Trio of former South Africa cricketers including AB de Villiers accused of prejudicial conduct

The trio of former South African players, AB de Villiers, Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher have been accused of prejudicial conduct according to the Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) commission in South Africa. A 235-page report has been filed against the trio regarding the prejudicial conduct by Dumisa Ntsebeza, commission head of SJN.

The report has criticised the role of Cricket South Africa (CSA) and its administration for unfair treatment of black players. The report accused that De Villiers and Smith had their involvement in the selection of players and influenced the selection process in favour of white players. The 37-year-old had picked Dean Elgar instead of Khaya Zondo for South Africa’s tour of India in 2015.

“I support the aims of CSA's Social Justice and Nation Building process, to ensure equal opportunities in cricket. However, in 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. That's the fact,” retired De Villiers said recently.

The report recommended the appointment of a permanent ombudsman to deal with race and gender-based complaints in South Africa cricket. The report also recommended that CSA has put in place an anonymous grievance policy.

After readmission to cricket in 1992, South Africa is beloved to be a rainbow nation and racial discrimination is a thing of past. Zondo who wrote to the CSA regarding the non-selection has since created a trend among black players to come and open on the issue. In recent years black players like Makhaya Ntini, Makhaya Ntini, Makhaya Ntini have all represented the nation, but a controversy like this comes as an unwanted addition for South Africa cricket.

The report accused Smith for the non-selection of Thami Tsolekile who was in line to replace the retired Boucher. The former wicketkeeper was forced to announce retirement after suffering irreparable vision loss and photophobia in an accident during a cricket match. The controversy could be a huge talking point in the cricketing fraternity as most recently Yorkshire cricket club was also in news for the racial scandal.