Judge Chris Nicholson can read spin

Judge Chris Nicholson, who will head the inquiry into Cricket South Africa's bonus scandal, knows enough about the game to pick a wrong 'un.

The retired judge, who was called back into service by Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, was a "wily spin bowler" in his day. When a knee injury cut short any dreams of becoming a fast bowler like some of his contemporaries (Mike Procter and Vintcent van der Bijl among them) he turned to off-spin.

Nicholson played four years in the Michaelhouse First XI. "I was a schoolboy prodigy back then," he remembers - and was picked in 1966 for the South African Universities tour of England where some of his teammates were businessman Bill McAdam, former editor Richard Steyn, wine farmer Dave McKay, Pelham Henwood, Dassie Biggs and Arthur Short.

The latter two were selected for the Springbok cricket tour of Australia, aborted after the Basil D'Oliveira affair when Prime Minister John Vorster refused to allow the MCC to include the former South African in their touring team to this country because he was not white.

Nicholson played one first-class game for the establishment (white) South African Cricket Union, representing SA Universities the following year against Northern Transvaal when he took three for 58 and scored 17 batting at No 9.

Later he played first-class cricket for Natal under the non-racial SA Cricket Board run by Hassan Howa. He was also a founding member of the Aurora Cricket Club in KwaZulu-Natal, which was one of the pioneering clubs of anti-apartheid sport.

He can also lay some claim to being an "international" cricketer, having represented Namibia (then South West Africa) in the South African Country Districts week - a fiercely competitive tournament.

The 66-year-old jurist is the author of a book on one of South Africa's most poignant sports stories from apartheid, that of the Indian golfer Papwa Sewgolum. The golfer once beat Gary Player in the Natal Open, then had to receive his prize outside in the rain because group areas laws forbade him from entering the club house.