OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 10.30am.
SOUTH African cricket president Raymond White is facing a motion to oust him as a campaign to appoint a non-white chief executive gathers momentum.
The United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCB) is meeting on Saturday to discuss White’s future and the appointment of a replacement for Dr Ali Bacher as the administrative head of the UCB.
Bacher had been due to step down as UCB managing director to take over the running of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa but White convinced him to stay on in both positions.
In a confidential letter, which is in the possession of Reuters, to White from fellow UCB executive member Gerald Majola, White is asked to resign.
”I cannot allow you to retard the progress of the transformation of this game in defiance of the efforts of many,” Majola says in a letter addressed to White, but sent to all board members.
Majola adds he will recommend the appointment of a black chief executive and names, among possible candidates, current director general of the Department of Sport Mthobi Tyamzashe and World Cup soccer bid committee chief Danny Jordaan.
”It is vitally important that during the World Cup and the period leading to it, that blacks starting playing a vital role in the running of the game,” Majola writes.
White has found himself at the centre of a political storm in recent months after he admitted to questioning the selection of certain black players in a combined provincial team that played England’s touring side in December. — Reuters