ICC respond to ECB security concern

The ICC today advised the England & Wales Cricket Board of the professional advice it had received on the new information provided to it by the ECB on Sunday

ICC Media Release

10-Feb-2003

The ICC today advised the England & Wales Cricket Board of the professional advice it had received on the new information provided to it by the ECB on Sunday. ICC President Malcolm Gray said: "We have been assured by the Deputy National Commissioner of the South African Police Service that the letter from the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe does not pose a credible threat to the safety of the England party in Zimbabwe. Accordingly, we have passed that advice to the ECB and asked them to confirm their intentions to the ICC today."

Following is the letter sent to the ECB from Malcolm Gray and Percy Sonn, President of the UCBSA, together with the letter from Andre Pruis of SAPS.

Mr Tim Lamb,
Chief Executive,
England and Wales Cricket Board
Lord's Cricket Ground
London
NW8 8QZ

10th February 2003

Dear Tim,

Re: Formal Notice under Clause 20.4 (A) of the Participating Nations Agreement.

Further to your letter and our meeting yesterday we write to address some of the points that you have raised.

IDI have studied the transcript of the Technical Committee Application hearing and the representatives for the ECB did not specifically ask for any further information from the witnesses during the hearing. Your complaint that the information was not processed in a timely way is noted but not accepted.

IDI and UCBSA have considered the further e mail information attached to your letter and would firstly state that the information is not from Interpol. It is supplied by the Zimbabwe Police who are replying to the South African Secret Service via Interpol.

The e mail evidence does not cast serious doubt on the crucial evidence relied upon by the Technical Committee. The Technical Committee was entitled to consider the application and decide the matter on the evidence before them at the time of the hearing on Thursday 6th February.

Justice Albie Sachs did not have this information before him on Friday 7th February 2003 when he determined the appeal against the Technical Committee decision.

IDI do not accept that this is primary source material which casts serious doubt on the Kroll report and the evidence of Paul Richer at the Technical Committee Application Hearing.

IDI note that you are giving us formal notice that you are unable to fulfill the scheduled fixture in Harare on Thursday the 13th February. You state that your notice triggers the provisions of Clause 20.4 of the Participating Nations Agreement.

Clause 20.4 states that if a Competitor reasonably believes that the wellbeing of any of their squad would be endangered then they shall not be liable for its inability to perform such obligations under the Agreement provided that the Competitor:

Gives notice in writing of reasons for their belief
Consults with IDI, UCBSA and IDI in a bonafide effort to resolve the concerns
Abides by and implements all reasonable directions of IDI, UCBSA and/or ICC.

You have given us your written notice, under Clause 20.4 (a) and we are now in the process of Clause 20.4(b) of consulting to attempt to resolve the concerns and ensure the wellbeing of the squad.

IDI and UCBSA have tried to impress upon the ECB that there will be a cut off point when re-scheduling of the match will not be practically and commercially possible. We have now reached that point. Today is the 10th of February 2003 and the match in question is scheduled to be played on the 13th of February.

We have investigated the nature of the e mail information which you supplied in your letter yesterday and in particular we have obtained a detailed report from Deputy National Commissioner of South African Police Andre Pruis. A copy of this report is attached.

You will note from the information contained therein that Commissioner Prius has investigated the original threatening letter and has supplied much more detailed information about the group who sent the letter and in particular has addressed the question of their ability to carry out any threats made by them. This report from Commissioner Prius refutes the information supplied in the e mail attached to your letter.

IDI and UCBSA have very carefully considered your letter and the report of Commissioner Prius and we believe that we have fulfilled our obligations under Clause 20.4 to make a bona fide attempt to resolve your concerns and to ensure the wellbeing of your squad members.

We trust that this further investigation and information is of assistance to you in addressing your concerns. Using the new information presented to us by Commissioner Prius IDI and UCBSA have taken an informed decision that the match should go ahead as scheduled and hereby direct you accordingly.

IDI and UCBSA require a final decision about whether you are going to perform your obligations under the Agreement and play in the scheduled match on the 13th February 2003 by 4pm today, the 10th February 2003.

Yours sincerely,

Malcolm Gray
Chairman, IDI

Percy Sonn
President, UCBSA

Mr Malcolm Speed
Chief Executive Officer
International Cricket Council

Dear Mr Speed

CORRESPONDENCE RE "SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ZIMBABWE"

1. The letter by the "Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe", the e-mail by Director Mark Hankel to Director Ben van Deventer, as well as a letter from Commissioner G F Zengeni, Chief Staff Officer of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, have reference (copies included).

2. On 10 February 2003 I had a telephonic conversation with Commissioner Zengeni and Msuthu. Commissioner Msuthu is currently serving as Director of the Interpol Sub-Regional Bureau in Harare. The following responses were given by the officers to questions posed to them in order to get clarity on the matter:

Although an organisation by the name of the "Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe" is not known to them, the threat was taken seriously until proved otherwise. This is the reason for response to the Interpol office in Pretoria. This is common practice amongst law-enforcement agencies.

After further investigation, the officers came to the following conclusion:

The organisation "Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe" has no known membership, organisational structure, etc. An organisation by this name has not drawn any attention in Zimbabwe previously, let alone being involved in any acts of violence. Commissioner Zengeni described it "as an organisation on paper, possibly one person who was only responsible for a single act - the drafting of the letter". Therefore they are of the opinion that this so-called organisation poses no threat to the English cricket team or any other cricket team for that matter.

"Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe" is thus a name used by possibly a single person aligned to a pressure group in Zimbabwe opposing the co-hosting of CWC 2003 by the country. This could even include the MDC.

3. From consultations with the Crime Intelligence Division of the South African Secret Service, the South African Service and I can only come to the same conclusion:

The letter was sent by a person or persons with the sole purpose of disrupting CWC 2003, especially as far as the co-hosting of the event in Zimbabwe is concerned.

This person/s has no capacity to carry out any threat. From a security point of view it should thus be treated as "propaganda" and not as a direct threat.

4. In view of the above and from my evaluation of the Zimbabwe Republic Police's security plans applicable to the matches to be played in Zimbabwe, I am of the view that there is no reason why matches should not be played in Zimbabwe.

DEPUTY NATIONAL COMMISSIONER : SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE
L C A PRUIS

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