da 888： Several of Australian cricket’s senior elders have given their blessings forthe team, currently fishing and playing golf as they wait for Friday’sannouncement on Zimbabwe’s future, to come home
Wisden Cricinfo staff20-May-2004
Minnows made for pay TV: Lillee© Getty Images
Several of Australian cricket’s senior elders have given their blessings forthe team, currently fishing and playing golf as they wait for Friday’sannouncement on Zimbabwe’s future, to come home.Dennis Lillee said that if the two scheduled Tests lost their officialstatus, it was pointless for the players to carry on regardless. “I’m notbeing unkind to the minnows, but the idea of promoting them was designed tofill space on pay TV,” was Lillee’s brutal assessment.He told the West Australian newspaper: “They went there on theunderstanding they were going to play Test matches. If the goalposts havemoved, what’s the point of being there?”Kim Hughes, the former Australian captain, was equally adamant that thewhole tour should be called off. “I think it’s a farce and if you’re notgood enough to play Test cricket, then you’re not good enough to playone-dayers. End of story.”Kerry O’Keeffe criticised the ICC for not acting sooner and said Australiawere wrong to proceed with the tour in the first place. “I don’t think weshould have gone,” he said. “Even at the time, the circumstances looked verypoor. For years, a lot of former players have put the slipper into the ICCfor good reasons. Again they seem to have sat on their hands.”Meanwhile two other old Australian cricketers, Dean Jones and Bruce Yardley,are also awaiting Friday’s ICC telephone hook-up with interest. Both areintending to commentate on the series, should it go ahead, for Fox Sport.Jones said his contract with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union gave him “carteblanche” to offer his opinion about cricketing matters but forbade him fromsaying “anything about the country itself”.”We just have to be careful what we say about Mugabe,” Jones told TheAustralian newspaper. “I’ve got no big deal about it. I’m just there towatch the cricket and I don’t give a rat’s arse what he does about hiscountry.”But both Hughes and O’Keeffe said the issue ran deeper than Zimbabwefielding a substandard XI. They said Zimbabwe’s Test status should beremoved until teams are once again picked on merit, not skin colour.”It’s a wider issue than cricket,” said O’Keeffe. “The only similarity I canthink of is South Africa 30 years ago and really the only way it could besorted out was through a change of politics, a change of attitudes.”