Former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower says he has "mixed feelings" about whether their tour to England should go ahead.

Demonstrations will give the human-rights activists a chance to highlight the problems in Zimbabwe Andy Flower

He retired from international cricket following the recent World Cup, a competition in which he made the headlines primarily for political reasons.

Flower and team-mate Henry Olonga issued a statement condemning the policies of the Zimbabwe government, prior to their opening World Cup fixture.

They also wore black armbands during the game to mourn what they described as "the death of democracy".

The England team refused to fulfil their World Cup fixture in Harare, but the Zimbabwe Cricket Union decided against any tit-for-tat cancellation of their tour.

"I have mixed feelings about whether this tour should take place.

"But I do not think that sporting sanctions against Zimbabwe will necessarily work," Flower wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

"They did during the apartheid years in South Africa because of the importance South Africans attach to sport.

English cricket bosses are braced for protests Full story

"But the Zimbabwean leadership have their hands rather full these days, what with their own business interests and rapidly deteriorating economy - and an increasingly hungry, and therefore restless, population."

There are fears that demonstrations against president Robert Mugabe's regime may overshadow the tour, which features two Test matches and a triangular one-day series, also involving South Africa.

Earlier this year a group of protesters led by Peter Tatchell, a long-standing critic of the Mugabe government, managed to force their way into Lord's and delay an England and Wales Cricket Board news conference about the Zimbabwe issue.

"There will be demonstrations and I actually think that will be a positive thing, because it will give the human rights activists a chance to highlight the problems in Zimbabwe," said Flower.

He is spending the summer in England playing county cricket for Essex.