Krish Mackerdhuj (15 August 1939 – 26 May 2004) was a South African chemist,

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

official, and diplomat.

Early life

Mackerdhuj was born on 15 August 1939 in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

Natal Province The Province of Natal (), commonly called Natal, was a province of South Africa from May 1910 until May 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. During this period rural areas inhabited by the black African population of Natal were organised int ...

. He attended Sastri College in Durban and later completed the degree of Bachelor of Science at Fort Hare University. He worked as a chemical technologist for Shell and BP.

Cricket

Mackerdhuj played club cricket in Durban but retired due to injury. He umpired nine matches of

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

. In the 1970s and 1980s he was a member of the South African Council on Sport (SACOS), which was recognised as the sporting arm of the anti-apartheid movement. He was president of the multiracial South African Cricket Board (SACB) from 1984 to 1991. In the lead-up to the end of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

, Mackerdhuj played a key role in the merger of SACB and the predominantly white South African Cricket Union (SACU). Mackerdhuj was subsequently elected as the first president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa in 1992. Along with Ali Bacher, he successfully lobbied for South Africa to be awarded the hosting rights for the 2003 Cricket World Cup.

Other activities

Mackerdhuj served as South Africa's ambassador to Japan from 1998 to 2003. He was later asked to serve as ambassador to Uzbekistan, but declined the position due to illness.

Personal life and legacy

Mackerdhuj died on 26 May 2004 at St Augustine's Hospital, Durban. He had suffered a mild heart attack two months earlier. He was survived by his wife Sminthra and sons Prashim and Avin. In January 2011, South Africa hosted India for a one-off Twenty20 International in Durban, the winner of which was awarded the Krish Mackerdhuj Trophy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackerdhuj, Krish 1939 births 2004 deaths South African people of Indian descent South African cricket administrators Ambassadors of South Africa to Japan Ambassadors of South Africa to Uzbekistan South African chemists University of Fort Hare alumni People from Durban Sportspeople of Indian descent