Safs selection chief loses race issue

Omar Henry has become the latest victim of internal United Cricket Board politics as the board’s council aims to purge the system of th...

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Omar Henry has become the latest victim of internal United Cricket Board politics as the board’s council aims to purge the system of those they see as reluctant servants of the affirmative action policy.

Henry’s axing as the national selection panel convener was made in a terse media release from the UCB’s office in Johannesburg announcing a change in the selection panel, and comes as direct fallout over Indian tour selection policy.

A row involving the India tour emerged in South Africa when Hashim Amla was left out of the first Test at Green Park in Kanpur and Martin van Jaarsveld retained his place. Charges were that Henry had reneged on the selection of Amla, the first South African born player of Asian descent.

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There are now two South African-born Indians on the new panel, Enver Mall and Haroon Lorgat, the UCB treasurer, who assumes Henry’s role as convener —but, in a strange twist, he has no voting powers unless there is deadlock among the selectors.

Henry, who remains a selector, ran into a pre-India tour obstacle when supporting wicketkeeper Mark Boucher. Fellow selectors, including the new coach Ray Jennings and the respected Joubert Strydom, also sought the retention of Boucher as wicketkeeper in the team to tour India.

The committee was overruled by the UCB council executive, which ordered that board president Ray Mali and chief executive Gerald Majola blackball Boucher and replace him with Thami Tsolekile. The council was then seriously embarrassed at the way Tsolekile performed in the two Tests.

	BOJE IN, GIBBS STAYS OUT

			• Nicky Boje, who opted out of the Test series in India, was today included in a 15-member squad for the England series, but Herschelle Gibbs, who also skipped the tour, was left out by the selectors who said the opener is “injured”. Squad: Graeme Smith (capt), Nicky Boje (vice-capt), Hashim Amla, Zander de Bruyn, A B de Villiers, Boeta Dippenaar, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Rudolph, Dale Steyn and Thami Tsolekile Story continues below this ad

But Majola did place the UCB in a spot before the selection of the team to tour India by telling the ANC-run sports committee in parliament that on the evidence of the Sri Lanka trip, Boucher had lost form.

Most UCB council members saw Tsolekile’s selection for India as a way of gaining political points, yet compromised their selection policy. In a report back on the India tour, Jennings had recommended Boucher’s recall for the Tests against England but the selectors have again overlooked him.

Henry objected to the UCB council actions over Boucher and, in a wry comment, said, ‘‘I’m now 52 and I’ve got a fair appreciation of (cricket) politics. If I was 20 years younger, I might have reacted differently.’’

What is now worrying Henry — convener since April 2002 — is that the UCB may shelve plans to develop a second level of spinners by sending them on educational visits to India and two of her neighboring countries. The plan is to move forward. Also in doubt are A Team tours of India and Sri Lanka, planned for next year and 2006.