AP News, May 27th, 2007
Percy Sonn, the president of the International Cricket Council who was instrumental in fighting racial segregation in the sport, died Sunday of complications following colon surgery. He was 57. Sonn became president of world cricket's governing body in 2006 and had been in critical condition in a Cape Town hospital since May 21.
Sonn, a lawyer, helped guide South Africa back into the international fold after years of isolation because of apartheid.
"Percy was utterly committed to the game at all levels and his mantras were that the game had to be inclusive rather than exclusive, and that it had to be played the right way, to be true to the spirit of cricket," ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said.
The ICC said it will appoint an interim acting president before holding an election for a successor.
"As a cricket administrator and a man, Percy Sonn was a giant," former ICC president Ehsan Mani said. "Cricket will be much the poorer for his passing."
Sonn became vice president of the ICC in 2004 and president two years later. In March, Sonn was allowed to extend the standard two-year term by a year after a deadlock at a board meeting over two potential successors, England's David Morgan and India's Sharad Pawar.
Sonn never played cricket beyond the local level, but his administrative career began while still a teenager under apartheid. Of mixed race origin, he used his legal training to contest racial policies that kept South African cricket _ like rugby union _ white only.
He played a leading role in the 1991 establishment of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, which formally ended decades of racial division. Sonn was also instrumental in the appointment of Gerald Majola as the first black chief executive of Cricket South Africa in 2001.
"He was one of the pioneers of nonracial cricket in South Africa," Majola said. "It was a great tribute for South African and world cricket that he was able to rise from playing as a youngster in the dusty streets of the townships to the highest office in world cricket."
Sonn presided over South African cricket at the time of its greatest scandal _ when former captain Hansie Cronje admitted in 2000 to receiving $100,000 to manipulate matches. Sonn led the decision by South Africa to apply a life ban to Cronje, who died in 2002 in a plane crash.
At the recent World Cup in the Caribbean, Sonn handed the trophy to Australian captain Ricky Ponting in Barbados.
"I will always associate Percy with one of the happiest moments of my career," Ponting said.
Sonn is survived by his wife, Sandra, and three children.
