Provinces must take responsibility for lack of transformation

SOUTH Africa is celebrating 30 years of democracy with a sporting theme “celebrating freedom through sporting excellence”, but cricket and its development through transformation has had little to no results to show in comparison to rugby.

The oval-ball game has the Springboks, whose dominance in the SA Sports Awards last weekend was the cherry on top following their recent achievements.

Their progress and presence in the world of rugby has, in the last 20 years, been an example for other sporting codes to see why transformation should exist, and just how it can help build a nation if applied correctly.

Looking to emulate their fellow colleagues, the Proteas will be going on yet another mission to release the “choke” tag that for the longest time has been applied by global tournaments throughout their existence.

Of course, there is a far less talkedabout ICC Champions Trophy win in 1998 that is clearly not held in the same esteem as a World Cup triumph.

Recently, Proteas white-ball cricket coach Rob Walter named a 15-man squad tasked to make history for themselves and the country at the

T20 World Cup without opening old wounds. Kagiso Rabada’s inclusion in the squad has sparked wide-ranging criticism, not for why he is there, but rather why he is there as the only black African player selected.

Former ICC acting president and Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement award winner Raymond Mali has said he believes that South Africa has gone backwards in terms of transformation in cricket, even though a lot has been achieved.

“We have taken a step backwards instead of going forward. I cannot understand why we can’t have a number of black players in the South African cricket team in this day and age,” cried Mali.

With that said, the question remains: Which other black African player would have made the team along with Rabada?

The CSA T20 Challenge was for so long dubbed an “unnecessary challenge”, but even as dull and not up to the standard of other T20 competitions as it is, there weren’t many black African players who showed up, especially batters. Where are they after so many years of transformation?

Speaking on the Radio2000 sports show #Gameon with Thabiso Mosia, former Proteas and Scotland cricketer Omar Henry believes the provinces need to take responsibility for this calamity. Henry was the first player of colour to represent South Africa after readmission.

“Nobody from any province has come out to say, ‘We haven’t done this or that, however we are now going to change.’ Everybody is in denial, the current leadership of all provinces have to be held accountable and responsible,” said Henry.

“They have to pull their operations people to find out who was in charge of development, who was in charge of the pipeline, what have you done in the last 10 years?

“As an observer, when I look at (Temba) Bavuma batting, I’m asking who’s the next black African batter? How big is the gap between Bavuma and (Tony) De Zorzi? Who else is there in the system?

“Then (when) I look at all-rounders, who do I see? I look at the spinners, who do I see? We cannot just carry on this conveyor belt of producing only quick bowlers; a cricket team consists of 11 players.”

Bavuma is currently the only black African batter capable of playing Test and ODI cricket for the Proteas – look around and nobody else meets the requirements.

Rugby, with the results to show for their efforts, has embraced the change and found the winning formula, with cricket going in the opposite direction.