INJURY TIME

TIME TO LEAD

IT’S been a rough week for South African cricket. The sport has had to confront racism in a way that it and society at large in this country has not done. The pain so many black people endured under apartheid, has never been assuaged - for many it can’t be. But not enough has been done to properly listen to people or understand how they feel. In doing so society and cricket has carried on as ‘normal.’ That allowed prejudice to flourish, which caused more pain for black people and the tears of Ashwell Prince and bruising recollection from Makhaya Ntini about his time in the national team. For cricket this is a critical time and Cricket SA needs to show leadership. If it embraces what has emerged in the sport in the last week, listens, understands and works to ensure that future generations in the sport don’t experience what those who played in the last 26 years have had to endure, it could set itself up in a leadership position, not just for sport but the country as a whole as well.

CSA ISN’T LISTENING

HOWEVER, on that score,

Cricket SA haven’t started very well. It took longer than it should have to support Lungi Ngidi, then as it became clear that CSA should have done more from a humane perspective to support players since unity was achieved at administrative level, CSA failed again. Prince’s emotional interview had touched the hearts of many and CSA’S response was to say it supported ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and then reel off a series a statistics about its development programme, money spent on development and figures for coaches and players in the domestic game. From a statistics perspective one can’t argue, but the last week and a half has not been about data and statistics, it’s been about people. Cricket SA missed that - as they have done with so much else.

CSA’S PR?

WE hear, that CSA has hired a PR Agency to help them with managing this process. For an organisation that is struggling financially, given how that PR has worked out, perhaps it’s best CSA saves its money.

Also, CSA has a fairly extensive communications department, who have in the last few weeks gone missing as questions arise about CSA’S administration and specifically the investigation into the suspended CEO Thabang Moroe.

PERSPECTIVE

JOFRA Archer became the first sportsman to be sanctioned for going home this week. Archer breached the England Cricket Board’s bio-bubble rules after the first Test against the West Indies, when he went home instead of going straight to the hotel at the venue for the next Test in Manchester. Asked his opinion, Michael Holding, was typically forthright. “I have no sympathy at all. I don’t understand why people can’t just do what is required,” Holding said on Sky Sports. “Talking about sacrifices - Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in a little cell and he did nothing wrong - that is a sacrifice,” he added.