Dr Mtutulezi Nyoka is to pursue his challenge for the presidency of the United Cricket Board despite the probability that the leaking of a letter at the weekend deeply critical of Percy Sonn may have irreparably damaged his chances of unseating the current president.

"I have no intention of withdrawing my nomination," Nyoka said on Monday night. "I will be standing against Mr Sonn even if I get no votes at all."

Nyoka denied he had leaked the letter, written more than five weeks ago to the provincial affiliates, in which he charged that Sonn intended to use the elite Scorpions unit to investigate him, allegedly for misusing his position on the World Cup policy committee for personal gain. The letter also claims that Sonn refused to apologise for saying that the Minister of Sport, Ngconde Balfour, had been talking "shit" after he had addressed a UCB executive committee meeting in May.

Sonn has dismissed the allegations as "nonsense".

"If I had wanted to leak the letter myself, why would I have waited since June 25 to do so," said Nyoka.

Whoever leaked the letter to certain sections of the South Africa media on Saturday, however, the effect has probably been to scupper Nyoka's election bid.

Several provincial officials offered the view that Nyoka's challenge would have been handicapped in the first instance by his relative lack of experience in cricket administration – he was elected chairman of the Gauteng Cricket Board only a week ago. The fact that he seems to have breached the confidentiality of the committee room would be further held against him.

Whatever the merits, or otherwise, of either man's candidacy, South African cricket is still trying to come to terms with the match-fixing scandal, not to mention the dope-smoking affair that tarnished the otherwise successful tour of the Caribbean. The sport can ill-afford an election battle characterised by public mud-slinging

© CricInfo