Dr Ali Bacher

Dr Ali Bacher Dr Aron (Ali) Bacher was born on the 24th of May 1942 in Johannesburg.

A world renowned former cricketer and medical doctor, Ali Bacher headed the South African Cricket Union and the United Cricket Board of South Africa. In addition to his sporting achievements, for which he is probably best known, Dr Bacher has a wealth of business and organisational experience. Among other achievements, he was the Chief Executive Officer of the ICC Cricket World Cup that was hosted

by South Africa in 2003, and deemed by the International Cricket Council to be the most successful yet staged.

In 2008 Dr Ali Bacher was appointed chairman and a non-executive director of ‘Right to Care’. He brought a wealth of experience and a high standing in South African public life.

His expertise in marketing, communication and media affairs has been of immense benefit to ‘Right to Care’. Moreover, he is a doctor of medicine with a passionate interest in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and the challenges it presents.

Dr Bacher performed exemplary work as Executive Director of the University of the Witwatersrand Foundation, a University from which he graduated MBChB during 1967.

Ali, as he is fondly known, was a successful captain for South Africa on the cricket field.

Moreover, for over 25 years, he has also been involved in the business and promotion of sport. Dr Bacher's involvement in ‘Right to Care’ will facilitate efforts to gain the support of high-profile people in the public eye and draw attention to Right to Care's contributions in managing the HIV epidemic.

Over the years Dr Bacher has held numerous top management positions, among them Managing Director of Delta Distributors. In 2004, he consulted to KPMG. He was also the Chairman of Seniors' Finance. He holds honorary doctorates from Rhodes University and Wits University and is the recipient of many top awards, including one from former South African President, Nelson Mandela.

If Ali Bacher's commitment to cricket had ended after his playing days, he would have had a proud place on the sport's roll of honour. It was Ali Bacher, the young medical doctor and then Transvaal batsman - shrewd, skilful and a deft manager of men - who led South Africa to a 4-0 whitewash test series victory over Australia in the summer of 1969-1970.

It may fairly be stated that the seeds of Ali Bacher's growth into a South African sports administrator of international stature were sown at the time of his greatest triumph as a player. The noose of censure against apartheid in sport was about to strangle South African cricket, setting in motion a chain of events which was to see the former test captain playing a prominent role in the transformation of cricket and the transition of South Africa from an apartheid state to a democratic nation.

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It was to be twenty years before a South African cricket team toured abroad, and it was appropriate that Ali Bacher was again the man in charge. This time, though, he was the manager, while the team that went to India in November 1991 was captained by Clive Rice, the only player selected for a cancelled 1971-1972 tour of Australia who was still active.

He was managing director of the Transvaal Cricket Council (TCC) from 1981 until 1986, when he became the first Managing Director of the national body. It was a time of profound change as the sport moved from being a poorly funded, largely amateur pastime to a multimillion rand business in which its leading practitioners had the potential to become wealthy young men. Political changes, though, were to be the most significant of all.

In order to keep playing standards high, the SA Cricket Union staged a series of "rebel" tours between 1982 and 1990, paying top-quality players from various countries large amounts of money to visit South Africa. The last such tour, by an English team captained by Mike Gatting, took place in early 1990 against a background of political turmoil as black politicians flexed their muscles. The National Sports Congress was a thinly disguised offshoot of the banned African National Congress. The tour was targeted for massive demonstrations by the NSC. As MD of the SACU, it was Bacher's task to organise the tour. He switched the opening match, almost at the last minute, from East London, acknowledged as an ANC hotbed, to quiet Kimberley. Even so, thousands of demonstrators chanted outside the team's hotel when the players arrived. On the first day of play, Bacher personally defused a confrontation between police and demonstrators who were marching through a white suburb, to the ground where they planned to stage an illegal protest. In an act of impromptu diplomacy, Bacher personally obtained permission for a legal protest on the perimeters of the ground the following day. A crisis had been averted, but it was obvious that the cricket tour was doomed. The unbanning of the ANC was announced by FW de Klerk the following week. The tour limped on, with demonstrators far outnumbering paying spectators.

Bacher consulted with former opposition parliamentary leader Van Zyl Slabbert, who put him in touch with ANC figures, including Aziz Pahad in London. To the dismay of some senior cricket administrators, Bacher agreed, in negotiations with the NSC, whose ranks included Ngconde Balfour, a former Minister of Sport and Recreation, to abort the tour, cutting some of the fixtures from the itinerary in return for a calling-off of demonstrations at those matches that remained.

The three-month period that followed was one of the low points of Ali Bacher's life. He admits that his confidence was shattered to the point where he did not want to receive telephone calls. Cricket, which had prided itself on its liberal values, had become arguably the most reviled sport among black politicians.

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The development programme in the townships had virtually died. Once again he consulted Van Zyl Slabbert, who telephoned him at 22h30 on a Wednesday night during the middle of 1990, after attending a ground-breaking meeting between the ANC and leading businessmen. Slabbert advised Bacher to meet Steve Tshwete. "Who's he?" was Bacher's immediate response. Two days later, though, Bacher was in Mdantsane township outside East London, meeting the man who was to become the first ANC Minister of Sport.

An immediate bond was struck between the two men and they were to become close personal friends.

Tshwete facilitated meetings between the SACU and the SA Cricket Board, headed by Krish Mackerdhuj. By the end of 1990, the two bodies had agreed to form the United Cricket Board, which was launched officially in June 1991. In the meantime, Bacher had met Thabo Mbeki, who asked Tshwete to enlist support for South Africa's readmission to the International Cricket Council.

South Africa returned to the ICC, but was not included in the 1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, for which the fixtures had already been drawn up. By now, Bacher had met Nelson Mandela. It was Mandela, unprompted by the cricket board, who told journalists that South Africa should play in the World Cup. It was a comment which went around the world and not surprisingly led to a special meeting of the ICC, in Sharjah in October 1991, which invited South Africa to participate.

Since then, cricket has had its run-ins with politicians, notably over the selection of an allwhite team against the West Indies in 1998. Bacher, though, has become adept at handling crises. He believes cricket has a duty to stay ahead of the politicians by setting its own house in order and ensuring that it meets the needs of a new South Africa through its own initiative. He is proud of cricket's role in bringing people together in a changing society, but recognises that many challenges remain. His talents have been recognised by the ICC and he was head of development of the world body from 1996 - 2000. In 2000 he retired as managing director of the UCB and devoted his energies to organising the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

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