Toyana leads way to transforming transformation
BLACK men who do not stick out from the crowd are hard to find at the higher levels of SA cricket. Soon, they are gone. Next, forgotten.
Geoff Toyana does not stick out, but he is also not gone and not forgotten. Instead, he is that rare being — the bulletproof black man who has grown from first-class player to trophy-winning franchise coach.
So there is no choice but to take him seriously when he says: “We are not going to have black African players in the national team unless we back them and are patient with them at franchise level. I hope all the coaches keep to that mandate.”
Toyana spoke after four days of what Cricket SA called “constructive debate and engagement” between coaches. Among the facts revealed to them was that only two black Africans played in 80% of their franchise’s matches last season.
The use of “mandate” suggested strong action would follow, perhaps along the lines of the quota that will be implemented in South Africa’s second- tier provincial rugby competition this season.
Not quite. “It was more of a casual understanding than a formal agreement, but a commitment was made to giving black Africans more of an opportunity,” Toyana said.
How that will happen is unclear. There are thoughts of sending players from provinces that are better endowed with black talent to those that aren’t, and plans are also under way to revitalise the 2003 World Cup legacy project that put grounds around the country but did not adequately ensure they would continue to serve as cricket venues.
A transformation of transformation is in the works. It should take a more discernible shape at a Cricket SA indaba next month.
For Mfuneko Ngam, that will come too late. “I needed to bowl at 150 kilometres-an-hour for people to notice me,” Ngam said. “I got injured because I had to work harder than the white guy next to me.
“It’s always a survival situation for black cricketers. Talent alone is not going to make it happen.”
So prodigious was Ngam’s talent that the marketing suits sought to brand him as “Black Thunder” sharing a stage with “White Lightning”, aka Allan Donald. He made his first-class debut in 1997-98, played three tests in 2000, and retired in 2007 — a month after turning 28 — in a body more broken than it should have been and with just 46 first-class matches to his name.
Ngam’s is a cautionary tale with implications for the future. Not that players can blame everything on the system.
“Sometimes our black cricketers don’t push themselves to the limit as much as the white players,” Ngam said. “Black players are different. Maybe it’s our upbringing — we relied on someone telling us what to do all the time. Perhaps we’re still doing that instead of getting on with doing it.”
Toyana’s career of 84 first-class matches, which he played mainly for Gauteng, Easterns and the Titans between 1995-96 and 2008, was not cut short by injuries. But he had to heal from other wounds.
“You would be labelled as a quota player no matter what you had done,” he said. “Even Makhaya (Ntini, a veteran of 101 tests), when he was a regular member of the national team, was called a quota player. We played today and we did not play tomorrow. You were playing for your spot in the side every time you played.”
If only two black players were involved in 80% of their team’s games last sea6son, not nearly enough has changed.