Evil regime rejected.

Australia will not play cricket in Zimbabwe. The Australian government has issued a ban preventing our world champion team from being used as a propaganda pawn by Robert Mugabe's evil administration.
Decades ago this country was a jewel in the crown of Africa with productive farms exporting huge quantities of food and bringing prosperity to it's citizens. Then came independence - and a change of name to Zimbabwe - and from there it was all down hill.
Robert Mugabe won leadership and surrounded himself with a pack of thugs. In an ever widening grab for power he played the race card to incite black citizens to invade white owned farms and stake claims to the land. Murder and rape became common - and the black farm workers with the knowledge to run modern agriculture were put to the sword. The productive, broad acre farms became small plots of subsistence farming - and in due course Zimbabwe became a land of famine.
To retain power Mugabe resorted to coordinated violence. Any opposition to his regime met orchestrated violence from his storm troopers and any gathering that earned his wrath could expect broken bones and extreme violent assault from clubs and metal bars.
Australian cricket authorities faced a dilemma when it came to cricket scheduled for this country. To refuse to play could involve the Australian team in a fine of $ 2 million - which would surely go to lining Mugabe's pockets. The answer was for the Australian government to declare a ban, thus avoiding this fine.
There will be criticism from some other cricket playing countries. Those countries were enthusiastic supporters of the sporting ban imposed on South Africa during the apartheid era - but then that was a white government suppressing a black majority.
Those same countries are not so enthusiastic when it comes to a black government oppressing black citizens. Maybe many have an uncomfortable feeling that their own activities would not pass well if subjected to an impartial scrutiny !