The New Zealand cricket team, the Black Caps, played a controversial tour of Zimbabwe in August and September 2005, including some warm-up matches in Namibia.

[1] Concern for human rights violations in Zimbabwe, in particular the slum clearances known as Operation Murambatsvina, prompted calls by the Green Party and human rights advocates including Amnesty International for the cricket team to boycott the tour.

It was also claimed that withdrawal from the tour would greatly harm New Zealand's chances of co-hosting the 2011 Cricket World Cup with a potential loss of $NZ20 million.

Parliament voted with a substantial majority on 26 July to ask the Black Caps to abandon the tour.

Please see Videocon Tri-Series 2005 for a full treatment of the one-day international matches with Zimbabwe and India.