Diadora distances brand from boycott of David Teeger  

Italian sportswear company Diadora has denied claims that it declared a sponsorship ban on games featuring South African U-19 Proteas cricketer David Teeger.

This comes after Azhar Saloojee, director of apparel company Diadora reportedly threatened to stop sponsoring the U-19 South African cricket team if Teeger was part of the squad.

Juan Carlos Venti, the head of institutional and external relations at Diadora distanced the company from Saloojee, according to The Times of Israel.

“Mr. Azhar Saloojee [sic] has no role whatsoever in Diadora’s organization,” Venti said, adding that Saloojee’s remarks on Teeger do not represent the Italian company’s position.

Stripped

Cricket South Africa (CSA) stripped Teeger of the captaincy of the Proteas U-19 Cricket World Cup team last week due to security threats posed to him and his teammates and amid fears there will be protests after his recent comments about the war in Israel and Gaza during the ABSA Jewish Achiever Awards in Johannesburg.

“Yes, I’ve been [given] this award, and, yes, I’m now the Rising Star, but the true rising stars are the young soldiers in Israel,” Teeger told the SA Jewish Report on receiving his accolade in October.

Several rights organisations and cricket clubs condemned Teeger’s comments as “insensitive, unacceptable and in contradiction of government official position about the state of Israel.

ALSO READ: SAJBD calls on International Cricket Council to intervene in Teeger debacle

Calls to ICC

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) met with CSA on Tuesday regarding the Teeger debacle, saying the cricketing body “categorically failed” to provide credible evidence that there had been any real security threats to the upcoming U-19 World Cup tournament on account of Teeger being captain of the SA national cricket team.

There have been calls by the SAJBD, the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) and World Jewish Congress on the world cricketing body the International Cricket Council (ICC) to intervene in a bid to get 19-year-old Teeger reinstated as captain.

Genocide

Despite being stripped of the captaincy of the national team Teeger remains part of the U-19 squad.

South Africa’s opening match of the U19 Cricket World Cup takes place in Potchefstroom on Friday against the West Indies.

Since Teeger’s comments, South Africa has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on a charge of genocide.

During its oral arguments at the Peace Palace in The Hague, South Africa’s top legal minds argued that there is an urgent need for the World Court to grant it provisional measures that will protect the lives of Palestinians in Gaza.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Thabo Mbeki calls for Israel’s war in Gaza to stop