CRICKET: England will almost certainly not play their controversial World Cup match in Zimbabwe after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) made it clear it does not believe the game can go ahead safely.
Throughout the bruising row that has dogged the fixture, scheduled for Harare next Thursday, the ECB has maintained it would not jeopardise its players and officials.
Last night it appeared to confirm that the players would not be asked to travel, regardless of the financial or points penalties the ICC may impose.
The ECB yesterday asked the World Cup technical committee to consider shifting the match to South Africa because of the deteriorating safety and security situation in Zimbabwe, bringing the national body into line with the players, who last week called for the game to be moved. A decision on moving the game has to be made by Sunday.
If the technical committee finds against the ECB it has the right of appeal, but John Read, head of corporate affairs, said it retained the right to pull out of the match regardless of the final decision.
"We have always said that no way do we want to jeopardise the safety of the players and management," he said.
"We would rather pay the fine and concede the points. We feel we have reached that point."
A boycott will be avoided if the technical committee rules in England's favour, and Read said the ECB would present a compelling case when it meets the committee in Cape Town tomorrow.
The ECB chief executive, Tim Lamb, ECB director of legal affairs Mark Roper-Drimie and solicitor Mark Gay will fly to South Africa today to present the application.
They will present a dossier compiled in the past week from a number of sources that, according to the ECB, paints a bleak picture of safety in Harare.
"There has been a significant deterioration in the security situation in Zimbabwe in the last few days and we will be making a forceful submission to the technical committee," Read said. "Hopefully they will agree with our position."
The six-man committee, including the ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, tournament director Ali Bacher and former players Sunil Gavaskar and Michael Holding, is thought to be unlikely to find in the ECB's favour, however.
An ICC board meeting last week heard from the independent risk analysts Kroll Associates, who concurred with the World Cup security directorate's judgment that the safety of players and officials was guaranteed.
The chances of a fixture switch will not have been improved by the furious reaction of Speed and Bacher to England's strategy of asking for the game to be switched now, rather than at either of two ICC board meetings in the past fortnight.
Nasser Hussain said England's match was a special case: "This has become more than a game of cricket in Zimbabwe. It's become a huge topic, and the situation for England and England cricketers is different to any other part of the world.
"Hence it should be reviewed in a different way from everyone else.
"It's still a very delicate matter and I am sure the ICC will review it carefully.
"The ECB has just made a difficult decision; the ICC will have to make a difficult decision in the next few days - and after that so will the players."
Meanwhile the Australian players edged closer to a boycott of their own after the squad held a two-hour meeting last night to discuss their fixture against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on February 24th.
After hearing submissions from the Australian high commissioner for Zimbabwe no firm decision was taken, but the majority of the squad is firmly against travelling to the country.
The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) will now await the outcome of the technical committee's decision on England before launching its own appeal.
The ACB's chairman, James Sutherland said it would consider a "commando-style" operation, flying in and out within 36 hours.
Martin Snedden, chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, has arrived in South Africa for talks with Speed about New Zealand's decision to withdraw from their match in Kenya.
