Youth Africans cheer then slow handclap cricketers

Press, 5 March 1982, Page 30

Youth Africans cheer then slow handclap cricketers

f Xeuter Pretoria /controversial tour of /nglish cricket team to m Africa started with /ers but ended in jeers and /w handclaps. / A dismal batting performZance by the top-flight English players, who finally- declared their first innings closed at a miserable seven for 152, came against a backdrop of international furor. Politicians, sporting bodies and race-equality organisations round the world have condemned the so-called “dirty dozen” for breaching a 12-year cricket boycott of this white-ruled country. The players, captained by the England opening batsman, Graham Gooch, began their two-day match against a South African under-25 side in spite of a last minute plea by England’s cricket authorities to call off the tour. ; The Test and County Cricket Board (T.C.C.8.) said in London it had sent a message on Tuesday to the 12 asking them to call off the tour as it could jeopardise visits by Indian and Pakistani teams to England later this year.

Gooch said that the name of a 13th member of the party would be announced today. Fears have also been expressed that the tour will ‘cause a large-scale boycott of the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane later this year. Gooch and his squad have refused to make any comment on the political controversy, brushing aside questioning journalists. However, there was an indication that there might be some indecision among the players over the Wisdom of continuing the tour. After a dressing room discussion after, the day’s play, Gooch refused to answer positively whether the team would complete the eightmatch, month-long tour. “We’ll be here for the start of play tomorrow,” he said. The first day of the match in Pretoria ended with the South African side on one for 51 and the Englishmen looking distinctly unlikely to start their tour with a victory.

The English batsmen collapsed against the fast bowl-

ing oi tne nome-side skipper, Adrian Kuiper, who ended with figures of five for 22, capturing the wickets of Gooch, Wayne Larkins, Dennis Amiss, Peter Willey and John Emburey. The slow batting by the English players, and later by the South Africans, annoyed the 4000 spectators who had earlier given a standing reception to Gooch and Geoff Boycott as they walked to the wicket to open the innings. However, ' early in the morning, when Boycott, scorer of the most runs in test history, took 40 minutes to move from one to two, the slow handclapping began and broke out again several times during the day. After the end of the day’s play, the South African tour manager of the English side, Mr Peter Cooke, said theplayers were bound by contract to complete the tour and could be sued under English law if they, did not fulfil their obligations.

' The British Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher) has taken a tougher public stand on the English

cricketers playing in South Africa. Mrs Thatcher refused to condemn the secretly-ar-ranged tour despite a barrage of hostile questioning in parliament. However, yesterday she said it was contrary to the principles of the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement banning Commonwealth sporting contacts with "White-ruled South Africa;

The tour was likely to endanger the future of multiracial international cricket and could affect the financial structure of cricket in England, the Prime Minister said. y

She added: “I deeply regret that the Government were not given the opportunity to discuss the matter beforehand.”

Britain’s Deputy Foreign Secretary, Mr Humphrey Atkins, has taken issue with a reported statement by the Australian Prime Minister (Mr M a ßolm Fraser) that the problem of the England ‘ cricketers ■ Was essentially one for the British Government.

“He’s wrong, if I may so

with the greatest respect to him,” Mr Atkins said. •He told New Zealand and Australian journalists: “The British Government doesn’t control the lives of sportsmen any more, if I may so, than the Australian Govern; ment does.”

Mr Atkins, the Lord Privy Seal and the chief Government spokesman on foreign affairs in the House of Commons, was speaking in an interview before leaving for a visit to New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. Answering questions about the rebel England cricketers, he said: "They are free individuals who can play cricket if they want to, or go and work in a coal mine if they want to, or go and live in another country and do some job there if they wish to do so.” The British Government had no legal power to stop the cricketers going and he questioned if the Australian Government had any legal power either, Mr Atkins said. “I don’t know,” he said. “This is something I shall ask.” ' Mr Atkins said there was

no way British Government could stop the cricketers going “any more, quite frankly, than we could prevent somebody leaving this country to go and rob a bank in Rome.” “You can’t do that unless they commit an offence, and it isn’t an offence,” he said. “What has been made quite clear to the people who have gone to South Africa by the Test and County Cricket Board, who are the responsible body, is the damage they may be doing to'the game of cricket.”

Mr Atkins said he hoped the South African tour would not make any difference to the visits by India and Pakistan to England this summer. “But what we feel is that while any British subject is free to leave the country for whatever purposes he likes — provided they are not illegal — what we must do is make sure that people fully realise the effects of what they may be doing. “And efforts are being made to make certain that these people realise that they may be causing damage to other cricketers, to other

sportsmen, to other countries, far beyond what they have realised.”

Mr Atkins said that Mrs Thatcher, who has been criticised for not condemning the rebel players, had taken her stand on the basic principle of freedom. “Freedom — and responsibility’,” he said. “I have a feeling these people have not realised the extent of the possible damage they are doing to other sportsmen throughout the world, and this, hopefully, they can be brought to realise.”

The Lord Privy Seal commented: "One of the things that distinguishes this country and Australia and New Zealand from the totalitarian countries, the Communist countries, is that you are free to leave them if you want to.

“We do not stop anybody leaving. They do, but we don’t.”

Mr Atkins said it was too early to say if the cricketers’ tour would affect the Commonwealth Games, but he would be “very sad indeed” if it did.

Asked if he saw any possibility of this year’s Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ meeting being moved from London — as last year’s meeting was moved from Auckland. because of the Springbok row, Mr Atkins replied: “I don’t think so. I really hope not. The Commonwealth, for goodness sake, is stronger than that.” The Lord Privy Seal leaves on his visit to the South Pacific today. A senior Indian cricket official said yesterday from Bombay that India’s planned (northern) summer tour of England would be in jeopardy unless the 12 English cricketers now playing in white-ruled South Africa are banned from Test matches. The president of the Indian Cricket Control Board, Mr S. K. Wankhede, said the English cricket authorities must take action against the 12 rebels if the Indian tour was to go ahead. The three-Test series starts in May. Mr Wankhede, who returned to Bombay after a visit to New Delhi, told re-

porters that the tour would be in jeopardy unless England’s Test and County Cricket Board gave an assurance, that the rebels would be kept out of Test matches. He said he would soon be holding discussions on the issue with the English Board and the Indian Government. Sunil Gavaskar, who has been named to lead the Indians for the series, said it would be fair for the Government to call off the trip if any of the rebel cricketers were included in the England side. Gavaskar said the 'l2 cricketers, five of whom played in the just-ended England tour of India and Sri Lanka, were disturbing the harmony and relationship of cricket playing countries. The pro-Government “National Herald” newspaper yesterday blamed Boycott for the rebel cricketers’ unofficial tour of South Africa and said he had “stirred up a hornets’ nest.” Jamaica’s leading newspaper the “Gleaner” said yesterday that the English cricket authorities and the

International Cricket Conference had no option but to ban the 12 English cricketers.

The newspaper said in an editorial: “There can be no mistaking the point at issue. The Gleneagles Agreement of 1977 (under which Commonwealth countries pledged to dissuade their nationals from having sport contacts with South Africa) will be breached by England if she invites any of these players to represent her again and, certainly, the West Indies, India, Pakistan and now Sri Lanka will refuse to play against them. And so should Australia and New Zealand.”

The newspaper added that before this “chancing of their arms” by the England cricketers, African countries were having serious doubts about their participation in the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane next year because of the presence of New Zealand, which last year hosted a South African rugby team.

“Should England fail to ban these cricketers there will be no Africans at Brisbane, the “Gleaner” said.