Tsotsobe accuses Graeme Smith of racial bias; claims 'picked de Villiers over Tsolekile'

Around 6 years after being held guilty in a match-fixing scandal, veteran pacer Lonwabo Tsotsobe has levelled grave allegations of racial discrimination against South Africa's former captain and current CSA director Graeme Smith. In a seven-page submission to South Africa's cricket board, Tsotsobe has claimed that Graeme Smith had 'blocked' Thami Tsolekile's entry into the national team because of his racial bias. The veteran pacer said that Smith had threatened to resign if Tsolekile was picked in the side on a tour of England in 2012, and instead vouched for AB de Villiers to don the gloves. 

“Tsolekile was destined to replace Boucher‚ but suddenly AB de Villiers was made the keeper. Wicketkeeper is a specialist position that needed a specialist of which De Villiers is not. The idea of assigning keeping duties to De Villiers was to block the selection of a black player in the fold of Tsolekile,” Tsotsobe’s submission to CSA said, according to TimesLive.

Graeme Smith, who captained the South African team from 2003 until his retirement in 2014, is yet to respond to the allegations. Tostsobe made his submissions to the CSA  Social Justice and Nation Building. The public hearing against the controversial issue was scheduled to take place on May 19, however, it has been postponed indefinitely. Moreover, Tsotsobe has also claimed that he used to carry bags of 'senior players' when he was initially selected to represent South Africa. 

As to Tsotsobe's claims, Tsolikile himself had opened up about the incident that took place back in 2012 and had echoed similar claims of being sidelined from the national team. He had said that he was snubbed despite being picked as a deputy wicketkeeper due to 'pure racism'.  

Tsotsobe suspended for 8 years

Considered to be one of South Africa's lethal pacers, Tsotsobe's career was halted in 2015 when he was found guilty in a match-fixing scandal. Once ranked the No 1 ODI bowler in the world, Tsotsobe represented the Proteas between 2009-2014 during which he featured in 61 One Day Internationals and 23 T20 Internationals for South Africa picking 94 and 18 wickets respectively. He also represented the country in five matches in the Test format of the game and ended up with nine wickets at an economy rate of 3.08. 

He was found guilty in a 2015 corruption case during the Ram Slam, South Africa’s domestic T20 competition and was subsequently banned for eight years. Though till day Lonwabo maintains that he is innocent and has been treated unfairly, he was given an eight-year ban as a punishment in 2015.