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LONDON — The England and Wales Cricket Board on Wednesday severed all bilateral ties with Zimbabwe's cricket authorities after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted the team should be banned from entering the country.

The announcements ahead of next summer's Twenty20 World Cup here and tour matches against England echoed Cricket South Africa's imposition of sporting sanctions, following escalating violence in the African nation.

Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe has faced a growing international outcry as he tries to extend his nearly three-decade rule.

"The ECB deplores the position in Zimbabwe and, like Cricket South Africa, finds this untenable," the ECB said in a statement. "Therefore all bilateral arrangements are suspended with Zimbabwe Cricket with immediate effect ...

"(We) welcome the government's decision and share the government's concerns about the deteriorating situation and lack of human rights in Zimbabwe."

Zimbabwe's eligibility to compete in next June's Twenty20 tournament will be determined next Wednesday when the ICC executive board meet in Dubai.

ICC president-elect David Morgan welcomed Brown's intervention and said he hopes Zimbabwe will be expelled from competitions.

"I think there is every chance that it could happen, but it would be a very difficult decision," Morgan said. "I reminded myself this morning of a meeting of the executive board just a year ago when the subject of how member countries are governed was on the table.

"The executive board decided by a substantial majority politics and cricket should not mix. For matters to move forward there will have to be a change in that regard."

But if the ICC's 13 directors don't banish Zimbabwe next week, the Twenty20 World Cup could be taken away from England and given to Canada, which has been lined up as a backup venue.

"We could lose the right to host the event, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it," ECB chief executive David Collier said.

The British government hopes its emphatic and unprecedented policy will encourage a unified response from the cricket world, while stimulating more vigorous pressure from nonsporting bodies against the "despotic regime."

Brown's tough stance contrasts with his predecessor Tony Blair's position ahead of Zimbabwe's last tour of England in 2003, when his lack of direct intervention meant the trip went ahead because of the ECB's fears about a hefty financial punishment.

"We want to ensure that Zimbabwe does not tour England next year," Brown told parliament. "We will call for other countries to join us in banning Zimbabwe from the Twenty20 tournament."

The ECB has been engaged in crisis talks with the government about the situation in Zimbabwe. Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a presidential runoff against Mugabe scheduled for Friday, saying attacks on his supporters by police, soldiers and governing party militants has made a free vote impossible.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said the close ties between the Zimbabwe cricket team to the Mugabe regime justify "exceptional measures."

He wrote to the ECB on Wednesday to outline how heightening concerns about the stricken nation had forced the British government to adopt a policy of isolation.

"The Zimbabwean government has ceased to observe the principle of the rule of law: it has terrorized its own citizens, including the ruthless and violent suppression of legitimate political opposition," Burnham wrote, adding that Britain "seeks to isolate Zimbabwe internationally and bring pressure to bear on supranational institutions such as the United Nations and European Union to take yet firmer action against the despotic regime."

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