Racism Allegations, Irregular Appointments in Explosive SJN Report Land Cricket Legends In Hot Water

• The much-anticipated Social Justice and Nation Building Commission (SJN) report was released to much controversy
• Legends like Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher and AB de Villiers were painted in an unfavourable light in the report
• South African cricket social media exploded at the findings, with some calling them distracting while others anticipated some form of justice

Another storm has enveloped South African cricket after the Social Justice and Nation Building Commission (SJN) released a 235-page interim report on racial discrimination in the local game.

Headed by Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, the commission has been in session since April, and has seen seen explosive allegations levelled against legends, with key findings.

In a summary on JacarandaFM.com, Ntzebeza found that former wicketkeeper and current Proteas head coach Mark Boucher's appointment to the post was irregular, flouting human resource policies at Cricket South Africa (CSA). Former assistant coach Enoch Nkwe was favoured to get the job at the time.

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The recently retired AB De Villiers was also found to have resisted Khaya Zondo's inclusion in a match against India when he [De Villiers] was captain of the ODI team.

"The only reasonable conclusion is that Mr De Villiers discriminated against Mr Zondo on racial grounds" said Ntsebeza in the report.

De Villiers repudiated the finding on his social media pages, saying:

"I have wholly supported the aims of Cricket South Africa's Social Justice and Nation Building process, to ensure equal opportunities in our game. However, throughout my career, I expressed honest cricketing opinions only ever based on what I believed was best for the team, never based on anyone's race."

South Africans were bitterly divided on the matter.

Mbali Hlophe said:

"The SJN Ombudsman report | 2 key things for me: 1. Race played no part in match fixing investigation and no evidence found supporting allegations that Black players were targeted. 2. That the appointments of Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher were flawed from a procedural perspective."

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Thabang Nong said:

"On the eve of a series against a top side like India you release the report. I’m not a Boucher and Smith fan, but I smell sabotage just like taking the knee stance in the World Cup. Politics will finish cricket in SA."

Johann Rudolph said:

"Not enough intervention at grassroots level, as per the report... wonder what the powers-that-be will do with that information."

Naweed Moosa said:

"Come on guys still on this. Can we get excited over the game and leave politics out of it? Why cricket come on, enough now, every other month is something."

David Lyness said:

"SA spend a lot of money to support a blame culture leading to further disunity.

Richard Slavin said:

"This is not the only reasonable conclusion . The easiest conclusion is that AB had no faith in the players ability . This is about best players and nothing to do with race."

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Premier League to punish players who refuse to vaccinate

Premier League clubs are now said to be considering punishing players who are refusing to be vaccinated against the Omicron COVID-19 which is currently troubling the United Kingdom.

As reported in Briefly News, clubs in the English topflight could dock the wages of unvaccinated players if they are forced to miss matches and training sessions.

Just this week, four matches have been postponed due to the issues of Omicron and clubs are concerned over players who have been forced to isolation.