Culture News Blog

The government is expected to announce later this morning Zimbabwe's cricketers will not be allowed to tour England next year.

Culture secretary Andy Burnham will deliver a letter to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) at Lord's notifying it of the decision, while a written ministerial statement to the Commons will inform MPs of the move.

A Department for Culture, Media and Sport told politics.co.uk the statement was due to be handed to the House before noon.

It follows growing condemnation of the domestic political situation in Zimbabwe. Opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai has been forced to pull out of a runoff election because of violence aimed at his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters.

Yesterday the International Cricket Council's (ICC) president-elect David Morgan revealed the sport's world governing body is to consider banning Zimbabwe from the World Twenty20 tournament due in June 2009 next week.

Now it appears Zimbabwe's cricketers will be prevented from participating because of action by the UK government, which has in the past stopped short of mixing politics with sport when it comes to Mr Mugabe's regime.

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