Zimbabwe to pull out of Twenty20 championships

(CNN) -- A Zimbabwean cricket delegation has recommended that its national team drop out of a high-profile international tournament next year, the sport's world governing body said Friday.

The recommendation follows a decision by the English Cricket Board last month not to allow the Zimbabwean cricket team to tour England next May, where the World Twenty20 tournament will also be held.

Zimbabwe's cricket delegation said that the British government was likely to refuse visas for the Zimbabwe cricket team to participate in the tournament, said the International Cricket Council, the sport's governing body.

"Therefore, the Zimbabwe delegation has decided to recommend to its board that the team should withdraw from that event," the council added.

The England and Wales Cricket Board banned the Zimbabwean team from touring England amid escalating violence in Zimbabwe ahead of last month's presidential runoff. South Africa's cricket board also banned the team from touring.

Twenty20 is a shorter form of cricket introduced in 2003 to attract crowds to the game. The first Twenty20 world competition was held in South Africa last year; England is hosting the second one in 2009.

World Twenty20, as the world competition is known, is different than the Cricket World Cup, which involves a form of the sport called one-day cricket. The ICC calls the Cricket World Cup "the showpiece event of the cricket calendar."

Zimbabwe Cricket Union president Peter Chingoka said: "Zimbabwe has agreed not to participate in the Twenty20 world championships in the wider interest of cricket.

"But we will continue to be a full member of the ICC and welcome any team that wants to play against us.

"We voluntarily agreed to back out of the Twenty20 Worlds because we were told we won't get visas to England. We don't want to gatecrash where we are not welcome."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the decision. He said that it "sends a powerful message to Zimbabwe that the government must change or face further isolation."

The UK has been a harsh critic of the Zimbabwe government and is a chief backer of the U.S. push for sanctions. John Sawers, the British ambassador to the United Nations, has called the situation in Zimbabwe dire.

The development comes amid continuing political violence in Zimbabwe. About 220 Zimbabweans congregated outside the U.S. Embassy in Harare Thursday, seeking refuge from election-related violence, embassy spokesman Mark Weinberg said.

President Robert Mugabe was sworn in for another term as Zimbabwe's president last month after the presidential runoff following a disputed election in March.

The runoff vote was widely derided by international leaders as a "sham" because his only opponent, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, had withdrawn from the race citing widespread violence, intimidation, and vote-rigging.

Mugabe has been Zimbabwe's only leader since independence in 1980, before which it was called Rhodesia and ruled by the UK.

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