The decision to block the tour, announced by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham in the House of Commons today in protest against alleged violence organised by supporters of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, will raise fears among senior London 2012 officials that it could trigger a boycott of the Games by African countries in four years time.

 

In a written statement, Burnham said: "The serious human rights abuses occurring in Zimbabwe and the close ties of the Zimbabwe cricket team to the Mugabe regime present exceptional circumstances that justify exceptional measures."

 

Mugabe vowed a Presidential run-off election will go ahead after his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew from the race, citing concerns about the safety of his supporters.

 

Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, pulled out of Sunday's run-off this week after 86 people were killed and 200,000 forced from their homes in what his party said is a state-sponsored campaign of violence.

 

The United States and Britain are leading international calls for the vote to be postponed, while Tsvangirai has urged the deployment of international peacekeepers in the country.

 

After the cricket tour matches against England - two five-day Tests and three one-day games -Zimbabwe was also due to take part in the World Twenty20 Cup in England next year.

 

The Government wants Zimbabwe excluded from that event too.

 

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "We want to ensure that Zimbabwe does not tour England next year.

 

"We will call for other countries to join us in banning Zimbabwe from the Twenty20 tournament.''

 

But the Government do not have any power over whether Zimbabwe will be able to compete in the London Olympics - or even if Mugabe is able to attend if he is still in power.

 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issue the invites to countries and if Mugabe is given an accrediation he will be able to attend as this acts as a visa into the Host Country.

 

Zimbabwe has competed in every Olympics since 1980, where their women’s hockey team surprisingly won the gold medal.

 

At the 2004 Games in Athens swimmer Kirsty Coventry, part of the country's 30,000-minority white population, claimed three medals, including gold in the 200 metres backstroke, receiving a heroine’s welcome upon her return to Harare.

 

Previously Rhodesia had made its Olympic debut at Amsterdam in 1928 but was prevented from competing after 1972 following Ian Smith's declaration of Rhodesia's independence from Britain.

 

The suspension was lifted following the election of Mugabe as President.

 

The IOC took the original decision in the face of mounting threats from African countries that they would boycott the Munich Olympics if they were not banned.

 

The threat that England would withdraw from a one-day tour of Zimbabwe in 2004 led to fear among officials leading London’s Olympic bid that it would alienate potential African voters and give Paris the opportunity to seize the Games.

 

In the end it needed some careful diplomacy from London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe to ensure that the subject was ultimately not a major issue.

 

Coe will be determined that an international political row will not be allowed to overshadow London in 2012.

 

He he will, therefore, have been encouraged that in the last week a number of leading countries, led by Kenya, have finally spoken out agains the Mugabe regime.

 

Coe is a revered figure within the Olympic movement partly because of his refusal to heed calls from Margaret Thatcher to boycott the 1980 Games in Moscow over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

 

He went on there to win the first of his two Olympic 1500 metre titles.

 

A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the lead Government department on the Olympics, today told insidethegames: "Ultimately it's up to the IOC to decide which countries are eligible to compete and we will honour all our committments in respect of 2012."