Zondi puts blame on Manack and De Villiers for Zondo omission in 2015

LINDA Zondi said he was “very upset” when he found out that Khaya Zondo was not in the Proteas starting side for the final One-Day International against India in 2015.

That incident has hung over Cricket South Africa's Social Justice and NationBuilding hearings and been used by many who have testified before the Transformation Ombudsman, Dumisa Ntsebeza as proof of racism at the highest echelons of SA cricket.

Zondi, the convenor of selectors at the time, said he had talked to the on-tour selector Hussein Manack and another member of the panel, Ashwell Prince, the night before the match - a decider in that five match series - and it was decided that Zondo would play. Manack told the SJN in August that he deeply regretted not standing up to captain AB de Villiers who had insisted that Dean Elgar, who wasn't in the ODI squad for that tour and who had just flown into Mumbai from SA ahead of the subsequent Test series against

India, should play on account of being a more experienced international player than Zondo, who was still uncapped.

“I'm glad Hussein came to the hearings and confessed that he had pressure … I was clear with him (at the time) that I was very unhappy with the decision,” Zondi said yesterday.

Zondi told the hearings that because David Miller was out of form in that series, Zondo was a natural replacement. Matters became somewhat complicated when JP Duminy was injured, but according to Zondi, that meant that all the selectors had to do was find a replacement for Duminy in the squad.

“For me there was no issue; Khaya had been the second-best batter for the SA A side in a tour earlier that year to India, he was in form and it was in his position in the middle order. It was a no-brainer for me as a convenor and us as a panel that Khaya must play. That was made clear to the selector, Hussein,” Zondi said.

“When Hussein came back to me after I asked ‘what happened?' he told me that after the discussion the night before the game, where we made the decision that Khaya would play, he shared the information with AB de Villiers the captain, and De Villiers was not happy with the decision and in his unhappiness, he felt AB had put him in a corner.”