The result was never really in doubt from the start, and yesterday England finally lost the latest morality test at Lord's against Robert Mugabe's Greed and Corruption XI. The cricket team will be travelling to play in Zimbabwe, after all.

Tim Sheep, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), made a statement in which he praised Mamon and his fellow board members. "We have all been training very hard," he said, "and can now do very convincing impressions of ostriches sticking their heads in the sand."

Mr Sheep said it was not the place of the ECB to make moral or political judgements. "So when we disagree with the advice of the Government and say that a boycott of Zimbabwe will not be effective, that's not us making a moral judgement. Oh no. And when we accuse the Government of having a policy vacuum that isn't a political judgement. No, no, no, not a bit of it."

"You can call me a hypocrite if you like, but 'hypocrite' just isn't a word in my dictionary," he added, holding up a copy of the Penguin Dictionary of Financial and Economic Terms.