Cricket sponsor under fire

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34032, 22 December 1975, Page 28

Cricket sponsor under fire

■N Z PA Renter —Copyright) LONDON. A Fleet Street sports writer has said that the British businessman, Mr Derrick Robins, is trying to lure Australia's top cricketers to tour South Africa. A “Daily Mail” columnist, 'an Wooldridge, said that Mr Robins's renewed efforts were “probably influenced” bv Australia’s swing to the Right at the recent elections. Mr Robins wanted the team of Australians to tour as “highly-paid freelance players,” Wooldridge wrote. He said that Mr Robins, who has sponsored all-star teams in the past under his i name, was "causing increasing concern in the world of I international cricket.” “Mr Robins, now resident in South Africa, would appear to be insistent on : solving the problems of apartheid in sport singlehanded,” wrote Wooldridge. He added that some icricket officials believed Mr Robins to be “meddling,” and that he could “bring the whole edifice of test cricket crashing down round all our ears if he doesn’t proceed with greater caution.”