Hain slams Zimbabwe cricket tour

As the first in a series of one-day internationals ended Mr Hain said the sport's governing body should have complied with the players' wishes.

"This tour should not have happened and the real villain of the piece is the International Cricket Board," he said.

Mr Hain said the government could have been sued if it had tried to intervene.

Referring to President Mugabe as a "murderous ruler", Mr Hain said: "I wish we could have stopped the tour, so does Tony Blair and so does Jack Straw."

He pushed for any possible opposition to Mugabe's regime and regretted England's cricketers had been "caught in the crossfire", applauding those who had refused to take part.

Anti-apartheid

Although Mr Hain was at the forefront of a campaign to prevent the South African team from touring the UK in 1970, he described the current circumstances as different.

" I wish we could have stopped the tour, so does Tony Blair and so does Jack Straw "
Peter Hain

England first one-day international

Over 20 years ago there was a more significant national and international movement against apartheid, with threats of civil disorder and boycotts of the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, he said.

Today the British taxpayer would have been liable for compensation to cricket's international organisation for cancelling the arranged tour, said Mr Hain.

According to the Commons leader this was a precedent the British Government did not want to set.