Durban - Tributes and condolences continue to pour in for cricket stalwart Krish Reddy who was a player, administrator, selector, statistician and historian of the great game.
Reddy passed away last week and his funeral was held yesterday in Clare Estate, Durban.
The KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union in a statement on Monday said the KZN cricket fraternity had learnt with great sadness of the passing of Reddy.
The union said Reddy spent a major part of his life researching and preserving the information on Black and non-racial cricket in South Africa that was played prior to the unification of cricket in 1991.
“On behalf of KZN Cricket Union, we would like to extend our sincere condolences to Krish’s family, friends and colleagues in the cricket community. This is a great loss for KZN and a sad day for the SA cricket fraternity. We will always appreciate and honour the unwavering passion Krish showed to uplift our beautiful game,” said KZN Cricket president Yunus Bobat.
KZN Cricket CEO Heinrich Strydom said Reddy was a great man who served the game with distinction. “May his soul rest in peace.”
The union said Reddy would forever be fondly remembered by colleagues, players and friends within the cricketing fraternity.
Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, said he knew Reddy from Kingsmead Stadium where he was an occasional spectator and guest of KZN Cricket at a number of international games involving the Proteas.
“We used to sit with Krish at some of the games and have some deep conversations about the game and development cricket. To me he was a giant of non-racial cricket in South Africa, and a great historian and writer on the history of South African cricket, especially the struggle for non-racial cricket, which was an important platform in the struggle against the heinous system of apartheid!,” he said.
Fellow cricketer Ben David, who played cricket with Reddy and his brother during his one season with David Landau in 1964, offered his sympathies to family and friends.
“Well done Krish on a great life - on your teaching career and in the cricket world. P.S. Those sharp off-cutters you produced from nowhere brought home some valuable wickets, much to the joy of Dev, our loyal and beloved Manager. So long Krish and cheers to a life well-lived,” he wrote on Facebook.
Max Jordaan wrote: “We will be forever indebted to Krish for the meticulous record keeping of black cricket in South Africa. We salute him. Hamba kahle Krish. MHDSRIP.”
The union said in 1986, Reddy compiled a history of the Natal Cricket Board as part of their 25th anniversary celebrations. Subsequently, he wrote numerous articles on Black cricket in national newspapers and magazines.
- He is the author of The Other Side, an anthology of black cricket in Natal, which was published in 1999.
- He was also the co-author with Dr Ashwin Desai, Prof Vishnu Padayachee and Dr Goolam Vahed of the publication, Blacks in Whites, a century of cricket struggles in KwaZulu-Natal, published in 2002.
- His detailed statistical record of Basil D’Oliveira in black cricket in South Africa was included as an appendix to Peter Oborne’s book entitled D’Oliveira: Cricket and Conspiracy- The Untold Story, winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award in the United Kingdom.
- Subsequent to these publications, Reddy co-authored numerous publications covering the history of black cricket in South Africa.
The union said Reddy was an avid reader of the game both locally and internationally and deeply conscious of its rich traditions and history. He was invited by the Editor of Wisden, to be part of a panel of 100 cricket analysts from all parts of the world to help choose Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Century. He also helped select South Africa’s Ten Cricketers of the Century.
“After several years of close involvement with non-racial cricket, Reddy also served the KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union with distinction both as a member of the Executive and as a selector for ten consecutive years and was a patron of the KZN Cricket Union until his untimely death,” said the union.
