May makes last-ditch appeal to ICC

As Australia's cricketers prepare to take on Zimbabwe in the most one-sided and farcical Test series in history, the chief executive of the world players' association, Tim May, has flown to Dubai to hold last-minute talks with representatives of the ICC. His mission is to urge the game's rulers to step in and end a feud that is tearing world cricket apart.

Yesterday, the crisis in Zimbabwe escalated with the news that the ZCU had sacked the 15 white "rebel" cricketers, despite them having agreed to mediation. It is against a backdrop of increased politicisation that the Australians will be playing two Tests and three one-day internationals, against a side that was thrashed by an innings and 240 runs in the first Test against Sri Lanka last week.

"They have the power to act," said May, as the Australian squad went through their paces in Brisbane ahead of tomorrow's flight to Harare. "The ICC's strategic plan states that there is no place in the game for racism, which both sides have been accused of here. The ICC is charged with upholding these values."

May said that if the crisis continued then the ICC's Test programme - which requires all 10 Test countries to play each other - should be scrapheaped. "If this cannot be resolved the programme should be thrown out and the top six nations should play against each other ... Players don't just want words. They want action to preserve the game they love."

The mood in the Australian camp was bleak ahead of the trip, with several of the players admitting they would be reluctant tourists. None, however, has followed Stuart MacGill's lead and openly boycotted the tour. "Our players will go there with heavy hearts and a degree of reluctance, and I can understand that," said May. "These matches will go down as Test matches, but they are not Test matches."

Heath Streak, Zimbabwe's deposed captain and the most prominent of the 15 sacked players, has given his guarded support for MacGill's actions. "I've got to be careful that what I say isn't interpreted as encouraging the Australians not to come," he said, "because the ZCU could take legal action against me. I respect Stuart MacGill for the decision he's made, but I can't afford to just come out and express my opinion."

Glenn McGrath, who couldn't wish for more inauspicious circumstances in which to make his return to international cricket, spoke for the whole Australian squad when he admitted his "mixed feelings" over the trip. "It is a tough one," he said. "The way the regulations are with the ICC, I don't think we have any grounds to warrant [a boycott]. You always have hope that they will come to some sort of agreement . . . we'd prefer to play the best team available."

As for Streak, who was recently offered a chance to throw in his lot with Zimbabwe and play for Tasmania, he can but sit and await his fate, and that of his former team. "We're hoping it's a case of broken-down telephones," he said optimistically, "but they knew that we had agreed in principle to mediation.

"They say the door's open to re-negotiate employment, but it seems that they are trying to divide us. A few of us could make more money playing overseas, but we want to play Test and one-day cricket for our country."