Investigations into circumstances of deaths of six players and assistant coach this week are continuing
South Africa have quadrupled the number of players and staff missing since a team practice camp on Tuesday, with police and doctors probing the circumstances that led to the deaths of six players and assistant coach with serious drug-related injuries.
The six players were found unconscious in a swimming pool at a South African team hotel at about 11.30am on Tuesday after the team arrived at the squad’s camp in Tshwane, a suburb of Johannesburg where a cricket stadium is set to open next year. Local media said that at least one player was found with a heartbeat and resuscitation was attempted, but he died a short time later.
The players were a team from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa’s northernmost province, for the Under-19 World Cup, which runs from October 29 to February 2.
KwaZulu-Natal’s health department secretary, Mothetjoa Metsing, said that six players and coach Curwin Sibiya, who fell sick on Tuesday and later died at a hospital, had all died of suspected drug overdose, while the body of the second man in the pool, team doctor, Judith De Klerk, had also succumbed to the effects of drugs.
The health department had dispatched 12 ambulances to the hotel on Tuesday, Metsing said, adding that they had used the same number as they had at last year’s football World Cup and a stadium in Polokwane where a plane crash took place in May.
Officers with the national police department’s crime prevention bureau were on the scene, a spokeswoman said, adding that officials were conducting questioning of the players.
“Police investigations into the incident are continuing and further investigations are being made,” the spokeswoman said.