A South African Indian playwright will shortly have on stage in Durban, a play on cricketing irregularities, which will include the story of disgraced cricket captain Hansie Cronje.Aldrin Naidu, a journalist and controversial playwright, has written and produced several satires. His last work dealt with public mud-slinging between the country's most well-known Indian politician, Amichand Rajbansi, and his wife, Asha Devi, as they went through a separation. Naidu convinced Rajbansi to put in a cameo appearance in his play, which played to full houses to mainly South African Indian audiences all over the country.This has prompted Naidu to be bold enough to want to approach Cronje to do the same in his play, which is titled Vak-Hansie. Vakansie is an Afrikaans word meaning holiday, but could also be easily misconstrued by many through its pronunciation, as being dismissive of Cronje. He reportedly already has agents offering large amounts for the rights to his story. Naidu has not yet approached Cronje, but the former cricketer is hardly likely to be willing to appear on stage. Naidu has already started auditions countrywide for an actor to play Cronje.This might prove a little more difficult than getting someone to play the role of Johannesburg based sweet seller, Hamid Cassim, who provided much comic relief when he appeared before the King Commission, which is investigating cricket irregularities in Cape Town. Apparently, local Indian actors are already queuing up to play the role of Cassim, who has been named by Cronje as the middleman who introduced him to Indian bookmaker Sanjay Chawla."Vak-Hansie will lampoon the world, or rather the underworld, of cricket," said Naidu, whose penchant for playing with double-edged words and humour, which just borders on the offensive, has sometimes landed him in hot water, but also gained him many fans in the local Indian community.India Abroad News Service
