England set to boycott Zimbabwe match

England's cricketers are expected to announce that they will boycott their opening World Cup match in Zimbabwe.

The team is not due to make its decision public until this afternoon but it has been claimed they have already decided to withdraw from the fixture after receiving death threats.

The 15-man squad spent most of Saturday locked in talks with England and Wales Cricket Board officials about whether they should compete against Zimbabwe on Thursday.

Twice in the past month the players have made it clear they believed international cricket authorities should intervene.

But both the tournament technical committee and appeals commissioner Justice Albie Sachs ruled there was not sufficient risk to the security of players and officials to alter the location.

The England players cited both fears for their own safety and for that of protesting Zimbabweans should they travel to the trouble-torn African country.

But security experts, including those who compiled the Kroll report - an independent risk assessment commissioned on behalf of the International Cricket Council - attempted to alleviate their concerns during recent talks.

The BBC's cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew claimed that he had been told the players had decided to pull out of the game.

And the Sunday Telegraph reported that the England players would refuse to play the game in Harare after receiving threats from a group called "The Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe".

The threats, against the team and their families, were made in letters received by the squad last week.

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