Majola leaves huge legacy

Khaya Majola, one of South Africa's leading cricketers in the 1970s and 1980s, and one of the country's top cricket administrators during the 1990s, died in Johannesburg on Monday after a brave fight against cancer aged 47.

Majola was Director of Amateur Cricket at the United Cricket Board at the time of his death. He had held the position since cricket unity in 1991, when he and Ali Bacher were given the task of setting up a national development programme for the new UCB.

The development programme became cricket's flagship in the 1990s, introducing some 20 000 children to the game annually. Majola headed a team of 40 administrators nationally and oversaw an annual budget of some R21 million.

A native of New Brighton in Port Elizabeth, Majola was born into a sporting family and showed special talent at an early age. His father and and mentor, Eric Majola, was a double black Springbok in rugby and cricket during the 1950s and 1960s.

During the early 1970s Khaya followed in Eric's footsteps, making his way rapidly through the ranks via the Passmore schools week and senior provincial cricket into the national African team. In 1973, aged 20, he was selected to play against the Derrick Robins touring team.

He so impressed the critics that Derrick Robins invited him to play in England in 1974 under the captaincy of Clive Rice.

However, on his return to South Africa he turned his back on the South African African Board and its growing involvement with the establishment's multi-national sports policy to join the non-racial South African Cricket Board of Control (SACBOC). This body campaigned for full citizenship rights for all South Africans and actively supported the international sports boycott.

Majola never wavered from the commitment to the struggle for freedom in South Africa, even if it meant jeopardizing a promising career and returning to the matting wickets and poor facilities in the townships.

In 17 seasons playing for Eastern Province in the non-racial competitions, he built up an unsurpassed record.

He played in no less than 85 of the 216 three-day inter-provincial matches organized by SACBOC (and its successor SACB) between 1971 and cricket unity in 1991, more than any other player.

He also took the most catches (65), scored the second most number of runs (2 735) behind Natal's Yacoob Omar and captured the fifth highest number of wickets (214) with his low left-arm spinners.

Together with Mustapha Khan of Natal and Seraj Gabriels of Western Province, Majola was one of only three players to complete the double of 2 000 runs and 200 wickets.

These records have been retrospectively declared first-class by the UCB, belated consolation for a career thwarted by the politics of apartheid.

Although he was selected captain of the SACB national team in the 1980s he hoped until the end of his career to fulfil his childhood dream of playing in official Tests for his country. It was not to be.

Cricket unity in 1991, and the attainment of democracy in 1994, opened up unexpected new avenues for Majola. He gained great satisfaction from creating opportunities for young cricketers in the development programme. He was particularly pleased last season when 39 black cricketers participated in some 369 provincial fixtures, finally broaching the glass ceiling that had kept the elite level all-white for so long.

Majola played a major role behind the scenes in recent transformation initiatives, which have led to significant changes in the balance of power in South African cricket, and seen black administrators come to the fore in significant numbers.

Majola fought illness with typical courage, working right to the end. In helping to maintain a threatened tradition of African cricket and to carry the banner of non-racial sport in the difficult apartheid years, as well as helping to develop and guide the game in the decade since unity, Khaya Majola has left cricket with a huge legacy to build on as it seeks to become a dynamic South African game in the 21st Century.

He is survived by his wife Cynthia, children Vukile and Siphokazi, mother Milase and siblings Tozie, Vuyo, Nomonde and Gerald. The latter is a former provincial cricketer as well, and currently a national cricket selector.