Sport

Zimbabwe tour under threat

14:28 pm on 11 July 2016

The New Zealand men's cricketers are flying out to Zimbabwe for two Tests, knowing full well that the security situation in the troubled African country could change for the worse, endangering the tour.

Coach Mike Hesson said he was confident the matches will go ahead.

"Yeah I am, absolutely. I mean there's nothing to suggest that it won't at this stage," Hesson said.

Black Caps coach Mike Hesson Photo: Photosport

"We're being pretty well briefed in terms of what's happening."

"Obviously [we're] heading to South Africa for seven or eight days, if anything changes I'm sure we'll be given plenty of instruction, so we're very confident we're getting up-to-date information."

A delay in paying wages to public workers has sparked a strike and had Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe warning of a plot to overthrow his ruling ZANU-PF party.

The capital Harare ground to a halt on Wednesday as people stayed at home while foreign banks and most businesses shut down, in one of the biggest protests against high unemployment, an acute cash shortage and corruption for nearly a decade.

Strike organisers have said they plan to continue the action until Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, falls.

A spontaneous social media movement has coalesced into the biggest uprising against his rule in nearly a decade.

-RNZ / Reuters