The KZN Inland Tuskers and Eastern Cape Iinyathi were instructed to continue playing by CSA after bowler Mondli Khumalo collapsed at a 4-Day Series match.
Khumalo, who was hospitalised after being brutally assaulted outside a nightclub in England last year, collapsed on the stairs between the changing rooms on day four of the Division 2 match in Pietermaritzburg.
Khumalo was not in the Iinyathi’s playing XI, but warmed up with the team and bowled a few balls.
“I felt dizzy for a moment,” Khumalo told Rapport newspaper. “I rested a little, and then I wanted to change clothes … I don’t know when I fell. I woke up in the ambulance and the [emergency service personnel] said I should just be calm.”
Khumalo was discharged the same day, but has a follow-up examination with a neurosurgeon next week.
A Tuskers player, who wished to remain anonymous, told Rapport that the incident had deeply upset players in both teams.
“It was probably a minute before we had to start playing. The teams were still joking with each other when Mondli fell on the stairs. He started twitching badly.
“There were three, four players who had to run to the bathroom because they were sick from the shock. Players from both teams cried.”
Some of the Iinyathi players had been present when teammate Lukhanyo Tsiki collapsed during a fitness session at Fort Hare University in 2016. Tsiki later died in hospital, presumably of heart failure.
CSA denied that the players were too upset to continue playing and wanted the match rescheduled because it was heading for a draw.
“Remember, Mondli was not part of the team,” CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki told Rapport. “There were other reasons why the players didn’t want to play, it wasn’t necessarily because of the Mondli situation. It would suit them better if the match was postponed. Remember, this is also about promotion/relegation.”
