IF buck-passing were an Olympic sport, this nation would be gold medallists.

A critical debate over whether the England cricket team should play in Zimbabwe has been reduced to the various authorities telling one another: "No, it's up to you to decide".

The Government's behaviour is the shabbiest. Ministers' late scramble towards the moral high ground has only emphasised their failure to lead.

The inhumanities of Robert Mugabe's regime have not suddenly emerged. It has been committing atrocities for years.

Political opponents are evicted, beaten, murdered. Mugabe's land seizure programme has left the country in chaos with no fuel and little food. Half the population faces starvation.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned Mugabe's Zimbabwe as a pariah state back in August. Yet ministers have sat and watched as the international cricket authorities drew up plans for the English team to play there in the World Cup, handing Mugabe a potential propaganda coup.

Belatedly, Tony Blair has said that he would prefer the team did not go. It would have been far more helpful if his Government had stepped in weeks ago to pressure the cricket authorities into staging the matches elsewhere. As it is Mr Blair has yet to mention his opposition to the Zimbabwe tour directly to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

The sport's leaders have been nearly as spineless as the politicians. "I don't see it as a moral dilemma," says the chief executive of the International Cricket Council, in an astonishing admission.

The ECB says it does not take political decisions: what about moral ones?

And England cricket captain Nasser Hussain complains that the players, stuck in hotels, do not have enough knowledge to make up their own minds. But anyone who reads a paper or watches the news - whether in a hotel bedroom or at home - knows what is happening in Zimbabwe.

It is time someone demonstrated the courage and leadership to take a decision. But who will that be?

Updated: 12:31 Monday, December 30, 2002