Decision day looms for England

England's hopes of having their World Cup match against Zimbabwe played at a ground in South Africa rather than Harare will be decided tomorrow by the World Cup technical committee. Originally the match was scheduled to be played today, but with the England and Wales Cricket Board making strong representations that it should be played at a different venue on the grounds of security, the ICC cancelled the fixture.

Now the ECB hope that new evidence will persuade the committee that there is some substance to the death threats received from an organisation called the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe and they cannot simply be dismissed as a hoax, as claimed by the Deputy Commissioner of South African Police, Andre Pruis.

He said that the organisation was not known to pose a serious threat and that he received several such letters himself on a personal basis. However, it was later revealed that the organisation was known to Interpol.

The ECB will be making a new legal submission with evidence that they trust will convince the technical committee to reverse its earlier decision. If they can, there is a possibility that the game can be rescheduled and so the points from the match will not be forfeited but decided on a cricket field. They would also then avoid a heavy fine for breaking their contract with the ICC.

The ECB have claimed that the security issue must be addressed, and this has received the full backing of the players, all of whom have signed a statement that will be presented to the committee.

Left-arm spinner Ashley Giles was the man chosen to finalise the statement with the ECB's head of legal affairs, Mark Roper-Drimie. He explained why.

"I held the views of a lot of the players so I got the job. It has been really tough; there have been some emotional meetings between the team, guys have spoken their minds and it has been hard for everyone. But that sort of thing does bring you together."

The problem for the players now is to concentrate their minds back on the cricket to be played rather than the possible outcome of the Zimbabwe crisis. They play what is now their first match of the tournament on Sunday in East London against a Dutch side that caused India a few problems in their match yesterday.

To help them in this aim, they have had an extensive session with sports psychologist Steve Bull, who has actually travelled with the team on previous tours. His job has been to get their attention re-focused on cricket so they go into the important matches against the Netherlands and then Namibia in the right frame of mind.

Giles appreciates the importance of this saying, "How you think determines in many ways what is going to happen. Negative thoughts have a big influence on outcomes and the more positive you are the better chance you have of succeeding.

"Whatever happens with the Zimbabwe fixture, it is not in our hands now so we are working towards beating Holland and then Namibia. We need to try and beat Holland well, we have to play our best cricket and hammer them.

"We pretty much have to win every game and if we do that we have a great chance even without the Zimbabwe points."

Having said that, the task would be made that much easier if England could play, and beat, Zimbabwe, but that opportunity now depends on the complicated legal issues that will be discussed around the conference table in Johannesburg tomorrow.

Also present will be a delegation from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union led by their impressive president, Peter Chingoka. It is possible that the New Zealand claim to play their match against Kenya scheduled for Nairobi will also come under discussion.