The Australian
17 June 2010
By Malcolm Conn
ZIMBABWE sports minister David Coltart will meet Australian government representatives today with the hope of resuming cricket ties between the two countries.
It follows a meeting with Cricket Australia officials yesterday, including chairman Jack Clarke and chief executive James Sutherland, pleading Zimbabwe’s case.
“Senator Coltart briefed the chairman and chief executive on his view that cricket is starting to be restored in Zimbabwe,” a CA spokesman said. “His view is that it would be helpful if world cricket was able to engage with Zimbabwe cricket to help with the further restoration of the game in that country.”
Coltart requested that Australia resume cricket contact with Zimbabwe at under-19 and Australia A level, a proposal that CA will consider.
A human rights lawyer and long-time critic of Mugabe’s brutal regime, Coltart is now a minister in the country’s tenuous inclusive government.
His desire to have Australia help Zimbabwe cricket is at odds with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union’s pernicious behind-the-scenes campaign to oppose former prime minister John Howard’s nomination as future International Cricket Council president.