IRELAND'S national cricket team should benefit by thee surprise signing on of Hansie Cronje, the South African Test captain, though arguably not as much as the bank balance of the man himself.
It is thought that Cronje will be paid some £40,000 for his four week endeavours in Ireland's Benson & Hedges Cup matches. That such a large financial carrot could be dangled to lure him to Ireland is said to be due to the munificence of a major Irish business figure, thought to be Dr Tony O'Reilly.
O'Reilly has considerable media interests in South Africa and the signing of Cronje is thought to have come about through his contacts with Dr Ali Bacher. Bacher visited Ireland late last summer, and, at a press conference in Castle Avenue, made many interesting and encouraging points about how cricket might be developed in this country.
He might equally have given our cricket officialdom a lesson or two in press relations, which is rather a neglected art among the men of the Irish Cricket Union. Thus, at its annual general meeting in Dundalk last Sunday, the news of Cronje's coming was kept strictly under wraps, as if governed by the Official Secrets Act.
This despite the fact that the island's media were in attendance, or more accurately, the section of the media which is kindly disposed to cricket. People valuable to the ICU, in short.
Anyway, nothing that a crash course in communications could not cure, hopefully.
Meanwhile, John Wright has succeeded Michael Rea as president of the ICU and Enda McDermott is the new presidentelect. Wright will also succeed long serving Derek Scott as honorary secretary, when the latter retires next year.
