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| November 1, 2005 | Tuesday | Ramzan 27, 1426 |
Gibbs and Boje slam door on India tour
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 31: Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje will not tour India with South Africa in November because they fear being detained by Indian police. Indian police want to question both men as part of their investigations into the Hansie Cronje match-fixing saga in 2000.
Indian police are probing Gibbs and Boje’s alleged involvement in a match fixing scandal dating back to 2000.
Batsman Gibbs was fined and suspended by the United Cricket Board of South Africa for agreeing to underperform in a one-day international in India.
The right-handed Gibbs, who has scored 4697 Test runs for South Africa with an average of 48.42, has already told cricket officials that he would not be available for the tour to the sub-continent.
Spinner Boje was named by Cronje in a telephone conversation with bookmakers which was recorded by Indian police. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) said in a statement on Monday that no clarity could be obtained from Indian police as to what their intentions would be if Gibbs and Boje were to visit India.
Neither player toured India 12 months ago for the same reasons.
“There has been a considerable amount of effort put into this, especially in the past few weeks, “said Tony Irish, chief executive officer of SACA.
“Despite this, we are still not able to determine the intentions of the police and whether or not the safety and freedom of these players can be guaranteed.
“It’s extremely unfortunate because it’s very clear to me that Nicky has never done anything wrong and the Indian police won’t tell us what they think he may have done wrong.
“He also co-operated with all requirements given to us by the police prior to last year’s tour and it’s difficult to understand what else he can possibly do now.
“As far as Herschelle is concerned, he paid for what he did years ago by serving a ban which was sanctioned by the ICC at the time,” Irish said.
South Africa are due to play five one-day internationals in India between November 16 and 28.
South African selection convenor Haroon Lorgat told Reuters a decision on whether to replace Gibbs and Boje in the squad for the final two matches of the current one-day series against New Zealand would be made later on Monday.
“We’ve been debating this at length. There is a group that says we should keep the same squad and try to beat New Zealand 5-0, but I would like to start playing the group of players we are going to take to India.
“It would be ideal if the same 14 players for the last two ODIs against New Zealand go to India as well,” Lorgat said.
Gibbs and Boje are currently playing for South Africa against New Zealand in the ongoing ODI series.—Agencies
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