linkMickey Arthur says Hashim Amla’s debut in ODI cricket was delayed because of race conflict
Mickey Arthur, in his book “Taking the Mickey”, wrote that Hashim Amla’s One Day debut was delayed in the team because of race politics which were generated by Loots Bosman’s allegations of racial discrimination. Mickey writes that he was forced to play Bosman in the team in place of Hashim Amla.
Mickey Arthur writes that Loot Bosman made some serious allegations against him, after Bosman was not considered and was dropped from the ODI squad for England in 2009. Mickey Arthur resigned as South African coach on January 26th 2010 after developing differences with Cricket South Africa.
But inspite of Hashim Amla being picked up late, he had not found it difficult to perform his best for South Africa. This year he has scored 1058 runs in ODI cricket and has managed 5 prolific and impressive hundreds.
He has played 7 Test matches this year and has been able to score 796 runs with an amazing average of 79.60. He is treated as one of the best batsman in cricket nowadays, who can be trusted at the top order.
Cricket South Africa administrators as a result of this issue decided to include Bosman as the 16th player for the series. Mickey Arthur writes that he already had promised the position to Hashim Amla.
Mickey Arthur highlights that Hashim Amla was technically far better than Bosman and had the ability to score quickly in the first 15 overs without taking risks. This characteristic of Amla has been noticed in One Day cricket as he scores quite freely and quickly in One Day matches and picks gaps beautifully and elegantly. In the recent One Day series against Pakistan and West Indies he was declared Man-of-the-series and delighted his fans with a number of prolific hundreds.
Interesting stuff... sad how peeps play down race issues...