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Change Your Life! |
South Africa with "declarations of honesty" |
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News |
July 4, 2000
COLOMBO (AP) - The South African cricketers have arrived to play a one-day tournament after signing "declarations of honesty" to prevent corruption in cricket.
This is their first overseas tour after a match fixing scandal involving former skipper Hansie Cronje shocked the cricket world.
Pakistan and host Sri Lanka will be the other participants.
Pakistan, who beat Sri Lanka 2-0 in a three-test cricket series, considers itself to be a strong favorite to win the tournament, beginning later this week.
Before setting out for Sri Lanka, each South African player signed a "declaration of honesty" to prevent corruption in cricket.
Shaun Pollock, who replaced Cronje as captain, refused to talk to reporters when the team arrived late Sunday. But he was quoted as saying before the team left for Colombo that his squad did not have any qualms about signing the declaration, which includes a life ban if its provisions are breached.
Cronje has admitted that he accepted money at least five times during his captaincy of the South African team.
Pakistan, which has defeated the West Indies and Sri Lanka recently, is looking forward to taking on mighty South Africa.
"Our next target is South Africa," Pakistan skipper Moin Khan said after winning the test series against Sri Lanka last week.
South Africa meets Pakistan on Wednesday in the first encounter of the triangular series. The first two matches will be played in the southern port city of Galle and then the teams move to Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, for the remaining matches.
"Our team morale is very high after the test series win over Sri Lanka, and we are looking forward to winning the one-day triangular," Moin Khan told reporters.
"We have won the last three one-day tournaments we've taken part in. We have a very good combination. We have won against South Africa at Sharjah and hopefully we will do it again here," he said.
Meanwhile, hard-hitting Pakistani batsman Shahid Afridi arrived in Colombo to strengthen his team for the seven-match tournament.
Pakistan will be without its star fast bowler Wasim Akram, who left for home for family reasons.
"Wasim is a great one-day player. He always gives 100 percent.
We will definitely miss him. We have a few youngsters who need to get some experience. It's a good opportunity for them," Khan said.
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