M’well cricket coaches cleared

Two not guilty of tampering with birth certificates

TWO Motherwell cricket coaches accused of tampering with young players’ birth certificates have been cleared of all charges. EP Cricket president Donovan May said Sizakele Ngam and Sakhumzi Siyo had been found not guilty after disciplinary proceedings launched against them last month.

Ngam and Siyo, respectively head and assistant coach at the Motherwell Cricket Club, were previously alleged to have been implicated in the alteration of players’ birth certificates, which allowed older children to qualify in a younger age group at provincial level.

At the time of the investigation late last year, The Herald was aware of at least three – two 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old – whose birth certificates were allegedly tampered with.

The boys’ names are being withheld because they are minors.

The investigation was, however, centred around two players who were withdrawn from the EP under-13 team when the allegations arose.

May confirmed that these players were replaced following the disciplinary hearing, which was concluded towards the end of last month.

“The coaches were found not guilty through an independent process,” he said.

“We have to follow the ruling of the local independent company [which handled the proceedings] and found after a thorough investigation that there was no wrongdoing.”

May would not divulge the name of the company, but said the possibility of further investigation around the false certificates still existed.

“False certificates were used, but we don’t know who tampered with them. Whoever did it must have done a good job,” he said.

“It is within the parents’ rights to pursue the matter further.”

The parents of the withdrawn players had previously told The Herald how distraught their children were when they were cut from the team.

The mother of the 15-year-old boy said yesterday that, with the coaches being found not guilty, she did not know what this meant for her son or the other boys.

She said he had continued to play cricket throughout the drama.

“This is the first time I’m hearing about the outcome of the hearing.

“No one has even contacted the family regarding this whole scenario,” she said.

“Those children didn’t do anything wrong. We gave them the correct birth certificates.

“Those coaches never said anything to us and they still haven’t come to talk to us. This whole situation has left me somewhat confused and worried about my son’s future in cricket.”

The mother of the 14-year-old boy, who is also in high school, said she told her son she did not want him playing cricket anymore or, if he continued to do so, she wished he could be under the guidance of new coaches.

“If the coaches were not the guilty ones, then who was?” she asked.

“Are they now pointing the fingers at us? I found this whole business fishy.

“When my son came out of the room on the day of the capping at St George’s Stadium wearing a primary school uniform, I knew something was wrong. But I didn’t push it.”

While cooking Sunday lunch at her small Motherwell home yesterday, the woman said she had never laid eyes on either of the coaches.

She alleged that her son, together with his implicated teammates, was being treated differently following the fraud allegations.

“Before this, my son didn’t take lunch to practices because they always provided, but after everything came out, he came home hungry and told me they weren’t given food,” the woman said.

Both mothers are adamant that it was the coaches who changed their children’s birth certificates.

Motherwell Cricket Club president Dumaphi Nomoyi elected not to comment on the matter, saying the club was still waiting for a full report on the outcome from EP Cricket.