It seems that Tim Lamb, the chief executive of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) misinterpreted what he was told on a recent factfinding trip to Zimbabwe - or perhaps he only heard what he wanted to hear. On Thursday the International Cricket Council announced that the scheduled World Cup matches in Zimbabwe would go ahead. Lamb, who was part of an ICC delegation which visited Zimbabwe last month, endorsed that decision, citing comments made by various senior Zimbabwean politicians as evidence that there was support inside the country for the tournament to proceed. "The deputy mayor of Harare and the mayor of Bulawayo, both senior members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), confirmed their support for the World Cup going ahead."

Elias Mudzuri, Harare's mayor, had a different take on what was discussed. "Everything is not OK in Zimbabwe," he said. "We have human rights abuses and people are going hungry and starving. We do not want Mugabe to be able to say that because we have World Cup matches going on the situation is fine." He added that if the players did come then they might consider donating tsome of their earnings towards famine relief.

The MDC also reacted with dismay at ICC's announcement. "By agreeing to stage the World Cup in Zimbabwe, despite the humanitarian crisis and unprecedented levels of institutionalised violence, the ICC are sending a callous message to the people of Zimbabwe," said their spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi. "Given the situation in Zimbabwe, to suggest that sport and politics must be treated separately is ludicrous; in the current context they are inter-linked.

"The ICC decision will directly assist Mugabe's efforts to disguise the horrifying reality of the crisis in Zimbabwe," said Nyathi, adding that they would now concentrate on urging individual players to "follow their consciences" and refuse to travel to Zimbabwe.

The chance of any England players choosing to stay away seems remote. "The players are aware of the serious issues in Zimbabwe," explained Richard Bevan, managing director of the Professional Cricketers' Association, "but at the end of the day, the guys are professional cricketers, they are contracted to the ECB, and if the Board says 'We're playing in Zimbabwe' the guys will be playing."

There was some support for ICC from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) – whose president happens to be Mugabe. "For us, this is a very professional approach and we are happy that professionalism has won the day over those who were trying to get emotional and to drag politics into the game," said Peter Chingoka, president of ZCU. "We are delighted for Zimbabwe and for Africa and our co-hosting is going to help the game tremendously both in this country and on the continent."

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