Black armband protest
The International Cricket Council deemed that Flower and Olonga had taken a political action, but refused to charge the pair with an offence.
As a result of the protest, Flower and Olonga were forced to leave Zimbabwe, and both men later settled in the United Kingdom.
[4][5][6] The idea of a protest was started when Andy Flower was taken by a friend, Nigel Huff, to see a farm impacted by the government's land reforms.
[11] Another related issue was human rights abuses and violence, particularly against political opponents in the leadup to the 2002 Zimbabwean presidential election.
[18][21] The pair spoke with lawyer David Coltart, a founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change.
The statement later became commonly known as "mourning the death of democracy in Zimbabwe":[7][25][28] In all the circumstances, we have decided that we will each wear a black armband for the duration of the World Cup.
[31] During Zimbabwe's next[a] group stage match against India, nearly 200 spectators wore black armbands, to support the protest.
Zimbabwe's Minister of Information, Jonathan Moyo, called Olonga an "Uncle Tom" who had "a black skin and a white mask".
Taking politics on to the playing field is a thing the International Cricket Council and all sports organisations have been trying to avoid," and that "by taking politics on to the field and bringing the game into disrepute Henry appears to have breached Takashinga's code of conduct".
[34][32] Stephen Mandongo, the President of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union also condemned the protest, saying "What Flower and Olonga did is very wrong.
"[1] They referred the matter to the International Cricket Council (ICC), who deemed that they had taken a political action, but refused to charge them with a formal offence.
"[32] As a result of the protest, Olonga's girlfriend broke up with him, and he received numerous threatening emails and death threats.
[21][23] Flower had already previously announced his retirement from international cricket, and had signed for Essex, and South Australia.
[1][36] Olonga, had not planned what to do after the protest, as he "had in my own naivety thought that I could carry on in Zimbabwe – maybe my career would come to an end but I could still live there.
