Proteas are now a transformed team

the multi-racial community in the Western Cape.

Since whites make up less than 9% of South Africa’s population, the seven white cricketers in the Proteas squad can only be understood in terms of the country’s apartheid past.

It is a past which the government has been keen to erase. Last year, then- sports minister Fikile Mbalula showed his impatience with the rate of change in major sporting teams, insisting he would no longer “beg for transformation”.

Mbalula dealt a blow to Athletics SA, SA Rugby, Cricket SA and Netball SA last year, announcing that the four sporting bodies’s rights to host international tournaments would be withdrawn after failing to reach their transformation targets.

However, at the recent release of the Eminent Persons Group report on transformation in South African sport, new Minister of Sports and Recreation Thulas Nxesi lifted the ban on the federations controlling cricket, rugby, netball and athletics from bidding for international events to be hosted in this country.“They have achieved their 50%, which is what the department wanted from them and based on that criteria... we can’t shift the goalposts,” said Nxesi. “The actions by my predecessor acted as an incentive for those federations.”

Cricket SA, however, deny that it expanded its quota system in response to political pressure, but there is no doubting its desire to field a team more in keeping with the racial make-up of the nation.

The refreshing truth is that it should make no difference at all to the Proteas’s chances over the coming weeks. – Daily Mail