Musings from the Long White Cloud

One of the things that struck me while I was in New Zealand last week was comments by New Zealand’s Foreign Minister on New Zealand’s tour of Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe’s return tour later this year – from my recollections he is seeking to cancel both NZ’s tour, and finding a manner in which to prevent Zimbabwe from touring New Zealand (which I suspect would be refusing to grant the players Visa’s allowing entry to NZ – which would be against the spirit of law), and these measures taken because of the actions of Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe.

The questions begged by this is should sport become involved in politics. Sports players and fans are not politicians, but both are able to take political action, the players, by not playing, and the spectators by not showing up – both of these are political statements, and send a message. But both actions leave innocent victims, in the case of the NZ cricket tour, the Zimbabwe Cricket team who are not responsible for the government of this action, the fans robbed of seeing cricket. Though, indifference does not really sit well either, and to my conscience is perhaps the greater crime, and it would state clearly where NZ stands. [And even if they were to incur a fine for not touring, would it be worth making the point?]

But to remove idealism – what affect does sport have – that is what did the ban on Springbok tours have on the South African government, and New Zealand given the division the policy caused in 1981 in New Zealand, when NZ became two nations, one inside the stadium hoping to enjoy rugby, and the other outside the stadium, protesting a nations policies.

Thinking over it some more, it seems hypocritical for a nation on one hand to be courting a trade agreement with China, whose human rights record is not the best, and on the other lecturing Zimbabwe about its human rights record, consistency is perhaps important.

Though, let me say, I would think that a foreign minister would better serve his time if he spent more energy lobbying for political action rather than preventing a sports tour.