the ECB or the players will have to deal with from then on. Meanwhile, the ECB and the Professional Cricketers Association, who are representing the England players, will continue to watch events in Zimbabwe very closely.

Of yesterday's developments David Morgan, the Chairman of the ECB, said: "I think England in Zimbabwe is a very different situation to New Zealand's regarding Kenya. There are very big questions in my opinion over the security arrangements in Kenya."

Unsurprisingly New Zealand's withdrawal from the fixture has not gone down very well with the director of the World Cup tournament committee, Dr Ali Bacher, or the Kenyan organising committee, which have described it as a "slap in the face for our government and the sporting fraternity".

"We are extremely disappointed but we respect their wisdom on the decision," Bacher said. Then, explaining that New Zealand will lose the four points on offer for a win, he went on to say: "The ICC has taken a decision that any side who refuses to play in a country which in their opinion is safe will forfeit its points and the game will not be replayed, I repeat not be replayed, in South Africa."

As well as forfeiting points, New Zealand could well be asked to pay compensation to the ICC for not fulfiling their contractual obligations in this tournament. The NZCB has threatened to legally contest both these decisions.