Henry Olonga has made England his home for the past two years

Olonga left Zimbabwe after wearing a black armband during the World Cup in protest at the death of democracy in the troubled African country.

"I believe it shouldn't go ahead because what's happening to people in Zimbabwe is terrible," he said.

"This is a government that has consistently abused its own people."

The Zimbabwean government has recently launched a campaign to demolish what is claims are illegal houses, making more than 200,000 people homeless, according to the United Nations.

It is just the latest activity by Robert Mugabe's regime to have raised concern among the international community.

We believed that sporting sanctions made some kind of difference when South Africa was isolated Ex-Zimbabwe cricketer Henry Olonga

The New Zealand government has been pressing cricket's world body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) to cancel the tour.

The ICC has refused to allow the tour to be cancelled and will fine the New Zealand governing body at least $2m (�1.14m) if they refuse to send a team.

The New Zealand government has said it will not prevent the players from going but the Green Party has invited Olonga to New Zealand to boost the campaign to cancel the tour.

"I'm disappointed the ICC hasn't shown more compassion with regard to what's happening in Zimbabwe," said Olonga, the first black cricketer to play for Zimbabwe.

"We believed that sporting sanctions made some kind of difference when South Africa was isolated.

"We believed that people who went on rebel tours were somehow crossing a line that we didn't accept - that they were showing no concern for the people who were suffering under that oppressive regime."

Olonga said he believed it was time the world started to take notice of what was happening in Zimbabwe.