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Graeme Smith cleared of all racism allegations: Arbitrators

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Former Proteas captain Graeme Smith has been cleared of all racism allegations levelled against him by Cricket South Africa’s Social Justice and Nation-Building (SNJ) report.

Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, who compiled the SJN report, concluded that Smith had displayed racially prejudiced behaviour in his treatment of former teammate Thami Tsolekile during their playing days.

There were also allegations that he had issues with black leadership at CSA before accepting the Director of Cricket role and that there was bias in his appointment of Mark Boucher as head coach of the Proteas.

Two independent arbitrators found that there was no evidence to support tentative findings that Smith had shown racial bias in the three instances and have cleared him of all allegations. Cricket South Africa has been ordered to pay Smith’s legal costs.

The panel concluded that there was no evidence that Smith, also a former captain of the national side, racially discriminated against former player Thami Tsolekile between 2012 and 2014, or that he was biased against Black leadership at CSA. It added that there was no merit in the allegation that Smith favoured Boucher over Nkwe during the selection process for head coach in 2019.

“The manner in which these issues have been dealt with… confirms CSA’s commitment to deal with the SJN issues in a manner that treats them with utmost seriousness but also ensures fairness, due process and finality,” said Lawson Naidoo, chair of the CSA board.

“Now that finality on these processes has been reached, it is appropriate to recognise the extraordinary contribution that Graeme has made to South African cricket.”

The 41-year-old Smith’s tenure as director of cricket ended at the end of last month. -Additional reporting by Reuters 

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