Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has called on the Australian cricket team to play their Zimbabwe tour games in South Africa. The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) confirmed earlier this week that they would go ahead with next month's tour which involves three one-dayers and two Tests in Harare and Bulawayo, in spite of Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth. Downer said the ACB should consider the option of playing the matches in a third country such as South Africa. "It would be a good deal less controversial if they were to do that," he said.

Downer said the ACB was taking advice from his department and from the High Commission in Harare. "I am not bullying the ACB. I am not trying to force any decision on them," he said. "They must make their own decision themselves and they will do."

Downer said the government had no power to compel the ACB to call off the tour. "I have said to the ACB that it is my view that whilst this cricket tour was planned quite some time ago, I think years ago actually, it turns out that the timing of the tour is unfortunate," he told reporters. "If the tour does go ahead in Zimbabwe then it does run the risk of being interpreted by people in Zimbabwe of some form of approval of the current regime."

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