Australian Govt bans Ponting

Sydney, May 13 (UNI) In an unprecedented move, the federal government today banned the Australian cricket team from touring trouble-torn Zimbabwe for fear of giving ''an enormous propaganda boost to the Mugabe regime.'' Australian Prime Minister John Howard forwarded a letter to Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland instructing him to cancel the three-match series.

Mr Howard told the ABC this morning ''The government through the foreign minister has written to the organisation of Cricket Australia instructing that the tour not go ahead.

''We don't do this lightly, but we are convinced that for the tour to go ahead there would be an enormous propaganda boost to the Mugabe regime.'' The Prime Minister explained,''The Mugabe regime is behaving like the Gestapo towards its political opponents. The living standards in the country are probably the lowest of any in the world, you have an absolutely unbelievable rate of inflation.

''I have no doubt that if this tour goes ahead it will be an enormous boost to this grubby dictator.'' ''It's pretty obvious to me that the players and the body wanted to act in conformity with public opinion but in the end, not surprisingly, they wanted a situation where the decision was taken by the government and not the players,'' he said.

Mr Howard said it would not be proper for cricketers to take an international affairs decision.

''I don't think it's fair to leave a foreign policy decision of this magnitude on the shoulders of young sportsmen.

''It's much better, in the end, for the government to take the rap. I hope the rest of the cricketing world understands that and it would be a very good idea if the rest of the cricket world adopted the same attitude towards Mugabe's regime.

''I'm not going to stand around and allow some kind of aid and comfort be given to him by the greatest cricketing team in the world visiting his country,'' the local media reported.

Even Labor has backed the federal government's decision to ban Australia's cricketers from touring Zimbabwe.

Opposition deputy leader Julia Gillard today welcomed the move, saying a cricket tour of Zimbabwe would have been a propaganda coup for the tyrannical regime of President Mugabe.

''Yes, it is the right decision and it's got Labor's full support,'' Ms Gillard told the Nine Network.

UNI