“…for players of colour to compete.”
Boeta Dippenaar’s comments in last week’s CricInfo article reminded me of something I had written in a cricket magazine many years ago. I don’t recall the title, but I had written a letter to the editor of the now-retired SA Cricket Action magazine in 2001/02, regarding players leaving our shores to go for the lucrative Pound. At the time I was mostly referring to Kevin Pietersen, but had also mentioned Nic Pothas, Shaun Adam and a few others.
At the time of penning that article, I was concerned about the 5-6 players who had left SA because of the quota systems put in place by the National Sports Council. I had asked the question, “is it the intent of the Minister of Sports to scare away good cricket players who happen to be white?”
Perhaps 7 years ago I had been privileged to gaze into the crystal ball with a knowledge of things to come. If that were the case, I had not read the “prophecy” very well because I had never dreamed of today’s results. Never did I think that the SA-Kolpak XI would almost be a stronger outfit than the current national team.
Last week Boeta Dippenaar revealed to the country what I was hoping to convey 7 years ago regarding the quotas and the mismanagement of them.
He acknowledged that we were losing too many great white cricketers to foreign shores. One only has to look at this week’s scorecards from the County Championships to realize what he was referring to. This morning I glanced at the Warwickshire scorecard and discovered 4 South Africans playing for them.
Shortly after Dippenaar’s statement, the South African Cricketers Association’s Tony Irish was very quick to release a counter-statement, saying that the players fully supported the transformation policy in cricket.
Tony Irish said: “The players’ association is however fully supportive of transformation in particular where it promotes opportunities for players of colour to compete for selection. “
There is a huge irony in there and I don’t know if anyone picked it up. “…for players of colour to compete for selection.” So, are talking about players of colour competing against each other for those 4 target places, or are we referring to players of colour competing for all 11 places with the white folks?
If you look at national squad selections over the past 6 years, you’ll notice a pattern. Coloured players get replaced with coloured players for the most part. After the World Cup 2007, Roger Telemachus was replaced by Vernon Philander; Robin Peterson was replaced by Thandi Tshabalala; JP Duminy replaced Loots Bosman. For the Bangladesh series, Monde Zondeki replaced Charl Langeveldt.
Tony Irish is correct about players of colour competing for places, but he is referring to the 4 “reserved” spots for those players. The national team would be quite different if each player was, as Dippenaar requested, selected on merit.
The CSA’s “ruling” about ICL players not being eligible to play for their franchises has helped the case for moving black players into these open spots. I am quick to use quotation marks for “ruling” because the CSA have declared that there is no ruling, rather a gentleman’s agreement. As far as CSA are concerned, that is the same as a ruling…especially if you don’t want to be fined heavily for breaching the non-written agreement.
When Justin Kemp, Andrew Hall, Johan v/d Wath, Lance Klusener, Nico Boje and Nantie Hayward joined the ICL, the CSA jumped on this opportunity to create openings for players of colour in the franchise system by declaring that ICL players are rebels and will not be allowed to play in SA again.
If you look at their replacements, one can see a bit of a backfire. Jon Kent replaced Andrew Hall and Johann Louw replaced Klusener at the Dolphins. Dillon du Preez replaced v/d Wath as the Eagles main strike bowler. Rusty Theron took over Hayward’s role at the Warriors. Stiaan van Zyl has taken over the batting prowess at the Cobras that was left void by Kemp. Thandi Tshabalala’s spinner role in place of Boje’s at the Eagles has been the only success for CSA.
The upcoming tour to England will tell a lot of stories regarding the status of selection policies for the national team. This will be the tour where players will realize where their future lies.
My fondest memories of a South African cricket tour to England was the 1994 series, led by Kepler Wessels where there was no ounce of agendas, targets or politics. This squad was a squad selected on merit, barring, perhaps Gerhardus Liebenberg as the understudy wicket-keeper to Dave Richardson or the emergency selection of Richard Snell over Meyrick Pringle when Aubrey Martyn was injured and couldn’t tour. Even then, no politics or targets interfered.
A squad like that is very far off from ever being selected again. Until ex-cricketers and lovers of the sport take over the administration of cricket, rather than having lawyers and ex-convicts at the helm, we will be subject to seeing the cricket administrators make headlines in a South African cricket bulletin.
Tags: cricket, CSA, dippenaar, hayward, klusener, quota, target, transformation
