Strict curfew ensures that no South African player can do a Haider on tour: CSA boss

JOHANNESBURG - No South African player can slip out the team hotel during away tours, as was done by Pakistani wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider in the midst of an ODI series against the Proteas in Dubai earlier this week, Cricket South Africa Chief Executive Gerald Majola has said.

“There is a curfew and once you are in your hotel room, you can’t get out,” the Daily Times quoted Majola, as saying to a Parliamentary Committee by the Afrikaans daily Beeld.

He made these comments in response to a question about Haider’s decision to desert his team before the fifth and final ODI against South Africa in Dubai following death threats from match-fixers for refusing to accept their orders.

Addressing the Sports and Recreation Committee on the Proteas’ preparedness for next year’s World Cup in the subcontinent, the CSA chief also spoke of the stringent measures set in place by the board to prevent match-fixers from accessing the South African cricketers.

“We hire, for example, an entire floor of a hotel with the necessary security guards and always know where the players are,” he said.

“Before every tour they are addressed by the anti-corruption unit. They are also taught how to act if a betting agent were to call them. At certain times even their telephones are removed,” Majola disclosed. (ANI)