The former president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) and High Commissioner to Japan, Krish Mackerdhuj, died in Durban on Wednesday. He was 64.
Mackerdhuj had suffered a mild heart attack two months ago, and was due to have had a knee operation on Wednesday. He died in St Augustine's Hospital.
The former managing director of the United Cricket Board, Ali Bacher, described Mackerdhuj as a "leading campaigner for non-racial sport" and a "great ambassador" for South Africa and its sport.
"Krish was also the man who was most responsible for South Africa getting the Cricket World Cup in 2003," Bacher said. "He was a very skillful negotiator. I remember attending a 12-hour meeting with him in February 1993, and he ensured at that meeting that we would host the tournament
10 years later."
The chief executive of the KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union, Cassim Docrat, said it had been a "great shock" to hear of Mackerdhuj's death. "Krish was a pioneer in the fight for non-racial sport," said Docrat who worked with Mackerdhuj during the 1970s and 1980s when both were members of the South African Council of Sport (Sacos).
Mackerdhuj was educated at Sastri College in Durban and at Fort Hare University where his lifelong involvement with the African National Congress began. He received a Bsc (Hons) and was for many years an advising chemical technologist for Shell and BP.
Cricket was always his biggest passion, and when injuries forced him to give up the game, he became a fine umpire as well as an admired administrator on every level, ranging from his club Crimson to the Natal Cricket Board, the South African Board of Control, the South African Cricket Board and the National Sports Congress where he was instrumental in stopping the rebel Mike Gatting tour in 1989/90. Mackerdhuj received the State President's Award for Sports Administration in 1994.
He became the second president of the United Cricket Board from 1993-7 before being appointed the South African High Commissioner for Japan. He completed his tour of duty in 2003 and was semi-retired at the time of his death.
He leaves his wife Sminthra and two sons, Prashim and Avin. Funeral arrangements are expected to be finalised tomorrow.