Klusener doesn’t have any County contract either

Durban: Cooling his heels ever since the World Cup early this year, South African allrounder Lance Klusener has resorted to legal means and is claiming loss of earnings on account of his continued omission from the team.

Klusener is taking legal action against the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) and pursuing the matter with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), the BBC reported.

The 31-year-old claimed the UCBSA had told him he was being “rested” for the tour to Bangladesh and was promised a contract in time for South Africa’s Test series against England.

Klusener did not seek any County contracts under the impression he would be re-employed by South Africa, only to find himself in the omitted list again.

Klusener’s agent, Andrew Shedlock, said: “Although Lance just wants to play for South Africa again, he is also looking for compensation.”

Shedlock said his omission did not have anything to do with cricketing reasons. “Lance has been South Africa’s best one-day cricketer since the 1999 World Cup, so he couldn’t have been dropped for cricketing reasons. Your guess is as good as mine as to what the real reasons are.”

“But both the convenor of selectors, Omar Henry, who told him personally, and selector Hugh Page, on a television magazine show, said Lance was just being rested for the Bangladesh trip. So he was given expectations.”

“To then just dump him was a terrible thing. And if it was because of what he’s supposedly like in the dressing room, why didn’t he have a disciplinary hearing?” Shedlock argued.

Skipper Graeme Smith had said Klusener was a bad influence on other team members in the dressing room.

A spokesman for the UCBSA said: “We are aware of the action Lance Klusener is taking but we have been advised by our lawyers to make no comment on the matter.”

He, however, stressed that UCBSA would “vigorously oppose” Klusener’s case.

“This is an important precedent for not only South African cricket but all South African sport regarding the application of our labour legislation and particularly.... How it is applied to sportsmen,” he said.