England's cricket team touched down in Harare on Friday, two days later than planned due to a row over accreditation for the majority of British media covering the controversial Zimbabwe tour.

The first of five one-day matches, originally set for Friday, had been rescheduled for Sunday, England team spokesman Andrew Walpole said.

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"The rest of the schedule should follow shortly," Walpole told journalists shortly before the team flew from Johannesburg to Harare.

The whole tour was thrown into question earlier this week when the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) told the team to remain in South Africa after Zimbabwe authorities barred 13 British journalists.

But the tour got the go-ahead on Thursday when the host authorities rescinded the ban.

"We are delighted the decision has been fully reversed," said ECB director of operations John Carr, who briefed the players on Thursday.

"The tour has to take place to fulfil England's commitment to the (International Cricket Council's) Future Tours Programme. The goalposts were moved when accreditation was denied but we are back to where we were now," he added.

Major Anyway Mutambudzi, a senior official at the Zimbabwe department of information and publicity, told Reuters the 13 barred reporters had been part of a backlog of applications which had now been cleared.

Earlier, a spokesman for President Robert Mugabe said the reporters had been banned because they worked for organisations hostile to the Zimbabwe leader.

"Bona fide media organisations in the UK have been cleared, but those that are political have not. This is a game of cricket, not politics," George Charamba said.

Top strike bowler Steve Harmison boycotted the tour before the squad was announced and several players, including captain Michael Vaughan, aired reservations before the latest crisis.

Relations between Zimbabwe and its former colonial ruler Britain have hit rock bottom since Mugabe launched a campaign of chaotic and often violent seizures of land from white farmers, many of whom held dual British citizenship.

Britain, accusing Mugabe of rigging his 2002 re-election, has spearheaded international sanctions and Mugabe in return says London has masterminded a campaign of economic sabotage and negative media coverage.