NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Ntini wins rape appeal

Top black South African cricketer Makhaya Ntini today won his appeal against a rape conviction and a six-year jail term that had nearly ruined his sporting career, the South African Press Association reported.

The high court judge in the eastern Cape Town of Grahamstown said there were too many deficiencies in the state's case, the news agency reported.

It said Grahamstown acting high court judge Chris Whitehead had ruled that the guilt of Ntini, who made history as the first black African to play for South Africa, had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

He said the ''probabilities were overwhelmingly against the version of the complainant''.

Ntini was convicted on April 23 of the rape last December of a 22-year-old woman in the toilets of the Buffalo Park cricket ground in the east coast town of east London where he plays provincial cricket for the Border team.

His conviction at that time dealt a blow to South Africa's hopes of presenting a more racially balanced team at the World Cup, played in June.

Ntini made his Test debut in England last year and had been used as a flag-bearer for multi-racism in cricket, a sport still heavily dominated by whites at all levels in South Africa.

South Africa has one of the highest rape rates in the world with an estimated two women being raped every minute.

Rape has recently been placed high on the national agenda, with debates in parliament and protests against lenient sentences for rapists, including a seven-year jail term for a man who raped his 14-year-old daughter.

Border Cricket Board (BCB) officials cheered the court's decision. ''I am happy that this is all over and that the young cricketer can return to his career,'' BCB chief executive Reunert Bauser told reporters after the court hearing.

The United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCB) immediately hailed the court's decision, saying the cricketer had been vindicated.

''Despite criticism from various quarters, the UCB had not abandoned Ntini during the trial,'' UCB managing director Ali Bacher said.

UNI