Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland spoke to his Zimbabwean counterpart Ozias Bvute about their options after the Australian government's decision to ban the September tour on political grounds, a CA spokesman said.

"Mr Bvute made it very clear that playing the series at a neutral venue was not a possibility," the spokesman told AFP.

"We can now say definitely that the series will not be happening inside or outside Zimbabwe."

Howard on Sunday ordered Australian cricketers not to tour the impoverished African nation, saying the presence of the world champions would be used as a propaganda tool to support the rule of "grubby dictator" Robert Mugabe.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was glad the tour, comprising three one-day matches, had been scrapped and would not be played in a neutral venue.

"I'm relieved about that, I think that's good," Downer told reporters.

"It's much more difficult for us to ban the cricketers from going to a third country but I'm glad that the Zimbabwe Cricket Union has decided not to proceed with those games and that means we can, for the time being, not have any cricket between the world's greatest cricket team and Zimbabwe.

"Hopefully there will be political reform in Zimbabwe before too long and full, normal cricket relations can resume."