Ken Borland comments on the Derek Crookes saga

The whole Derek Crookes saga, resolved on Thursday when the South African all-rounder agreed to remain with the Gauteng team, is a very good example of history repeating itself.

On the eve of the 1997/98 season, Crookes, although contracted by the United Cricket Board (UCB) to Natal, left Durban for Johannesburg, enticed by bonus money.

In the last few weeks, Crookes has been fighting both the Gauteng heirachy and the UCB in a bid to move to Easterns, but he has finally agreed to obey the terms of his UCB contract which forbid him from moving provinces after the cut-off date of July 31. National squad players have to state the province they will be playing for as part of their UCB contract and cannot change provinces until the UCB contract expires. In 1997, Natal had banked on Crookes, who had a UCB contract then, too, playing for them, but he received an offer from Gauteng he felt he could not refuse and he moved to Johannesburg a matter of weeks before the season started.

Natal, then coached by current national mentor Graham Ford, were understandably upset but agreed to let the player go and did not take the issue any further, hence no UCB involvement. Natal's policy has always been that if a player does not want to stay, there is no point in keeping him. Even though the current Crookes dispute has now been resolved, sadly, there are no winners.

Easterns, who wanted the former Hilton College pupil as the keystone of their ambitious development programmes for the new season, are now bitterly disappointed as they have lost a major sponsor an a drawcard - and have little time to find a replacement for either.

The Gauteng Cricket Board come out of the whole affair with the least credit. In a bid to scupper Crookes' move to Easterns, they reported that their estranged former coach, Ray Jennings, was using illegal bonus money as an enticement. In the process, they admitted that Jennings had done the same thing to lure Crookes to Gauteng in the first place, violating a UCB stipulation that their contracted national squad players should not receive any extra payments from their provinces.

Gauteng are now saddled with a player who does not want to be there, and a recalcitrant Crookes will also draw the animosity of the other Gauteng players.

One can only hope that Crookes, who has no match practice under his belt, can still show sufficient form to keep his place in the national squad. That will at least mean spending more time with a team he wants to be with.