MDC supports cricket ban

The Zimbabwean government reacted angrily today to Australian Prime Minister John Howard's ban of the September tour of Zimbabwe, describing it as "racist" and part of a desperate attempt to isolate the country.

Junior Minister of Information Bright Matonga said: "Australia is one of the worst human rights violators in this whole world. Look what they have done to the Aborigines. Yet they have the audacity to stand up and claim to have the moral authority to condemn us."

But Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition MDC, told me exclusively this morning that he reluctantly welcomed the ban on the tour.

"As much as this may hurt cricket, one has to see the need for the regime to be pressurised out of power, for the greater