Flower: England right to tour Zimbabwe

Andy Flower: 'People have to stand up for what they think is right' © Getty Images

Andy Flower, the man whose black-armband protest during last year's World Cup attracted so much attention, has said that England are right to tour Zimbabwe. He explained that it would highlight the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans, whereas staying away would have achieved little.

"I don't think a lot of practical good would have come from an England boycott," Flower told the Yorkshire Post. "The only result I could see was the ECB being isolated. Financially, of course, to pull out of the tour would have created big problems over here and would have had a big effect on all levels of the game.

Flower, who is studying for his coaching certificate in Bradford, continued: "I understand perfectly why some people wanted the tour to be boycotted ... people have to stand up for what they think is right, and I don't for one minute regret my protest with Henry Olonga during last year's World Cup because we were also standing up for what we thought was right. But I don't see how England pulling out of the tour would have had much effect on the Zimbabwe government; all it would really have done is penalise England.

Flower said that only more widespread boycotts are effective. "You only have to look at what happened in South Africa to see how that can work," he explained. "Sanctions against that country had a tremendous effect because those sanctions were pretty much universal. They had a positive impact because it was all done in partnership. Had the English authorities acted in isolated fashion, it would have been easy for the Zimbabwe government to have pooh-poohed their stance. It wouldn't have carried the same weight if they'd operated alone.

Flower added that the tour would help grass-roots cricket in Zimbabwe. "People will be able to see some of the top English players at close quarters ... they will be able to watch some cricket and enjoy some reasonable quality entertainment.

"No one would pretend that the tour will be anything other than a total mismatch; Zimbabwe were not a strong international side at full-strength, let alone without many of their finest players, but at least the Zimbabwean people will be able to see some games, and that will be important to them."

But, Flower told the Yorkshire Post, the future for cricket there is not good. "It does not have a big, strong player base, unlike the vast majority of Test-playing nations, and that has a big effect on the quality of performers coming through. There are one or two good young players around, but those players have been exposed far too early to the international scene, which is extremely unfortunate. Some of those youngsters are actually the senior members of the side, which speaks for itself.

"I was surprised when Zimbabwe were given Test status initially and felt incredibly lucky to be able to play against the top countries. I really appreciated what I had. I just hope cricket in Zimbabwe will prosper once more and that things will improve across the board. We can only hope for better times."