CRICKET: Nasser Hussain last night admitted English cricket chiefs' legal wrangle with the International Cricket Council had "lifted a weight" off the players' shoulders.

Hussain admitted the 15-man squad were debating whether to go to Harare for Thursday's World Cup opener against Zimbabwe when England and Wales Cricket Board chairman David Morgan took the matter out of their hands.

The ECB chairman informed them that he believed a death threat letter sent by an individual claiming to represent a group called the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe was genuine.

Since that intervention on Sunday morning, the ECB and the ICC have been involved in a legal battle as Lord's chiefs try to avoid forfeiting the four points on offer for the match and suffering a financial penalty.

"We have had a weight lifted off our shoulders and we have left the ICC and ECB to do whatever they have done in the last couple of days and got back to playing our cricket," said Hussain.

He broke the silence in the team to flank Morgan at a press conference in Cape Town last night and told of the emotional meeting with lawyer Gerrard Tyrrell and Richard Bevan, managing director of the Professional Cricketers' Association, which Morgan broke up.

"We were discussing whether to go to Zimbabwe or not, it was a very emotional, heated meeting and there were people in tears, people trying to weigh up all the difficult decisions we had to make," said Hussain.

At that point ECB legal affairs chief Mark Roper-Drimie burst in and stopped the proceedings for Morgan to impart the news that the ECB had fresh information that the letter should be taken seriously.

The letter - which stated "come to Zimbabwe and you will go back to Britain in wooden coffins" - is now a subject of debate between the ECB and ICC. Yesterday's deadline for England to say if they would honour the fixture passed with both sides arguing over the letter's legitimacy.