The book that shocked a team

Wednesday, 3 November 2010 00:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs is set to shock the cricket world with the release of his autobiography ‘To The Point,’ which details hotel room orgies, drug use and team politics within the Proteas.

The mercurial batsmen describes sexual encounters in which Gibbs and his teammates participated, including one with a girl attending a school formal, picking up strippers and an orgy on tour involving three girls.

“Two beds, two cricketers and three women. One of them wasn’t all that keen, though; she just lay on the bed. Which was fine - there was enough for everyone. The other two girls, however, more than made a go of it,” he writes.

“I got the ball rolling, but then I noticed that my mate was feeling a little left out. Now he’s lying on the other bed, so, big-hearted chap that I am, I say, ‘Well, you can’t leave my mate all alone there.’ And fortunately one of them was only too happy to transfer ship.”

He recounts the many advances of female fans: “They came hunting in packs, and if they liked what they saw, you were in for the ride of your life.”

Gibbs says on the same tour there was an encounter with a teenage girl on her way to a school formal.

“I spotted one particularly gorgeous girl, obviously dressed to the nines, walking around the hotel lobby.

“After a few drinks and a few words, she came upstairs with me to my room and gave me a little dance of another kind. She then left and went back to the dance proper.”

The book, released this week, also reveals the politics of the Proteas and the way they are run by a group of dominant senior players.

“The team has been criticised for being run by a group of senior players - Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and, more recently, AB de Villiers - and this inner circle splits the team in two and makes any chance of developing true team spirit among the Proteas impossible,” says Gibbs.