Former Wallaby Anthony Abrahams wants Cricket Australia to cancel its plans to play in Zimbabwe.

Mr Abrahams famously led a seven-player boycott of the disastrous Springbok rugby union tour of 1971.

He told The Australian Don Bradman set a political precedent when he cancelled South Africa's cricket tour in 1971, following the ill-fated Springbok tour.

"I spoke with three (of the six other players) and we all think this is a harder issue than South Africa because there's no blanket exclusion of players from the Zimbabwe cricket team because of race or colour or belief," Mr Abrahams said.

"It opens a Pandora's box because of the question of who else don't you play against because of their political regimes."

The former rugby union second rower said President Robert Mugabe's "blatant denial of human rights" in recent months and his influence over the Zimbabwe Cricket Authority, including replacing members with his "cronies", had created a situation where "Australia would be compromised by going there and where Mugabe would undoubtedly exploit our presence for his own purposes".

The federal government is facing escalating pressure to ask Cricket Australia to cancel its Zimbabwe tour in protest against Mr Mugabe's regime.

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