Were Andy and Henry right??

[K0nvict08]

A million and one debates later and the issue still serves as a never ending well,,some pick out the tone that someone had to say or do something..That it was a moral decision, one of integrity, a stand for what is right but some may say 'Was it right ??' when the consequences of their action's were to the detriment of the cricket in Zimbabwe and nothing more. Their famous, "mourning for democracy in Zimbabwe", protest only resulted in the politicisation of the game of cricket if not all sporting structures within the country...Birth of a militant and incompetent SRC. Their actions painted a big red dot for the sport ,,making it an official 'Enemy of the regime' so the question begs a response were they right??

[zimfan1]

That is a fantastic question but it can also be rephrased as "was it worth it?

Did it make a diffrence i would say no not really as teams still toured Zimbabwe after this protest and the only reason that Zimbabwe are not playing test cricket is because of the rebel walk out in 2004. The only team who seems to be really against touring Zimbabwe is England.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Andy Flower has later agreed that the issue could have been resolved in a better manner, be it the "death of democracy" display, of 2003, or the rebel walkout of 2004. He has said that both parties could have tried to handle things in a much more mature way, but past is past now. Hope a strong rebuilding phase is in front of us, and we become equally competitive in the not so distant future.

[eugene]

Andy Flower and Henry Olonga were right to do what they did. The Zimbabwean team could no longer pretend to ignore the disgraceful situation in their own country, particularly given how many farmers were in the side.

Hindsight has shown us that the action was rather insignificant, but that was not the fault of Andy or Henry, but more a reflection on the cricketing world. Only England, Australia, and New Zealand have objected to playing Zimbabwe.

I wonder if it would have been wiser for the protest to have taken place in Zimbabwe's last match, instead of its first. It really did cast a cloud over the whole Zimbabwean World Cup campaign.

The rebel strike is a whole other issue, I believe the players could have certainly handled that better.

[K0nvict08]

An action is rarely judged by its intentions but rather is consequent,,I do agree that for evil men to succeed all it takes is for good men to do nothing but in this case i so think it was most inappropriate...R we saying all of the major cricket playing nations have no constitutional issues that our little Zimbabwe has to serve as a yardstick as to how democracy ought to be..Who is the measure and why??? Some countries have had civil wars raging, military dictators openly in charge, terrorists blowing up so many people but yet we say nothing we can only mourn the death of democracy in our poor little Zimbabwe... Politics is never a good bed fellow for anything especially sport..Its a dirty game that results in the abuse of so many!! This is not an issue of principles nor is it an issue of integrity..Are these not the very same countries that played sports with the apartheid regime of SA in the face of international sanctions. What has changed?? Have they somehow refined their moral compassess. .Have they somehow found their voices now!! I urge u to look at Zimbabwe not as Mugabe because Mugabe is not Zimbabwe...Zimbabwe are Zimbabweans people such as Andy Flower, Henry Olonga, people like me people who want the best for their country and the game of cricket as a whole...Avoid politics at all costs,,its a dirty game that can only result in you soiling yourself and what u love!!!

[tawac]

I second you, K0nvict08, "Politics is never a good bed fellow for anything especially sport.." Its ironic isnt it. How New Zealand, England and Austrilia would choose to make a stand now when all along the had not problem the Apartheid South Africa. Politics should be left to politicians and if the Andy and Henry being free Zimbabwean citizens wanting to launch a stand the shld hv choosen a different platform like forming a political party then just maybe we wld hv seen their true political aspirations.

Cricket is a game we all love and the 'rebel' incident robbered ZImbabweans of the was turning out to be their golden period. Just imagine, with Grant, Flower, Goodwin, Streak all at their peak and youngster like Taylor, Ervine, Taibu, Chigumbura coming through that would have been a Zim team the world wld never forget. But alas that was not to be. We may as well look forward and build from here on in.

No.. Andy and Henry we not right.

[eugene]

As much as we would like to think that sport and politics dont mix, they do. England, Australia, and New Zealand did have problems with South Africa and apartheid. South Africa were largely banished from international sport. The international rugby ban was a huge blow to white South Africans.

Also, I think some people are confusing the rebel strike and the Flower/Olonga incident as being about the same grievances. Flower/Olonga were protesting against the Zimbabwean government whereas the rebels were more protesting against Zimbabwe Cricket and the treatment of Heath Streak.

Anyone thinking that sports and politics don't mix should just watch some footage of the shameful Berlin Olympics in 1936.

[maehara]

As much as we would like to think that sport and politics dont mix, they do. England, Australia, and New Zealand did have problems with South Africa and apartheid. South Africa were largely banished from international sport. The international rugby ban was a huge blow to white South Africans.

I've always said that the success of sporting sanction against South Africa was very much a special case, and that similar tactics are unlikely to ever have the same effect when used against another country. Here's why:

If you know many white South Africans, then you'll know that the stereotype of them regarding sport somewhere above religion isn't far from the truth. South Africans, not without justification, believe that they are the best in the world in cricket and rugby, there's nothing they enjoy more than proving that to the rest of the world - and so when sporting sanctions were imposed, their inability to put one over the Aussies or the English on a regular basis became a hangnail on the national psyche, and that may, just possibly, have come into play when South African whites voted for the end of apartheid (although it would have been far from the only issue that they were considering at the time).

That arrogance also meant that, even during isolation, domestic cricket & rugby continued as it normally would - one day they would be back on the world stage, and they were going to make damn sure they were ready to reclaim their #1 position when that time came.

Now, show me another country where the same might be said in any sport. Brazil or Argentina for soccer, perhaps, but that's it - and certainly not little Zimbabwe, a nation punching far above its weight in cricket and where sporting isolation by any one sport would probably spell the effective end for that sport. Also, would the leaders of the nation even remotely care about sporting sanctions? Of course not - if anything, they could do more harm than good.

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That's all by-the-by to the original question. Were Andy and Henry right? They used the only platform available to them to highlight an issue that needed to be highlighted, so in that respect they did what they felt that they had to do, and I'm not going to criticise them for it. Did that lead to the near-collapse of Zimbabwean cricket? No, I don't believe it did - for that, you need to look instead to the series of over-reactions that followed Zim's home losses to Bangladesh & the sacking of Streak as captain, and the refusal of both sides to even think of compromise until other pressures were brought to bear, which the Hunte report and the arrival of Coltart as Sports minister seems to have done.

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...and all that is now in the past. For the first time in a long while, we're going into a new season where there's genuine cause for optimism, even if there are still a few niggles that need to be sorted out to get Zim back on track and back into Test cricket. Let's not get caught up in the mistakes of the past, and see instead what can be done about preventing the same mistakes being made in the future.