Durban: England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman David Morgan will travel to Harare next week in an effort to save Zimbabwe's proposed tour of England later this year. Morgan will speak at a board meeting of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union just over a month after England controversially boycotted its World Cup fixture against the Africans in Harare on security grounds. Morgan, here at Kingsmead watching the World Cup semi-final between India and Kenya, told on Thursday, "I'm going to speak at a board meeting of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. The meeting will take place in Harare a week on Saturday." England's boycott could lead to the ECB losing approximately one million Pounds ($ 1.6 million) in withheld World Cup payments from the International Cricket Council (ICC), who themselves (ICC) face being sued for breach of contract by tournament sponsors and broadcasters following the lost fixture. There were also fears that the failure to play the February 13 game in Harare would spark a retaliatory boycott by Zimbabwe of its post-World Cup two Test tour of England. By the ECB's own estimates that could cost it as much as 10 million Pounds ($16 million). However, Morgan said the financial penalties, if any, the ECB would face had still to decided. "These are matters for discussion, negotiation and arbitration," he insisted. Earlier this month ECB chief executive Tim Lamb made it clear English cricket would resist any attempt to collect payment for damages. "We don't feel the need to make any apologies for not going to Zimbabwe. We did not receive unequivocal assurances regarding safety from the relevant security services," he said. "We had a very strong legal case and were very disappointed the ICC refused to move the game to South Africa, and if it comes to arbitration we will defend our position. "We still don't know the financial consequences, I said all along it would be quite severe and that remains the case, but if they (ICC) try to sue us we will defend our case strongly." Copyright AFP 2001

Tags: cricket, world cup 2003, england and wales cricket board (ecb), david morgan, zimbabwe cricket union, international cricket council (icc), tim lamb.