M.C.C. tour would shatter cricket world

Press, 1 February 1983, Page 40

M.C.C. tour would shatter cricket world

NZPA London Cricket officials in England are haunted by Packer circus nightmares — but this time the powerful South African Cricket Union president, Joe Pamensky, is the villain. Pamensky’s ability to attract world-class players is evident in the Sri Lankan and West Indian tours — but this week the threat to international cricket increased with the revelation of a renewed effort for an official M.C.C. tour. The move is led by an M.C.C. member and outspoken British Conservative M.P., John Carlisle, who says a world-wide ballot of the club's 18,000 members would support such a tour. Mr Carlisle meets the

M.C.C. secretary. Jack Bailey, on Thursday, to “discuss the various possibilities" of a tour by the famous club, which was once the official English representative on playing fields throughout the Commonwealth. If the tour goes ahead — a possibility which would shatter the International Cricket Conference on which Mr Bailey serves as secretary — Pamensky has won. South Africa would then be in a strong position to expect readmission to the 1.C.C., although the West Indies, Pakistan and India — and possibly Australia — would immediately resign. If the M.C.C. rejects a South African tour, Pamensky and his agents round the world are certain to reach

into their seemingly bottomless money bag and stage another rebel tour. Pamensky has already made it clear who he wants — crowd pullers such as lan Botham, Dennis Lillee, and New Zealand's Glenn Turner. The makings of a "World XI,” are just the type of team to play against the West Indies rebels (they have a two-year contract) and the Springboks in a three-way super test-style competition with a one-day round-robin series too. The English cricket officials privately concede that Pamensky is a tough customer, the same sort of hard bargainer as Kerry Packer. That is why there have been unconfirmed reports that an I.C.C. executive

officer will fly to South Africa next Sunday. His mission is simple — try to get a "cease-fire” with Pamensky. The cost involved is uncertain. But one thing was clear last week in England. Sports officials did not back the ban on rebel cricketers by Australia’s Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser. John Carlisle described it as the “most despicable” action by a Commonwealth prime minister. He has tabled a motion in the Commons to condemn Mr Fraser, and he has also asked for a debate on the Gleneagles Agreement. That agreement came under fire from Britain’s Central Council of Physical Recreation. The council’s general secretary, Peter

Lawson, said that the agreement — along with Mr Fraser's ban and the Brisbane Commonwealth Games code of conduct — was an unwarranted political intrusion into sport. But what will the sportsmen and women do? Sporting bodies can impose bans and refuse to make concessions but money has a way of getting players on to fields: Kerry Packer proved that, and Joe Pamensky is supporting the theory. Pamensky’s price for peace could well find support at the I.C.C. meeting in England after the World Cup. A readmission motion can come only from England or Australia because they are the two remaining founder

members of the international body. The cricket bible, Wisden. noted that despite a lot of prior speculation, the 1981 meeting of the I.C.C. did not consider such a motion. “Whatever the private views of the representatives of these two countries, they realised that a motion of South Africa’s return would not only be defeated but also antagonise their own governments as well as the Coloured cricketers of the West Indies, India and Pakistan,” Wisden notes. Pamensky is unlikely to be put off by past failures. According to a report in London’s “Daily Express” last week, Pamensky’s agents are “talking big money to famous names in Australia and New Zealand.”

And as for Bothams refusal to accept a previous offer, Pamensky told the “Daily Express” he did not believe the English all-roun-der declined because of moral reasons. Pamensky said: "People think Botham didn't come last year because of moral grounds. So how come negotiations went on with his agent for weeks? "It was simply that we offered him one package and he found he could make more from a package elsewhere. “But we still want him.” Cricket is not, however, the only sport to feel a Pamensky-style push — rugby is also a prime target for South Africa. According to reports in London last week, about

$NZ320,000 in rand was deposited in a Paris bank account recently. This is being interpreted as a sign that France has finally decided to tour in about three months. South African rugby officials have always stated they are prepared to “buy” the amateur code footballers, and there were reports before Christmas that some of Australia’s Wallabies had been approached. This Thursday's M.C.C. meeting, which officials were trying to keep secret, could be the first official break in the anti-apartheid armour. It could also spell the end of the line for Joe Pamensky's globe-trotting moneyspending agents.