Judge Edwin King, the man so cleverly described as an ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’ during the Commission hearings in June, has given up.

The pressure finally got to him and, completely gatvol, he has called it a day.

That’s it – have it your way then, gentlemen, let’s not bother trying to find out what really happened. Let’s just can it.

During the last Test of the summer, at Centurion, some influential people had quite a bit to say about the prospects of the Commission reconvening. It has been an open secret for several months that sports minister Ngconde Balfour wants the Commission wound up as soon as possible.

Perhaps he regards it as costly, unsightly and unnecessary. Perhaps there are other reasons.

Ali Bacher certainly wanted the Commission wound up after it’s first set of hearings and even began telling certain, ‘special’ journalists that the whole truth had been told and that they could now start celebrating the success of the Inquiry because there was nothing more to emerge and it would not reconvene.

Judge King was particularly upset by those remarks because he, and only he, was the person with the powers to declare the success or completeness of the Commission.

Anyway, after a series of protracted legal challenges from Cronje’s legal team, governmental indifference and a perceived lack of enthusiasm for the truth from some top cricketing figures, Judge King has thrown in the towel. Or has he?

Those who want the Commission wound up also desperately need it to be neatly signed, sealed and filed with the Judge’s stamp: FINISHED. CASE CLOSED.

He will not give them that pleasure. He has been obstructed in his task of seeking the truth and now he is fighting back with his most powerful weapon; an open wound. Judge Edwin King was the man appointed to heal cricket’s most infamous sore, and until he is allowed to do the job properly and thoroughly, he will leave it open. He is a not a man to apply a superficial band-aid to anything.