Lifting the Covers (Book)

Lifting the Covers is the inside story of South African cricket's journey to reinvent itself after years in the international wilderness. Using key figures, Hansie Cronje, Makhaya Ntini, Ray White and Ali Bacher, the book tells the story of South Africa's national summer game from an insider's perspective. It looks at the debates, the administrative crises and the Cronje affair as key episodes in the unfolding history of game that has struggled in post-apartheid South Africa to keep its traditional constituency on the one hand while embracing a new constituency on the other. The onfield activities during this era are also discussed, with particular attention being paid to South Africa's 1999 World Cup campaign, the tour by England in the summer of 1999/2000 and South Africa's subsequent tour of India, the tour which led to Cronje's fall from grace. The author argues that while the UCBSA (United Cricket Board of South Africa) have had no alternative but to transform the game over which they preside, their noble initiative has sometimes met with disastrous results-the Hansie Cronje affair being the most notable example. Finally, the debate to transform cricket is in many ways also the story of contemporary South Africa, a country that is struggling to transform itself into an enlightened, workable democracy. The lessons learnt by cricket are lessons pertinent to the country as a whole.