Sunday, 4th February 2007 at 8:59 pm

Just not cricket

“Cricket civilises people and creates good gentlemen. I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe; I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen.” The man being quoted? One Robert Mugabe, southern Africa’s favourite regional despot, and self-professed cricket lover, who remains patron of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. But in a disintegrating country, cricket hasn’t been immune, and Sunday’s one-day international against Bangladesh brought that home all too clearly.

Cricket’s online temple is website Cricinfo, which offers live ball-by-ball coverage of every international and first-class game played on the planet. By and large, it’s a faultless service that cricket fans everywhere have come to depend on; Sunday in Harare was one of the exceptions. Interrupted, incomplete coverage was explained away with this footnote to Cricinfo’s live scoreboard:

‘We apologise for the delay in updates from this match. We have been unable to get any accreditation to send journalists to Harare Sports Club and there is no television coverage available outside Zimbabwe. We were expecting coverage inside the country but it has not materialised.’

So, media freedom in Zimbabwe has got to the stage where even Cricinfo journalists face sanctions. Cricket a civilising force that creates gentlemen? Clearly, Mr. Mugabe isn’t quite the cricket fan he likes to make out.