NAIROBI, OCTOBER 12: For Shaun Pollock it's a personal setback, for "Hansie was a friend." But "it's good that he has got the punishment now. Once he serves this, he can get back to normal life," reacted the South African skipper on the news that his predecessor will not play competitive cricket after the life-ban imposed on him by the United Cricket Board of South Africa last evening."We will miss him. He was a quality performer and his advice and ideas would have helped youngsters in the team. But, he did something wrong and had to face the consequences," Pollock said.Feeling equally sorry was the former UCBSA managing director Dr Ali Bacher. "The ban was in keeping with the International Cricket Counil regulations," Bacher said. "It's a tragedy that match-fixing happened. It's also a reality, whether we like it or not, and we have to remove this evil."As for Herschelle Gibbs, whose six-month ban comes to an end in December, Dr Bacher said he can make a comeback if his performance in domestice cricketdeserves attention. "It will be purely on merit. No bias for or against."Dr Bacher also thought he could apologise to the Indian police now. "Yes, I am very apologetic to them. For four days, we believed Hansie's story and backed him up. We thought the Indian police and media was being vindictive towards the South African cricket. I should have never rubbished their claims," he said.Was he suspicious when reports started leaking out? "To be honest, yes. But, I never imagined it could happen in our own backyard. When Hansie woke me up in the middle of night to say he had been lying all the time, I was shocked. But we acted immediately."It could have been very damaging. Initially, people would question a dropped catch or a bad stroke. We feared the South African team might fall apart. I have seen smaller issues dividing a team and this was the biggest issue ever," Bacher said.Bacher felt it was a remarkable achievement on the part of the team for having steered clear of the scandal and done well on the field. "Shaun Pollock has been brilliant. It wasn't easy but he got the boys together and their results show that they have overcome the problem. Credit to the team for standing firm," he said."This is a new era in our cricket. Look at our team, these are wonderful players." Bacher looked at the positive side of the scandal. "Good that it came up at this stage and we are in the process of cleaning-up the game. It will take some time, maybe, one more year but after that cricket will only be played fair."
