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South African cricket at racial crossroads?

Two candidates, representing the opposing factions in South African cricket, will on Saturday battle the first leadership contest since the sport was racially united eight years ago.

United Cricket Board president Ray White faces a challenge from his vice-president Percy Sonn in a battle between two disparate personalities.

White, a former captain of Cambridge University, who played for the then Transvaal (now Gauteng) in the 1960s and 70s and appeared in 40 first-class matches for Gloucestershire as an amateur, is the epitome of an establishment figure.

Sonn, also the president of the Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA), is one of the many black activists who fought apartheid through sport.

An advocate, Sonn is a former vice-president of the South African Cricket Board, black cricket's governing body before unification.

The leadership race was effectively sparked in January, when White added a rider while announcing the UCB's Transformation Charter" - aimed at bringing more blacks into the game - that sports bodies did not need political interference to ensure teams were racially representative.

White later apologised for his remarks, made in Cape Town during the Newlands Test match against the West Indies, but not before he came under pressure from the WPCA to resign.

The incident unfolded at the Western Province's headquarters, and besides nominating Sonn for the UCB presidency, the WPCA has responded by nominating its own officials, Haroon Lorgat and Rushdie Magiet, for the posts of treasurer and convenor of selectors respectively.

The vice-presidency will be contested by Richard Harrison of Northerns, who has said he will withdraw if Sonn, also standing for vice-president, fails to secure the presidency.

Peter Pollock has retired and Magiet will face competition from former South African captain Clive Rice and former Test all-rounder Mike Procter, all incumbent selectors, for the convenor's job.

Another former captain, Kepler Wessels, is not on the selectors' nominations list but he could enter the race if he is backed by one of the 11 provinces on Saturday.

Wessels had been a strong candidate for selection convenor and his current absence from the fray could be explained by the opinions he expressed in his weekend newspaper column, views which would seem to be at odds with the affirmative action policies adopted by the UCB this year.

"Will anyone (at the UCB annual meeting) take time out to discuss cricket?" Wessels wrote.

"Because in many ways I wonder whether this meeting is about cricket at all. This meeting sounds to me as though it is going to be about power. The battle lines are drawn.

"What will be the winner's priority? Will it be to produce the best cricket team in the world? Will it be to wield the sword of power?

"Cricket, politics, power - a heady mix. I just hope that cricket is at the head of the priority queue.

"Somehow my experience tells me that is unlikely."

However, UCB managing director Ali Bacher was at pains to explain that South African cricket was not at a racial crossroads.

"We're a non-racial body, we always have been and that is not going to change at the annual meeting," Bacher said on Tuesday.

"I can't recall when all three top positions were contested, but that is a good sign that our democracy is healthy."

UNI