§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) when(a) he and (b) Ministers and officials in his Department first told the England Cricket Board that in the Government's view it would be better if the England cricket team should not go to Zimbabwe; [92681]
(2) on what dates and in what form, in addition to the oral statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in Westminster Hall on 17 December 2002, Official Report, column 191WH, (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have publicly expressed the Government's view that it would be best if the England cricket team should not go to Zimbabwe. [92682]
§ Mr. StrawFCO officials told representatives of the England and Wales Cricket Board in July 2002 that Ministers might find it difficult to accept that England should play in Zimbabwe, while stressing that this was a decision for the cricket authorities.
On 16 December 2002, the International Cricket Council's security mission to Zimbabwe recommended that the matches scheduled for Zimbabwe should go ahead. In a Westminster Hall debate the following day, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Mike O'Brien, said that in his personal opinion it would be better if the England team did not go to Zimbabwe.
A statement issued by the FCO on 29 December 2002 reaffirmed that while it was not for the Government to tell the cricket authorities what to do, it was the Foreign Secretary's personal view that it would be better if England did not go. Ministers have repeatedly underlined this message since then.