SYDNEY, Jan 30: The head of Zimbabwe Cricket Peter Chingoka will be absent from a meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Perth this weekend.

Chingoka, who is banned from entering Australia because of his links with the Zimbabwe regime led by Robert Mugabe, was missing from an ICC list of officials at the Jan 31-Feb 1 meeting issued late Thursday.

The ICC has confirmed Wilfred Mukondiwa will represent ZC at the meeting in place of Chingoka. It is unclear whether Chingoka applied for a visa to enter Australia.

However, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said earlier this month that he would need “very particular grounds” to be granted entry.

Chingoka and ZC chief executive Ozias Bvute are on a DFAT list of 254 Zimbabweans not permitted entry into Australia because of their relationships with the Mugabe regime.

“Australia’s sanctions are an important mechanism for applying pressure on the Mugabe regime,” a DFAT spokesman said this month. “They send a clear signal that the government holds the Mugabe regime and its closest supporters accountable for the tragedy occurring in Zimbabwe.”

In Chingoka’s absence, Zimbabwean cricket will be one of the items discussed at the meeting—AFP