England's cricket players, who had canceled their flight to Harare on Tuesday after British journalists were refused entry to Zimbabwe, were hoping that ICC would decided to call off the tour, South Africa's national broadcaster SABC reported on Thursday morning.

The English team, on its way from Namibia where they played a few friendly matches, spent last night in a Johannesburg International Airport hotel, the channel said.

According to an SABC reporter, the English players were not too keen to travel to Zimbabwe, where they are slated to play five one-day internationals against the home team. The first one-dayer is scheduled for Friday.

The players were hoping that the International Cricket Council would decide that the banning of the reporters would be sufficient to call off the tour of Zimbabwe, SABC said.

English cricket captain Michael Vaughan and his team mates had been asked to delay their flight after the Government of President Robert Mugabe had refused permission to at least 13 English journalists to cover the tour.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which has been banned by the Mugabe Government for more than a year now, is among the media organisations that has been denied permission to accompany the team.