South Africa removing Jewish cricket captain ‘smells like the 1936 Nazi Olympics’

Furious leaders of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies have accused Cricket South Africa, (CSA) of antisemitism in the wake of the row over David Teeger, stripped last week of his captaincy of the country’s Under-19s team due to play in the World Cup, which starts on Friday. They also claimed undue political pressure on the CSA by the South African government.

Fresh out of a meeting held with CSA at the cricket body’s request, Karen Milner and Zev Krengel said that CSA’s reasons for relieving the Jewish teenager of his captaincy were “trumped-up and bogus”. Kringel said: “The whole thing smells of the 1936 Olympics when Jewish athletes were asked not to participate in case it offended the Fuhrer”.

Professor Milner, national chair of the SAJBD, said that the CSA’s reasoning “made no sense” and accused them of “moving the goalposts”. Originally, she said, CSA had claimed that a security report had indicated safety concerns about Teeger’s presence as captain.

But when she and Krengel, the SABJD president, asked to see this report they were first told that it was “not a report, but a briefing”, and then refused details of who from South African State Security had provided this briefing.

CSA, said the Jewish leaders, had “categorically failed to provide credible evidence that there had been any real security threats to the upcoming Under19 World Cup tournament on account of David Teeger being captain of the SA team”.

If there had indeed been any such evidence, Professor Milner said, “CSA could, had it chosen, taken appropriate steps to deal with it, such as moving the games or providing additional security.”

The decision to remove Teeger’s captaincy had been made in the wake of supportive comments he had made about the Israeli Defence Forces at a Jewish Achievers event held by the South African Jewish community. But, Milner and Krengel said, when complaints were made about his comments, Teeger agreed to subject himself to an independent inquiry to establish whether he had breached CSA’s code of conduct.

He was cleared of any such breach and was then, Milner and Krengel said, asked to step down from the captaincy voluntarily – but had refused.

Krengel described Teeger a “a very talented young cricketer who has the support of his team.” When matches took place on Shabbat, he said, the entire team accompanied Teeger, who is Shabbat-observant, on his walk to the grounds.

Milner said: “At the end of the meeting someone from the CSA said, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. But we can’t do that”. It was not a matter of “disagreement”, she said, but “high-level political interference with a sinister, discriminatory agenda”.

In a statement following the press conference, the SAJBD said: “The fact that the International Cricket Council is allowing this tournament to go ahead is tacit endorsement of CSA’s action. This recalls the infamous surrender of the International Olympics Committee to demands by Nazi Germany that Jews be excluded from participating in the 1936 Berlin Olympic games. Posterity will judge the ICC similarly harshly for its stance”.

The deputies called on CSA to “immediately reinstate David Teeger to his position as captain of the SA U19 team”. Approaches would be made, they said, to the International Cricket Council, charging Cricket South Africa with “blatant antisemitism.”

It is understood that David Teeger still intends to take part in the World Cup games if he is selected to play. Last week the 81-year-old father of South African cricket, Dr Ali Bacher, described Teeger, to whom he is related by marriage, as “a born leader” who would grow “mentally stronger” from what has been a whirlwind few months in the spotlight.