Missing Zimbabwe athletes posing a mystery in Britain
London (UK):
A group of high-profile soccer players from Zimbabwe has caused a media frenzy here and in Zimbabwe by failing to return home last week after a match in northern England.
The eight members of the CAPS United and Highlanders soccer teams did not join their teammates on the return flight from London's Heathrow airport Tuesday, generating speculation that they, like thousands of Zimbabweans before them, left behind their turbulent home country to make a life for themselves here.
Zimbabwe native Ezra Sibanda, who helped promote the sporting event, said that he spoke to the players and that all fear they may face sanctions and other reprisals if they return to Zimbabwe. Sibanda interviewed three of the players on his London-based radio show Afro Sounds FM, and said some players were thinking about applying to work here.
''If you go to Zimbabwe and ask anyone, 9 out of 10 people would say, if given the chance, they would move to England," Sibanda said. ''The players say, 'Why waste it -- why not take advantage of it?' "
There is still some dispute about whether the players have defected. Officials with ZimEvents, the Birmingham-based company that planned the match, said that while they had not been in contact with the players, they were on six-month visas and therefore in Britain legally for now. Zimbabwean media have reported that a special government commission is looking into the matter.
Defection by athletes is nothing new. But the nature of sports defections in Britain is taking on a form quite different from the often-romantic one attached to athletes who defected during the Cold War.
In the past few years, cricket players from Sri Lanka and India, golfers from Nigeria, and athletes of all sorts from Sierra Leone have come to Britain to play in games, and then disappeared before competition began. Often these players give up a high profile in their countries to work in menial jobs here, a sign of the pull Britain has on people from around the world.
Oct 02, 2005
Alana Semuels, Boston Globe, United States
London (UK):
A group of high-profile soccer players from Zimbabwe has caused a media frenzy here and in Zimbabwe by failing to return home last week after a match in northern England.
The eight members of the CAPS United and Highlanders soccer teams did not join their teammates on the return flight from London's Heathrow airport Tuesday, generating speculation that they, like thousands of Zimbabweans before them, left behind their turbulent home country to make a life for themselves here.
Zimbabwe native Ezra Sibanda, who helped promote the sporting event, said that he spoke to the players and that all fear they may face sanctions and other reprisals if they return to Zimbabwe. Sibanda interviewed three of the players on his London-based radio show Afro Sounds FM, and said some players were thinking about applying to work here.
''If you go to Zimbabwe and ask anyone, 9 out of 10 people would say, if given the chance, they would move to England," Sibanda said. ''The players say, 'Why waste it -- why not take advantage of it?' "
There is still some dispute about whether the players have defected. Officials with ZimEvents, the Birmingham-based company that planned the match, said that while they had not been in contact with the players, they were on six-month visas and therefore in Britain legally for now. Zimbabwean media have reported that a special government commission is looking into the matter.
Defection by athletes is nothing new. But the nature of sports defections in Britain is taking on a form quite different from the often-romantic one attached to athletes who defected during the Cold War.
In the past few years, cricket players from Sri Lanka and India, golfers from Nigeria, and athletes of all sorts from Sierra Leone have come to Britain to play in games, and then disappeared before competition began. Often these players give up a high profile in their countries to work in menial jobs here, a sign of the pull Britain has on people from around the world.
Oct 02, 2005
Alana Semuels, Boston Globe, United States
