South African cricket tour conceived in utmost secrecy

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 34

South African cricket tour conceived in utmost secrecy

NZPA London The . operation which took an unofficial England XI to South Africa and which has threatened to throw the < international cricket world into turmoil was conducted in the utmost secrecy over the last year with cloak-and-dagger tactics that at tims came close to farce. . The.tour was organised by Peter Cooke, aged 34, the managing director of a Johannesburg record company, and Martin Locke, aged 42, a former disc jockey and now a freelance tele- - vision sports/commentator; Both are' British-born, with dual British and South African citizenship. Mr Cooke told “The Times” yesterday that he had first conceived the idea

for the tour as long ago as October, 1980, but it began to take shape when he went to the West Indies in February of last year on a holiday timed to coincide with England’s, cricket tour of the Caribbean. ' . ; ; 4 While there, Mr Cooke contacted a number of players obtaining positive response from some, who also signed letters of agreement. The England players found themselves being drawn to the proposals by the controversy surrounding the arrival of Robin Jackman in the West Indies, who has links with South Africa, and several , of the older players could see the threat to inter- . national cricket and the possible polarisation between

“black" and “white” countries. On his return to South Africa Mr Cooke approached Mr Locke, an old friend, and persuaded him to use his business and cricket contacts to line up sponsorship and persuade other players to join. While South African Breweries became the eventual sponsors, Holiday Inn and South African Airways were mentioned in London as separate sponsors of an England tour of the republic. During the summer a number of approaches were made to players in England and Australia, with the idea of forming a multi-national cricket team. to tour South Africa. When news of that emerged the Test and Country

Cricket Board wrote to players being considered for the tour of India and Sri Lanka and told them their test places could be in jeopardy if they travelled to the republic. A similar letter was issued in Australia and that was apparently sufficient to scupper the plans for the tour before the England team set off for India. Mike Brearley, the former England captain, said yesterday he was approached by John Edrich, the former England opener and at that time a test selector, asking him if he would be prepared to play in South Africa. Brearley gave him an unequivocal no. He added that the West Indian test players, Clive Lloyd and Wayne Dan-

iel, had also been asked but had refused. During the recent England lour of India and Sri Lanka, Mr Cooke and Mr Locke made further contact with the players, mainly keeping in touch by telephone but also using middlemen in the United States and England. It was one of the American middlemen who offered lan Botham the “moon” if he would travel to South Africa only to be told that England’s all-rounder was not interested in the Earth’s satellite. Before the players left for India a company called Oxychem, Ltd, has been set up for £lOO holding the, shares of some of the players who eventually arrived in Johnnesburg over the last

few days. Another company, Rasnip, Ltd, was established in Scotland and it was alleged yesterday that this was also involved in organising the tour. Mr Locke and Mr Cooke maintained an air of secrecy about all the arrangements for fear of alerting the authorities, whom they justifiably feared would attempt to block any tour. This led to the bizarre situation in India where Keith Fletcher, the captain, was unaware of the machinations going on in the secrecy of dressing rooms. Fletcher said yesterday he only knew of the tour on his return to England and was himself contacted last Sunday by Mr Locke and asked to captain the side for a fee of £45,000.

Three weeks ago, Mr Locke, after visiting France for a music festival, crossed the Channel to England to finalise arrangements with those players who had not been on the India tour. Mr Cooke, accompanied by his South African lawyer, later flew to London with the rest of the tour contracts. A meeting was arranged for the following day with the other players who had agreed to go to South Africa and who would be arriving at the airport with the returning England touring party. The clandestine flavour of the whole operation is best conveyed by Mr Cooke’s own description of what happened next: “We found a number of England officials were at the

airport and this made things a bit difficult for us. It was a case of hiding behind pillars and having fleeting conversations with players. In the end we decided we couldn’t do anything worthwhile at the airport. The only way to get the contracts signed was to see the players in private.” Mr Cooke spent the next couple of days travelling Britain, visiting players in their homes. “That was the crucial stage,” Mr Locke now says. “We knew officialdom had an inkling of the tour and we were afraid the players would be influenced against going to South Africa.” Mr Cooke stayed in London to await the late arrival of Hendrick, Willey and lar.-

kins to make sure he got them before they had time to change their minds under mounting official pressure. Back in South Africa, Mr Locke,was approaching the South African Cricket Union. (S.A.C.U.) for their blessing. A year or two ago the S.A.C.U. would almost certainly have opposed a “go-it-alone” tour of this kind because the cricket authorities then believed that progress towards non-racial sport would eventually gain South Africa admittance to the International Cricket Conference, the game’s ruling body — but South Africa’s applica-. tion was rejected yet again last year. With that door closed, white S.A.C.U. players began

to support the idea of a "Kerry Packer” style of isolation from the world game. It was not until February 20 that Mr Locke and Mr Cooke felt confident enough to approach South African Breweries for financial sponsorship of the tour. By lunchtime the same day the company agreed. It says it will not make a penny from the tour and that, the profits will be used to promote nonracial South African cricket. Mr Cooke, who confirmed he was looking for another one or possibly two players to joijn the tour, would not confirm or deny they had been paid £40,000 each. He did, however, say that not all the players were receiving the same amount.