Countries Out Of Games

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 1

Countries Out Of Games

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright >

LUSAKA, May 21.

Zambia has definitely decided not to take part in the Commonwealth Games after the Cricket Council’s decision to continue with the South African tour of Britain, it was officially announced today.

It had been requested that all 12 African countries would boycott the games.

“Now that the M.C.C. has decided to carry on with the

tour, we are out,” said Mr Abraham Ordia, president of the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa. “All the African countries in the Commonwealth will not be going.” Asked if this included countries which had so far not said officially they would boycott the July Games, Mr Ordia said: “AU of them. It is not necessary for them to make an official declaration.” Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Guyana are all officially commit, ted to boycott Edinburgh. The West Indian countries are now likely to turn their threats into positive action, and signs are that several Asian countries will add their signatures. The coloured athletes would be missed from the men’s 400 to 10,000 metres, and the boxing and wrestling would be badly hit. The secretary of Britain’s Anti - Apartheid Movement forecast that massive demonstrations against the South African cricketers would force the cancellation of the tour after only two matches. Speaking before the United Nation’s Special Committee on Apartheid, Mr S. Abdul Minty said the demonstrations would be similar to those against the South African Rugby team, organised by the Anti-Apartheid Movement

“If the South African cricketers arrive in England on June 1, the demonstration will be so vehement that I forecast the tour will be cancelled after one or two matches,” Mr Minty told the committee.

The Scots were today furious that a “foreign” game could put their moment of glory in jeopardy. “Flannelled Fools of England” headlined the Glasgow newspaper, the “Daily Record.”

The “Record” commented scathingly that yesterday’s decision to “continue with the South African tour offends our whole morality. The rulers of cricket stonewall on. “Obviously there are still the Colonel Blimps of sport in England who consider themselves beyond public opinion or reproach. “Whatever the flannelled fools of sport in England may say, in Scotland we still believe a man’s a man (whatever his colour) for a’ that,” said the “Record.” Sir Herbert Brechin, chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, said today: “The South African cricketers will not even be coming to Scotland. We are in no way concerned with the tour. “We feel rather like a small country in the middle of a war where sides are shelling each other—but the shells are dropping on us.”