JOHANNESBURG (Reuters)
The United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCB) is to summon its president, Percy Sonn, to a meeting to discuss his apparent support for a return to the game for the banned former captain Hansie Cronje.

The UCB banned Cronje for life for his involvement in match-fixing, a punishment endorsed by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

However, Sonn said in an Australian radio interview this week that "Hansie is a South African, with all the rights of a South African, and I'm sure, in due course, there will be a place for him in South African cricket".

"It is a shocking statement to hear that the president says that the UCB has forgiven Hansie because the ICC has suspended Hansie for life," UCB chief executive Gerald Majola said in an interview on SABC radio on Friday.

"We will call an urgent, special meeting to let him explain whether he was talking on behalf of the board or whether it's his own personal opinion."

Majola told Reuters he had been asked to call the meeting by UCB vice-president Robbie Kurz. "The meeting is to establish the facts of what's been happening in Australia - it's not an inquiry," Majola said.

Majola said Sonn would return to South Africa on Monday.

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