England should honour its World Cup fixtures in Zimbabwe, Judge Albie Sachs decided on Friday night.
The England and Wales Cricket Board had appealed against a decision on Thursday by the ICC Events Technical Committee not to have their fixtures moved from Zimbabwe to South Africa.
Sachs used a cricketing metaphor at a media briefing in Cape Town, saying that the decision was delivered in the character of a ”pinch-hitter” hitting out late in the day, and not with the eloquent batting of an opening batsman in a test.
He said even though there were obvious time constraints, he approached the appeal in ”a single, pragmatic and fair manner.” The appeal process did not provide a rubber stamp for the decisions made, he said.
He said that the appeal committee considered three grounds for the ECB’s appeal — that the technical committee used the wrong test to come to its conclusion; that the committee did not give sufficient weight to the evidence of the factual issues and that it did not give sufficient weight to the wider issues of international cricket.
”There can be no doubt that if a disaster would strike, the game of cricket would suffer immeasurably,” Sachs said.
However there were ”no procedural nor substantive grounds for overturning the committee and therefore the appeal must fail.”
Sachs added that it would be wrong to turn a blind eye to what was happening in Zimbabwe, saying that an ”enormous responsibility” rested on the shoulders of Zimbabwean authorities to ensure that the game was conducted in safety and a good spirit.
”The safety of players and spectators must be considered,” he said, adding that authorities should not deal disproportionately with security issues and should permit protest unhindered.
Judged either by sheer scale or the breadth of its ambition, the 2003 cricket World Cup, which begins tonight in Cape Town with a lavish opening ceremony under the lights of the Newlands stadium, should be the grandest in the game’s history.
Africa’s first cricket World Cup is certainly the largest and most expensive ever staged: 14 nations from Canada to Australia will play 54 matches at 15 venues across South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya, in front of crowds approaching 800 000 and an estimated television audience of 1,2 billion. The tournament has cost R500-million to stage, and will recoup around R300-million, money that will be used to assist the game where it is well established, and transform it in those countries where it is emerging.
Impressive though the figures are, it is the expectations this competition carries with it beyond the boundary rope that are truly breathtaking.
South Africa has staged big sporting events before, the 1995 rugby World Cup and the African Nations football championships the following year chief among them, but never has a game carried as much responsibility as cricket will over the next six weeks.
From the office of the president, Thabo Mbeki, to the sports administrators responsible for staging the event, the tournament is seen as a tool for change in a still fledgling democracy, an opportunity to unite a society still hugely divided by poverty and opportunity.
Listening to the tournament director, Ali Bacher, and the sports minister, Ngconde Balfour, yesterday, it was clear that faith in the symbolic power of cricket is still strong in a country that was an international sporting pariah for three decades because of its refusal to allow the majority to represent it on the field.
”This tournament is not about individuals, it is about the people of this great country and the people of Africa beyond our boundaries,” Dr Bacher said.
”We have taken the warm-up games into the townships in the last week: to Chatsworth, where 10 000 people came to see the West Indies; to Ladysmith, where 6 000 came to see Bangladesh; to Soweto and to Motherwell, where they had to close the gates.
”That is an indication of what is happening in South Africa. Our objective is to take the game to all the peoples, so it is no longer a game for the minority. There will be support from black South Africans as well as white. It is an event that will do Africa proud.”
Balfour added: ”On behalf of those who fought to make this country a democracy, on behalf of Mandela and Mbeki, we welcome the world to South Africa. There will be huge support for this World Cup.”
There has been action to match the fine words as well, largely thanks to Bacher, whose dream will be realised tomorrow night. A former South African captain, he has worked tirelessly in the interests of cricket for three decades in the face of worldwide opposition for much of that time.
The driving force behind the rebel tours undertaken by England, Australian, and West Indian sides here in the 1980s, he has led the United Cricket Board of South Africa since they were readmitted to the game in 1991.
From the basic infrastructure to the miscellany, empowerment has been the driving rationale of Dr Bacher’s approach. Only companies with proven black empowerment policies were allowed to tender for contracts; World Cup mascots and logos have been produced by rural cooperatives, as opposed to remote contractors; and Dr Bacher foresees a rich legacy of stadiums and cricket grounds across the country.
Some 50 000 tickets have been distributed to cricketers in disadvantaged areas, and on the field the South African team are required to be representative. The selectors have been obliged to pick five non-whites in the 15-man squad, and at least three in the starting XI.
Rhetoric and sentiment aside, several questions hang over the tournament. Most seriously, Bacher’s dream of an African tournament is in danger of unravelling before the tournament starts.
After the dispute between England and the International Cricket Council over their match in Zimbabwe, New Zealand have decided to pull out of their match in Kenya because of the threat of terrorist attack, and there is great concern over security generally.
All South Africa’s cities suffer from high rates of violent crime, and yes terday the deputy commissioner of the South African police force outlined a R72-million security programme designed to allay those fears. And despite the ticket giveaways, doubts also remain over how many of the black South Africans who pack the nation’s football stadiums will attend matches. Many have not been able to afford tickets or get access to the internet where most were sold.
Balfour dismissed these concerns: ”The way to judge this tournament is not by looking at the faces on the grass banks of Newlands or the Wanderers [Johannesburg stadium]. Judge it by looking in the townships and the taverns, in the the homesteads and workplaces on the Cape Flats, and across this country. There you will find great support.”
Tomorrow, when the hosts take on West Indies here, we will start to find out whether he is right. – Guardian Unlimited