Test team living up to Rainbow ideal

Trump’s election as US president has the potential to influence Los Angeles’ chances of hosting the 2024 Olympics. For better or worse.

Some International Olympic Committee members — who will choose between Los Angeles, Paris and Budapest, Hungary, in a vote next September — cited possible pros and cons yesterday of Trump’s role in the American bid.

As a polarising presidential candidate, Trump’s words on Muslims, Mexicans and other issues could have offended some of the 98 IOC members from around the world who will select the host city.

“It may have,” said the IOC’s longest- serving member, Dick Pound of Canada.

At the same time, Pound did not rule out the possibility that Trump could help win votes if he travels to Lima, Peru, in September to pitch the Los Angeles bid in person to the IOC ahead of the secret ballot.

“If he is there, and evidently he is someone who feeds off his audience, there is no reason to think he can’t work this audience as well.”

South African IOC member Sam Ramsamy, whose country has been described by Trump as a “very dangerous mess”, dismissed any lingering effect with 10 months left before the 2024 Olympic vote.

“He has been rude to everybody,” Ramsamy said. “I don’t believe it will affect bidding in any way.”

In a statement yesterday congratulating Trump, the Los Angeles 2024 bid committee said the Olympics can “transcend politics and help unify our diverse communities and our world”.

Citing 88 per cent support for its bid, the committee pointed to strong bipartisan support at all levels of government.

“We look forward to working closely with President- elect Trump and his administration across the federal government” to deliver a successful Olympics, the statement said.

IOC President Thomas Bach offered a brief statement on Trump’s election: “Let me congratulate President- elect Trump on his victory and wish him all the best for his term in office for all the people of the US and the world.”

Swiss IOC member Rene Fasel suggested that if Trump spoke offensively during the presidential race, it was a tactic to woo voters that worked.

“You saw his [ acceptance] speech and it’s already a different man,” Fasel said, citing Trump’s first public address as president- elect which sought to be more inclusive.

While Trump has little track record with the Olympic movement, his opponent, Hillary Clinton, was a supporter of New York’s failed bid for the 2012 Games and has attended several Olympics. She was First Lady when the US last hosted the Summer Games, in Atlanta in 1996.

President Barack Obama went to the IOC vote in Copenhagen in 2009 to support Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics. Chicago was still eliminated in the first round, with the Games awarded to Rio de Janeiro.

Clinton’s presidential campaign has some close ties to Los Angeles bid leaders. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is a Democrat who spoke at the Democratic Party convention in July which formally nominated Clinton. Bid chairman Casey Wasserman was also a prominent Clinton backer. Ever since the end of apartheid in South Africa, debate has raged about whether the nation’s sporting teams are representative of the country.

The demographics of the cricket test squad touring Australia do not mirror the demographics of the 54 million people from its homeland. But if ever a side reflected the ideals of the Rainbow nation envisaged by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, it is the XI that steamrolled Australia by 177 runs at the WACA.

They are a diverse mix of ethnic groups, backgrounds, ages and religions. Devout Muslim Hashim Amla continues to feast on bowling attacks while fasting during Ramadan. Skipper Faf du Plessis, who studied at Afrikaanse Hoer Seunskool ( Afrikaans Boys’ High School), is a man of faith who describes himself as a “Jesus follower” on Twitter.

There are strutters and softlyspoken types but there is a clear sense of cohesion. And they can play the game pretty well, too.

Quota systems are by nature divisive and will create tension. It was no different when Cricket South Africa ( CSA) revealed in September its formal “transformation targets” designed to help make cricket more inclusive and accessible for a disadvantaged black African majority.

CSA decreed the Proteas must field a minimum average of six players of colour, of which at least two must be black African.

The numbers were to be enforced over the course of a season, rather than an individual match. This would help avoid the sort of situation that eventuated at last year’s World Cup, when speculation swirled that Vernon Philander played the semifinal to meet an informal quota requirement.

It is early days for the policy, which is also backed up by even more aggressive targets at domestic level, but the first test showed progression and performance can go hand in hand.

Kagiso Rabada and Temba Bavuma took contrasting paths to world cricket but both have made a big impression in a short space of time.

Rabada, the son of a doctor and lawyer who attended one of South Africa’s most expensive schools in Johannesburg, was rightly judged man of the match in Perth and is one of the most exciting young pacemen in the world.

Bavuma, who hails from a township outside Cape Town, ran out David Warner at the WACA with an incredible piece of fielding and also contributed 59 runs and a wicket to the Proteas’ cause.

Rabada and Bavuma both warrant selection on merit.