It’s on: England will, finally, zoom in to Zim

England were originally due to fly on Wednesday but were ordered by the ECB to remain in South Africa. The team spokesman said Friday’s opening one-day match would now be rescheduled. ‘‘The ECB is committed to playing a five-match series’’, he said. ‘‘We will sort out the dates later.’’

Morgan said he had been informed at a meeting with Zimbabwe cricket officials on Thursday that the bans had been lifted.

Major Anyway Mutambudzi, a senior official at the department of information and publicity, told Reuters the 13 barred reporters had been part of a backlog of applications which had now been cleared. ‘‘The confusion came initially from the fact that people had applied as a group rather than as individuals as is required by our law.”

Earlier, a spokesman for President Robert Mugabe said the reporters had been banned because they worked for organisations hostile to the Zimbabwe leader. ‘‘Bona fide media organisations in the UK have been cleared, but those that are political have not’’, George Charamba said.

Relations between Zimbabwe and its former colonial ruler Britain have hit rock bottom since Mugabe launched a campaign of chaotic and often violent seizures of land from white farmers, many of whom held dual British citizenship.

Morgan and the ECB’s deputy chairman Mike Soper met the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket Peter Chingoka on Thursday morning to try to resolve the crisis.

Under the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, tours can only be cancelled on the advice of a government or because of overriding security and safety worries. Teams pulling out for any other reason risk a $2 million fine and suspension. (Reuters)