The Fixers
THE banning of four players over their involvement in the match/spot-fixing scandal in last season’s RamSlam competition comes as a bitter blow to Cricket South Africa’s transformation initiatives with two of the players being premier role models in the black community.
Thami Tsolekile and Ethy Mbhalati were both veterans of the sport, with careers stretching back 16 years in Tsolekile’s case, and 13 for Mbhalati, and comprising a combined 289 first-class matches.
The biggest fish is Tsolekile, who at various times throughout his career courted controversy for his forthright views about the treatment of black African players and was one of the leaders of the protest last season that saw a group of players, who called themselves Black Cricketers in Unity, write a letter to Cricket SA outlining their concerns about the treatment of black players when it came to national selection.
Highveld Lions chief executive Greg Fredericks yesterday refused to comment following Cricket SA’s announcement, other than to say he was “very disappointed”.
Three of the players represented the franchise and played prominent roles in the team’s recent success.
“We haven’t been furnished with all the information during this process, so we must be given the chance to study Cricket SA’s report before commenting,” said Fredericks yesterday.
Tsolekile, Pumi Matshikwe and Jean Symes were all part of the Lions side that has, in recent seasons, won each of the country’s premier domestic trophies and – in the case of Symes and Tsolekile – were instrumental members of the team that so thrillingly made it to the final of the Champions League T20 tournament in 2012.
The 35-year-old Tsolekile was among the most prominent black players of the last decade and was a tad unfortunate that the bulk of his career coincided with that of Mark Boucher, who was a mainstay in the Proteas side behind the stumps. Tsolekile played three Tests when Boucher was dropped from the national team in 2004, but under immense scrutiny in Tests against India and England, he failed to show his best form.
Nevertheless following Boucher’s unfortunate retirement in 2012, Tsolekile, who