Quotaless T20 a big step backwards
Cricket SA has dealt transformation a blow by opting not to implement quotas in its new Global League
Earlier this year, Cricket South Africa (CSA) said it would be launching a Global T20 League. Up to this point, South African interest in our T20 league had been slight.
In the CSA T20 Challenge, formerly the Ram Slam, crowds were often limited to diehard fans of local cricket. The few games that were televised exposed empty stadiums and entertained a smattering of channel surfers and gym treadmill users.
This provides an easy contrast to the indomitable Indian Premier League and Australia’s festive Big Bash League, which regularly fill gargantuan stadiums with supporters.
These T20 competitions have become highlights of the international cricketing calendar, complete with pyrotechnics and cheerleaders. Many top players now prioritise early retirement from international cricket to allow them to spend a few years playing under lucrative contracts in T20 leagues around the world.
In this context, it seems indisputable that such a tournament in South Africa was inevitable and overdue. It has been long anticipated. Perhaps surprisingly, then, information about the league is difficult to come by and is being revealed by CSA in a helter-skelter fashion.
This suggests to the casual observer — armed only with Google and a hunger for unreasonably detailed information on cricket — that panic rather than careful planning has resulted in the lightningfast materialisation of South Africa’s Global T20 League.
Kolpak, quotas and T20
One possible reason for the panic is the re-emerging tendency for players, especially white players, to take up lucrative “Kolpak” deals in England and on the international T20 circuit.
This issue came to the fore again in January, when Kyle Abbott dumped the Proteas for the greener, albeit rainier, pastures of county cricket. Many blamed the transformation targets in national and domestic cricket.
Currently, in South Africa’s domestic leagues, CSA requires teams to select at least six black players, at least three of whom are black African players, in every game. The results have been impressive. Many players have taken advantage of these more frequent opportunities immediately.
Examples include players such as Khaya Zondo (currently captaining South Africa A and the Dolphins franchise), Andile Phehlukwayo (who roared on to the scene with sensational performances against Australia), Lungi Ngidi (who, alongside Kagiso Rabada, is the fiery future of South African bowling and debuted destructively for South Africa against Sri Lanka), and Mangaliso Mosehle (the hard-hitting wicketkeeper whose vigour recently earned him a spot in the South African T20 team against Sri Lanka).
At a national level, the target is that on average six black players, at least two of whom are black African players, are selected in a season. Reports indicate that these targets were exceeded in the first seven months of 2017 and the team was noticeably more representative than it has ever been.
Aren’t the lucrative opportunities more vital for black players than domestic games played for a relative pittance in desolate stadiums?