England's players are expected to announce tomorrow that they will boycott their opening World Cup match against Zimbabwe, according to the BBC. The BBC's cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew claimed tonight he had been told the players have decided to pull out of the game.
And the Sunday Telegraph also reports that the England players will refuse to play Thursday's game in Harare after receiving threats from a group called `The Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe'.
But there was no official confirmation tonight from any of the players, their representatives - the Professional Cricketers Association - or England and Wales Cricket Board officials. Those ECB officials were locked in talks with the 15-man squad throughout today over whether they were prepared to travel over the South African border to play their scheduled opening fixture.
Whatever the outcome of those talks the players will not travel to Harare tomorrow. If they can be persuaded to play the match they are likely to jet in on Tuesday night, spend Wednesday acclimatising to the altitude and move on to East London as scheduled on Friday.
During a long day of discussions, ECB chief executive Tim Lamb said the International Cricket Council had not informed them of a deadline for making clear whether they would honour the fixture or indeed travel.
Twice in the past month the 15-man squad have made it clear they believed international cricket authorities should intervene - but both the tournament technical committee and appeals commissioner Justice Albie Sachs ruled there was not sufficient risk to the security of players and officials to alter the location.
The England players cited both fears for their own safety and for that of protesting Zimbabweans should they travel to the trouble-torn African country. But security experts, including those who compiled the Kroll report - an independent risk assessment commissioned on behalf of the International Cricket Council - attempted to alleviate their concerns during talks last night.
A succession of meetings between the players, team management, PCA, ECB, ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed and the tournament security directorate head Patrick Ronan went on into the early hours of this morning.
Filed by Brendan Cole
