OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 9.00am.
SACKED West Indian cricket skipper Brian Lara said in London on Thursday that he is confident the crisis-hit tour of South Africa will go ahead, but added that he is not sure whether he will play.
Lara, who flew to London with eight other players because of a pay dispute ahead of their South African tour said that he thinks the tour will go ahead, saying that “on November 26 there is going to be a Test match.”
Lara, added however that he is not sure whether he will take part in the tour, saying that he hopes that “things can be sorted out for the betterment of everybody.”
United Cricket Board of South Africa chief Dr Ali Bacher on Thursday evening left South Africa for London together with a delegation of South African and West Indian officials in an attempt to salvage the tour.
The seven West Indies players who arrived in South Africa earlier in the week were also on the flight, after insisting that they be present at the talks with Lara and the other protesting players.
Meanwhile, The Star reported on Friday morning that Bacher may hold a trump card in the bid to save the tour in the form of a letter by President Nelson Mandela asking the players and West Indies officials to resolve their differences.
In the letter, Mandela appeals to the players to let the tour go ahead in the interests of reconciliation.
The tour by the Islanders has been described as the most important tour for South Africa since readmission, and if it goes ahead will provide an ideal opportunity to bridge the perceived notion that cricket in South Africa is an exclusively white sport.