Allegations rock South African cricket

Allegations of bungled management, racial divides, and a Western Province clique intent on embedding themselves into powerful positions to the detriment of the future have been made about the South African national set-up by a handful of current internationals. They told Durban's Daily News: "We would love to be quoted with our names but fear we will be pushed even further into the background and have no chance of playing for South Africa. It is very sad, but we feel we must speak out."

The un-named players accused a clique of established stars of freezing out new coloured players. Meanwhile suggestions of a Western Province "takeover" seem to be based on the fact that the captain Graeme Smith, the coach Eric Simons, Omar Henry, the convenor of selectors, and Tim Southey, the manager, are all from there.

An emergency meeting of the United Cricket Board's general council was held yesterday to discuss the allegations. The council comprises presidents of provincial unions, and Cricket South Africa, which controls professional cricket in the country. They decided to give the chief executive of the UCB, Gerald Majola, ten days to assess and investigate the claims with due attention to any legal and contractual consequences should anyone involved resign.

Majola said: "These are serious allegations and powerful and convincing proof would be needed to back them up." He added, "None of the players I spoke to within the last week made any mention at all to me of being a victim of a racist incident."