The father of Heath Streak, the captain of the Zimbabwe cricket team, has been arrested for refusing to leave his farm by the 8 August deadline.

And fast-bowler Streak, a part-time farmer, is worried he too might be detained.

Zimbabwe is set to host a number of games in the World Cup, which begins in February 2003.

Australia, England, Pakistan and India are all due to play in Harare and Bulawayo.

But World Cup organisers are concerned about the current situation and are drawing up contingency plans to move the matches out of the country.

However a spokesman said no decision had yet been taken.

Tickets went on sale for grounds in South Africa in July - but tickets for matches in Zimbabwe are not yet on offer.

Streak told the Daily Telegraph about the stress the turmoil was placing on the team.

He said: "I am proud to be a Zimbabwean and to play for my country - it is my home - but it is very hard for us.

"We wore black armbands in India and Pakistan after a farmer, who was a friend of one of the team, was killed in 2000.

"We wore them again in Britain earlier this year when another farmer, Terry Ford, was killed."

President Mugabe's government has ordered 2,900 of the country's 4,500 white commercial farmers to leave their land without compensation.

And the president is patron of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, which means if any cricketers speak out of turn, they could have their contracts terminated.

Many cricket fans believe it would be impossible to hold World Cup matches during this traumatic time.

A Zimbabwe cricket insider said: "Some of us believe, as happened during apartheid in South Africa, there can be no normal sport in an abnormal society."