The same editorial mentions that Andy Flower, the England coach, who cut short his career playing for Zimbabwe by staging a public protest against the regime of Robert Mugabe, 'has joined the campaign to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani'. There's also a news item about this in the paper (£):
Flower, who played 63 Test matches for Zimbabwe before he became a coach, might not have become involved with English cricket if he had not made a courageous human rights protest while playing for his country in the 2003 World Cup.
With Henry Olonga, his team-mate, who was the first black player to represent Zimbabwe, Flower wore a black armband during the game against Namibia in Harare. The pair released a statement explaining that they were "mourning the death of democracy in our beloved Zimbabwe" and that they were "making a silent plea to those responsible to stop the abuse of human rights" in the country.
Both Flower and Olonga left Zimbabwe shortly afterwards and moved to England. In 2003 their stance was given wider recognition with the Anne Frank Award for Moral Courage.
Now Flower is 'urg[ing] the Iranian authorities to free her [Ashtiani] without condition'. Zimbabwe or Iran: the struggle for human justice is indivisible.
