Ruck&Maul Column
The latest quotas drama in South African cricket has reared its ugly head, with the Warriors being docked five log points and fined heavily for failing to field three black African players in a 1-Day Cup match.
Now, strictly speaking, the Warriors were in breach of the “administrative conditions” that require them to field three black African players and six players of colour overall. But while they achieved the latter, they only had two black players in the team for the game against the Dolphins on February 16.
The problem was that the Warriors and their coach Robin Peterson did not provide an explanation before the match to CSA, as they are required to do, as to why they didn’t field three black African players.
A few other teams have reportedly fallen short of the requirement this season, and Cricket South Africa were satisfied with it, and ordered those teams to field a starting XI with four black African players in it in a future match to make up for the shortfall.
Now even just speaking in these terms almost sounds absurd, let alone actually implementing this transformation policy. But there is method to Cricket SA’s ‘madness’.
Do you think the likes of Makhaya Ntini, Kagiso Rabada, Temba Bavuma, Hashim Amla, Herschelle Gibbs, Ashwell Prince, JP Duminy and many other players of colour would’ve ever been selected for the national team if it wasn’t for strong transformation policies?
Yet, after lowering the numbers for a while, Cricket SA reintroduced strict quotas for domestic cricket in 2013 as there simply were not enough players of colour – and in particular black African players – coming through the system to push for a Proteas berth.
Yet, in recent years, only Rabada and Bavuma have been regular black African figures at the highest level – so that is why there is still a need for quotas in franchise cricket. Otherwise, those players would simply be left out.
In fact, it was even worse in previous decades, despite ‘unity’ being achieved in 1991, which saw a South African side travel to India for three one-day internationals.
I placed the word ‘unity’ in quotation marks, because the question remains: Has true unity ever been achieved in South African cricket? Or rugby for that matter?
Yes, the Springboks have done remarkably well in that regard under coach Rassie Erasmus and captain Siya Kolisi, but let’s address the oval-ball game later.
In the past, there was a situation involving former left-arm fast bowler Gareth Flusk, who played for Easterns under coach Ray Jennings in Benoni.
My brother and I termed it the ‘Gareth Flusk Syndrome’ – that is, a player of colour not being given a fair opportunity as a batter or bowler, but being selected in the starting XI.
Flusk endured that glaringly during the 2002 SuperSport Series final against Western Province.
Flusk, a fast bowler, batted No 11 in both innings, and only bowled eight overs out of 119 in WP’s first innings, and none in their second innings of 73.4 overs.
Two other players of colour in the Easterns side at the time, specialist batters Mpho Sekhoto and Geoff Toyana – who has become a top-class coach – batted at No 10 and No 8 in the first innings, and No 5 and No 9 in the second.
In more recent years, batting all-rounder Aviwe Mgijima also experienced batting down the order and not bowling in certain matches for Western Province, although he eventually was given a proper chance and prospered.
That is unfortunately why it is still a necessary evil even today, as players of colour – especially black African players – would simply not receive adequate opportunities.
Many cricket fans on social media, though, have complained that quotas should be done away with, and that merit selection should be the only policy.
That is the utopia that South African cricket, rugby and society as a whole would want to achieve one day.
But 31 years of a democratic dispensation can’t erase hundreds of years of injustice and discrimination in one fell swoop.
We can even break it down to the simplest of issues that affects transformation in South African cricket: equipment, facilities and coaching.
It is an expensive sport to play in every respect, and that is one of the prime reasons why there are so few black African batters coming through the SA system and playing franchise cricket.
But there are lessons that can be learnt from the rugby Springboks’ inclusive environment under Rassie Erasmus.
One of those have already been embraced by the Proteas with the appointment of Bavuma as the captain.
But way more needs to be done.
The rugby players will tell you that they do actually feel at home in the Bok environment – and that wasn’t the case until Erasmus changed the narrative around transformation and embracing change.
Cricket South Africa need to follow a similar path.
Speak openly about why there are quotas in place in domestic cricket and targets in the Proteas set-up, what the plan is going forward, and perhaps be a bit more sympathetic when a team like the Warriors do fall short of the requirements.
* Ashfak Mohamed is the Deputy Sports Editor at Independent Media.