The government has effectively instructed England to cancel October's cricket tour of Zimbabwe, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) says.
Tim Lamb said the government had couched its message in "coded political language" but the advice not to tour was clear.
"The government has now come off the fence and made it quite clear they are against us going to Zimbabwe," Lamb told BBC Television.
"To say that we ought to consider carefully whether a high profile English tour at this time is consistent with the approach the British government is taking is probably as close as you'll get to an instruction not to tour," he said.
"We'll have to argue that in a Western representative democracy, that is tantamount to an instruction not to go."
Lamb said the ECB, which had received a report from ECB member Des Wilson saying humanitarian issues should be considered in deciding whether tours take place, was determined to make its own decision.
Lamb called Wilson's report a "helpful framework document" but said it had not yet been adopted as policy by the ECB directors, who will discuss it at a meeting on Thursday.
The Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe in 2002, saying President Robert Mugabe had rigged his re-election. Last month Zimbabwe resigned from the 54-nation body.
Before last year's World Cup, the British government called on England to boycott their match against Zimbabwe in Harare in protest against Mugabe.
The team refused the request but then withdrew from the match because of security concerns.
