Zimbabwe's benefit match

Zimbabwean cricket will have benefited from England's short tour

By the BBC's Jonathan Agnew

Even on the day the England team left for Zimbabwe, there were last-minute appeals from politicians and pressure groups that felt the trip could be used as publicity stunt, and give credence to Robert Mugabe's regime.

As someone who knows Zimbabwe pretty well - my first wife was from there - I never thought for a moment that the players' safety would be compromised. But the publicity angle did concern me.

In fact, this proved to be correct, as a large article in the government-supporting Herald newspaper confirmed.

I wandered into an ordinary-looking chemist shop in Harare in search of a toothbrush. The price was 900 Zimbabwe dollars - £11!

Seizing on a report by a cricket writer for the Daily Telegraph, who happened to mention that, with spring sunshine and the jacaranda trees in full bloom Harare was a pleasant place to be, the publicity machine declared this as evidence that there were no problems in Zimbabwe.

The journalists who had been expelled, it was alleged - including the BBC - were mischief-making.

But the columns of smoke we saw rising from farms into the clear blue sky between Bulawayo and the Matopas in the south-west of Zimbabwe suggested a different story.

Thriving black market

The US dollar is king in Zimbabwe, and you really can't do anything without either it, or pounds.

I was separated from my baggage at the start of the trip, and having exchanged some US dollars at the 'proper bank rate', I wandered into an ordinary-looking chemist shop in Harare in search of a toothbrush.

The price was 900 Zimbabwe dollars - £11! It was only then that the black market - or parallel market as it is called - was introduced to me. Even in broad daylight, we would stroll into a back room of a local restaurant, clutching our pounds. In return we were given 350 Zimbabwe dollars to the pound, nearly five times the proper rate.

Suddenly the price of my toothbrush took on a different appearance - and the best fillet steaks in town became little more than a pound, while imported South African wine was a couple of pounds

England beat Zimbabwe 5-0 in the one-day match

But what on earth do the locals do - like the taxi drivers whose meters now rotate even faster than fruit machines?

The answer is that they mutter increasingly openly and bravely about the government, and its prospects in the elections next spring.

In fact local news, and particularly politics, dominate the newspapers - which are fiercely divided in their loyalties. The Herald and the Bulawayo Chronicle support the government to the extent that the Chronicle described Mr Mugabe's approach to land reform as "internationally acclaimed".

On the other hand, the Daily News attacks the government at every opportunity and the result is that the war in Afghanistan is relegated to page 13, or thereabouts, on a typical day.

Shambolic beauty contest

In fact the editor of the Daily News felt that a ferocious account of the shambles that was the 2001 Miss Zimbabwe pageant deserved greater prominence than the American Air Strikes - mind you, presented by the cricketer Henry Olonga, it did sound an extraordinary evening.

Due to begin at 7.30, the event only started at 9 when the audience started to become restless.

Olonga's cricketing jokes didn't go down terribly well with the increasingly irate audience

A clearly relieved Olonga started to introduce the contestants when a breathless official rushed onto the stage and announced that the girls weren't ready yet.

What does Olonga do now? His repertoire of cricketing jokes didn't go down terribly well with the increasingly irate audience - which he then treated us to, of all things, a coaching clinic on fast bowling.

Finally, with all other options exhausted, he burst - unaccompanied - into song.

At last the contest began - without, our correspondent noted with a suggestion of disappointment, the swimsuit parade. Apparently there was an unsavoury incident at last year's do. However, he did report that during the show one of the girls' garments fell off.

The evening was rounded off by Zimbabwe's equivalent of Julia Morley who, at the end of her speech of thanks, invited a host of helpers onto the stage to receive a bouquet of flowers.

Yes, you guessed it - there were no flowers.

In need of TLC

It's easy to visit Zimbabwe now - especially if, like me, your experience goes back 20 years or more - and feel sad.

Harare is not now a town you can walk around anymore without a feeling of unease. But above all, the country as a whole urgently needs some TLC - some tender loving care.

At least, though, there was evidence of society's change for the better at the sporting venues we visited.

Mr Mugabe's government has been heavily criticised abroad

Not so long ago, the only black faces you would have seen in the bar of the Harare Sports Club would have been waiters, but now blacks, whites and Asians all mix quite happily, enjoying a beer, of course, and watching the cricket.

On the field, black players represented Zimbabwe not because of the crazy, short-sighted quota system that they are trying to enforce in South Africa, but because these cricketers are talented and more than capable of holding their own.

And it was the cricketers, in particular, who will have benefited the most from England's short tour and who would have suffered the most had we pulled out.

The foreign currency we brought with us for the radio and television broadcasting rights will be ploughed back into local cricket which, in a country of such grave uncertainty, will be the more secure for our visit.