DAVID MORGAN will be taking into account the views of England's cricketers before he has a tele-conference with International Cricket Coun-cil bosses on Thursday.
The Newport-based England and Wales Cricket Board chairman has been thrown into the heat of the debate on whether England should play their World Cup match with Zimbabwe in Harare.
Players' union boss Richard Bevan is preparing to brief the ICC on the strength of the England team's opposition.
And it may see Nasser Hussain and his team-mates discovering on if they have been successful in their plea to move their controversial February 13 fixture from Harare to South Africa.
The England side yesterday made a strong case for moving the match, citing the 'moral, political and safety' issues surrounding a fixture played in a country ruled by President Robert Mugabe.
The ECB immediately pledged that Morgan would be 'listening carefully' to the players' views ahead of his tele-conference with the ICC on Thursday.
Professional Cricketers' Association managing director Bevan will also make ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed fully aware of the players' feelings.
He said: "Following a conversation with Malcolm Speed on Saturday, a meeting will take place this week between him, ECB chief executive Tim Lamb and myself to discuss all the issues.
"England players urgently request that the Zimbab-we match on February 13 be moved to South Africa.
"As concerns within the England team grow over the current political situation in Zimbabwe, the players have requested an urgent review of the match in Harare.
"Without doubt, the issue has been weighing heavily on players' minds, taking into account the moral, political and contractual aspects."
ICC bosses, whose deadline to move the game is February 9, are expected at the meeting to outline the results of the latest independent review of security in the strife-torn African country.
ECB chief executive Tim Lamb, furious with the British Government's 'misleading' tactics during the crisis, vowed to pull the England team out if the Foreign Office advise they would be at risk.
He said: "Regardless of the security report, if the ECB get advice from the Foreign Office saying players will be at risk, we'll say we don't expect our players to go against that advice."
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