|| CF DESK ||

Former South African pacer Lonwabo Tsotsobe has accused Graeme Smith of discrimination, claiming that the legendary left-hander threatened to retire if Thami Tsolekile was chosen as the senior team's wicket-keeper.

Lonwabo Tsotsobe had submitted his statement to Cricket South Africa (CSA) Social Justice and Nation Building Hearing, which was to take place on Wednesday before facing indefinite postponement. According to the 37-year old, the incident occurred in the 2012 Test series in England, where the Proteas convincingly beat the hosts and claimed the number one ranking.

According to Tsotsobe, Tsolekile was slated to replace Mark Boucher as South Africa’s Test keeper in 2012 but that position was handed to AB de Villiers.

“Tsolekile was destined to replace Boucher but suddenly AB de Villiers was made the keeper. Wicketkeeper is a specialist position that needed a specialist 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. This was confirmed by Smith who categorically stated that if Tsolekile was selected he would retire with immediate effect,” stated Tsotsobe.

However, Smith has denied the allegations and stated that there was competition for the one wicket-keeper’s position at the time and that he had given his choice to the selectors as to who he thought was the best possible candidate for South Africa.