UCBSA clarifies: No problems, tour is on

The United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) on Thursday dismissed reports that the November tour of India would be cancelled.A report o...

The United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) on Thursday dismissed reports that the November tour of India would be cancelled.

A report on South African website Beeld claimed that the team may pull out of the two-Test series later this year if there was no assurance that two of their players — Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, connected with the match-fixing controversy of 2000 — would not be prosecuted during the series.

The website also reported that the players have decided to unite and refuse to go on tour if Gibbs and Boje were not included in the touring party. ‘‘I don’t really want to go to India if I am not 100 per cent convinced that nothing will happen to me. I want to be guaranteed indemnity from prosecution before I go,’’ Boje was quoted as saying by the website.

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But UCB media manager Moabi Litheko outrightly dismissed the report. ‘‘It’s absolute nonsense and hogwash. There is no truth in the report whatsoever. Journalists can speculate if they want, but no such decision has been made,’’ Litheko told The Indian Express over a telecon.

Litheko further said that there has still been no correspondence with the Delhi Police or its commisioner KK Paul; the last bit of interaction having come in May this year. ‘‘We want the police to clarify whether the players will be arrested or just questioned. As soon as we get the correspondence from Indian authorities — and this case we don’t mean the BCCI but the police — we will make an official statement,’’ added Litheko.

Does this mean that Boje and Gibbs tour India if things fall in place? ‘‘Yes most certainly. If they are selected they will have to. They have been cleared our own King Commission, and as far as we are concerned they are clean.’’