South Africa pull out, India stay back to play three ODIs by Sa’adi Thawfeeq

---

Event:

Unitech Cup 2006

---

DateLine: 16th August 2006

 

All efforts made by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to convince the South African cricket team to stay back and continue in the one-day tri-series came to naught when the Proteas decided on Wednesday to pack their bags and return home following Monday’s bombing incident in Colombo.

 

Ever since that fateful day when the bomb went off a few kilometers from their hotel, the South Africans have been edgy and the one thing on their mind was to go home. The several meetings SLC had with officials of the South African team to convince them to stay it seems was only delaying the inevitable.

 

What made the South Africans finally take a decision to go home was the International Cricket Council independent security consultant’s report to Cricket South Africa that stated that the current risk to the team is at an unacceptable level.

 

“In the light of this independent report by the Olive Group, who were appointed at the behest of the ICC, we have no alternative but to bring the team home as soon as possible,” said Gerald Majola, CEO of Cricket South Africa in a media release from Johannesburg on Wednesday.

 

“The independent report comes to the same conclusion as that of our own security consultant’s report. The Olive Group report says, inter alia, that the current risk to the team is at an unacceptable level, and the Sri Lankan Government is unable to guarantee the physical security of the team given the current security situation in Colombo,” stated Majola. “The report says that there is no evidence of any targeted threat to the South African team, and it assesses that the Tamil Tigers will not directly target them. However, the report says there is a real situational threat to the team. The safety of our team is paramount and we have no option but to withdraw the team from the tournament,” he said.

 

Majola said the decision to withdraw the team was taken with reluctance and regret.

 

The CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket Duleep Mendis said: “The South Africans had got an independent assessment on the security situation in Colombo from a company based in Dubai. Based on that report they are pulling out of the tournament. What is funny is that how a Dubai-based company can assess the situation in Colombo when they had not sent anyone to the country to get first hand information on the current situation,” said Mendis.

 

South Africa was due to play the first match of the Unitech tri-series against Sri Lanka on Monday. The match however was abandoned due to bad weather and rescheduled for August 29.

 

A Sri Lanka Cricket official who did not want to be named said the Proteas were running away because they did not want to face further embarrassment at the hands of Sri Lanka. South Africa were beaten 0-2 in the two-Test series and with injuries to three key players Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock and Mark Boucher they were hard pressed to put out 11 fit players for the one-day tournament which also featured India.

 

With the Proteas pulling out, the one-day tri-series that never got off the ground because of bad weather will be cancelled. Mendis said the tournament would be replaced by a series of three one-day internationals between Sri Lanka and India, the third team in the tournament that had not been affected by the security situation in Colombo. He said the matches would take place at the SSC grounds on August 18, 20 and 22.