Legal action threatens start of SA season

The start of South Africa's next domestic season could be threatened by the Griqua Diamonds' decision to go the legal route in their efforts to become one of the six franchises who compete in the country's premier local competitions.

Griquas have filed a High Court order seeking to stop the implementation of the franchise review committee proposals accepted by the United Cricket Board (UCB) of South Africa's General Council on June 11 and have named an astonishing 24 respondents - all six franchises, the provinces, the companies that run the main stadiums, the UCB, the South African Cricketers' Association, the men who conducted the independent review (former Minister of Education Kader Asmal and legal experts John Smith and Norman Arendse), the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Makhenkesi Stofile, and even their own sponsors, De Beers, the diamond mining giants.

When a new franchise system was adopted for South African domestic cricket in 2003, Griquas were grouped with Free State in a Central Region franchise to be based in Bloemfontein. But the Kimberley-based union failed to agree with their Free State counterparts on how to combine forces and Griquas went to court in a bid to stop the inaugural season (2004-05) of franchise cricket.

They halted their legal action when the UCB agreed to a fresh independent review of the franchise system, conducted by Asmal, Smith and Arendse, at the end of last season. The review suggested Griquas join with Free State in a 50/50 split of the Central Region franchise, with the headquarters to alternate between Bloemfontein and Kimberley.

The Griqua Diamonds are still not happy and on Tuesday will seek an urgent High Court interdict setting aside the UCB General Council decision of June 11.

The General Council decision of June 11 was on the back of a 16-0 vote in favour of the review committee's recommendations. Franchises were awarded to teams based in Durban, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Centurion and Johannesburg, with East London and Port Elizabeth agreeing to alternate as headquarters of the Eastern Cape franchise.

If Griquas are successful in getting the number of franchises increased, they will have to fight off stiff competition from Port Elizabeth, Benoni and Paarl/Stellenbosch for the extra places.

Port Elizabeth is South Africa's fifth biggest city and the home of the country's oldest Test venue - St George's Park. Benoni is in the Witwatersrand, 30 kilometres east of Johannesburg, but their provincial team - Easterns - was one of the strongest in domestic cricket, winning the four-day SuperSport Series competition in 2002-03. After the switch to franchises they joined forces with Northerns, based in Centurion.

The Boland Cricket Board is based in Paarl, with a prestigious university situated in nearby Stellenbosch, and the area is a major producer of talent, especially among the coloured (mixed race) community.

Griquas abstained from voting on June 11, but have been vehemently opposed to the franchise system from the outset. In 2003, when the new structure was first adopted, their representative on the UCB General Council said "we will stop this just like we stopped the Gatting tour". Mike Gatting led a rebel English squad on a tour of South Africa in 1989-90, but it was cancelled due to unprecedented protests in most South African cities by anti-Apartheid demonstrators.

Griqua Diamonds chief executive Brian Kidson said "he had nothing to say yet" when asked about their reasons for going to court.