South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs believes the World Cup hosts are still missing the leadership skills of their late former captain Hansie Cronje.

Gibbs was speaking on Monday at the launch of his biography, a day after his century failed to prevent South Africa suffering a nine-wicket defeat by New Zealand in a rain-affected Group B match.

The South Africans' second defeat in three matches left them almost certainly needing to win their three remaining pool games and hoping the West Indies beat Sri Lanka on February 28 to advance to the Super Sixes.

"Hansie's leadership skills made him an icon," Gibbs said. "We do miss him. Jonty Rhodes and Allan Donald made no mistake in recognising that before the tournament.

"He played the game with passion and always believed we could win from any situation.

South African safety minister Charles Nqakula has dismissed security fears cited by England and New Zealand, who refused to play cricket World Cup fixtures in Zimbabwe and Kenya.

"When people say they don't want to go to places because of security fears, they are not telling the truth," Nqakula said at a parliamentary briefing on Monday.

"I was in Britain recently; I told the people they need to be honest and tell us why they do not want to go to those countries. And it has nothing to do with safety of players."

English umpires Peter Willey and Neil Mallender withdrew from officiating at World Cup matches in Zimbabwe on Monday, also because of safety fears.

The International Cricket Council today drew flak from several former cricketers for allowing the Australian team to replace Shane Warne if the tainted spinner was found guilty of taking drugs and banned.

Blaming the world champions for the controversy, former Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson said the side should be penalised for the debacle and not be allowed a replacement.

"I'm not blaming ‘Warnie' and I am not disappointed in him but the team should be penalised," Thomson said.

"If they had not allowed a replacement they would have had no right to whinge about it. If he is guilty it should not have been allowed. They should say ‘bad luck' because of the grounds that he is guilty and what he has done."

Namibian Rudolph van Vuuren has described hitting a boundary off Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram as the highlight of his career.

Van Vuuren, who has now represented his country at both the rugby union and cricket World Cups, scored 14 runs as his side lost by 171 runs.

But the 30-year-old was beaming despite the margin of defeat.

He said: "It's an honour to play in both the World Cups, but hitting a boundary off one of my idols is a moment I will always cherish.

"I will tell my children that I hit a boundary off the great bowler and they will also enjoy it."

A South African businessman has accused World Cup organisers of assault after claiming he was thrown out of Saturday's match between Australia and India at Centurion for drinking a can of Coca-Cola.

Arthur Williamson claimed that his removal from the ground by security officials was a sign of the lengths that the tournament will go to prevent "ambush marketing".

"It is unacceptable that law-abiding citizens be brow-beaten, publicly humiliated, assaulted and summarily ejected for doing nothing worse than quietly drinking a beverage that is not approved of by the official sponsors," Williamson said.

The World Cup organising committee, in an effort to protect the interests of official sponsors that include Pepsi, has placed arch-rivals Coca Cola on the list of items that are banned at all World Cup matches.

Branded clothing, hats and bags are also banned.

India are once again planning to drop star batsman Sachin Tendulkar down the order for tomorrow's crunch game against Zimbabwe in a bid to resurrect their World Cup campaign.

Tendulkar, the one-day game's leading batsman who was shuffled up and down the order over the last 12 months to create the ideal balance, once again finds himself facing a change.

Demoted last year as opener, where he has scored all but one of his record 33 one-day centuries, Tendulkar was given back his opening berth for the World Cup and responded with top scores of 52 and 36 in the first two games.

Tendulkar could drop down to number four while Ganguly, who has scored just 75 runs in his last nine innings, could also abandon his opening slot to bat at number five.

It appears certain that hard-hitting batsman Virender Sehwag will open the innings, probably with Dinesh Mongia, with Rahul Dravid expected to take the No.3 three slot.

Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar may not be a sledger, but he does not mind giving back what he gets when words start flying in the heat of battle.

The Indian batsman had a verbal duel with Australian speedster Glenn McGrath during Saturday's World Cup match between the two sides which the defending champions won by nine wickets.

Tendulkar, who started off in a belligerent fashion, was forced to slow down when the lanky pacer decided to bowl him wide outside the off-stump.

"There was one pull shot he had and I just mentioned to him 'make sure you pick the right one to have a pull at' and he had a go at me for not bowling at the stumps.

"I said, 'Why would I?' You always smash me when I bowl straight'," said McGrath.