Games boss ‘should be canonised’

Press, 30 June 1988, Page 16

Games boss ‘should be canonised’

PA Auckland Commonwealth Games boss, Sir Earl Richardson, deserves to be “canonised” for his contribution to the sporting event, not criticised, says the Mayor of Auckland, Dame Catherine Tizard. He had told the Games committee he was not prepared to cancel a prearranged trip to South Africa before he took up the post of chairman, she said.

His trip to the Republic, en route to a safari holiday in Botswana had not been brought up by any of the three black African nations she had visited on a pre-Games publicity tour.

Dame Catherine was speaking on her return from a three-week trip to Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Zambia with the Games 'company chief executive, Mr Tom Aldridge.

“I was surprised and delighted at the warmth of the reception we got,” she said.

"Chief Abraham Ordia,

the Mr Big of African sports and a past president of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa, said Nigeria was looking forward to coming to New Zealand in 1990. “As long as the present Government’s attitude remained the same, he said they would all be there in force.”

Dame Catherine said sporting administrators understood and appreciated New Zealand’s ban on official sporting links with South Africa and were relieved that the participation of Zola Budd in the Games was no longer on the cards. "They went one further and said it was their view that the Commonwealth Games should not be penalised for the action of any third party, that New Zealand was not going to be a scapegoat.” She said they were also impressed when told that the New Zealand Rugby Union had pledged not to pass on invitations to players from the South

African Rugby Union. They were also not interested in the rhetoric of Maori activists who had joined forces in a bid to stop the Games. Of Sir Earl, she said: “He is an elderly man giving a lot of hiS retirement time to the Games and I am not going to criticise him.

“We should certainly be giving him credit for the brilliant job in pulling the Games organisation together and getting the Government to come up with an extra $5 million for the Games. "He deserves to be considered for that,” she said. “There are a lot of people involved in the Games, who have been on a fast lane curve in the private business sector, who have never had to think about the sensitivity of things like this before.

Dame Catherine said consideration would now be given to a tour of' Tanzania, Kenya and some Caribbean nations to promote the Games.