He was a star — then he was cast aside
● In 1998 I played for a strong Bishops schools hockey team in the Western Cape schools cup final against Pinelands High. I assumed we would win. By the end of the match, the score read 6-0 … to Pinelands.
Anyone who saw the display on that day of Thami Tsolekile would not have argued with a headline, “Tsolekile 6, Bishops 0”. He single-handedly dismantled the Bishops team.
Later I played with him for Western Province and SA under-21 hockey teams. By then he had represented the SA senior team, scoring a goal with his first touch of the ball. I played with him again, in Langa’s hockey and cricket teams.
My greatest sporting moment was playing a hockey match in 2010 alongside Tsolekile for newly promoted Langa, in a Western Province Grand Challenge game against the previous season’s undefeated provincial and national champions, Stellenbosch University. Against all odds, Langa won.
One of our players was pushed to the ground in the opening minutes. It awakened the spirit of everyone in that Langa team that day. It seems the same spirit is being awakened among black cricketers as one too many have been “pushed to the ground”. I long to see SA harness this spirit.
Later, Tsolekile gave up hockey for cricket to make a living. He captained SA Schools in 1998 and 1999 and was captain of the SA under-19 World Cup side in 2000. Graeme Smith was also selected.
Tsolekile was selected for three Test matches against India in 2004 but he subsequently spent most of his career on the sidelines. He was never given a real chance. Potential stars are not given three Test matches before giving up on them, let alone an away Test series in India, one of the toughest places in the world to play cricket.
When Mark Boucher was injured in 2012 on tour in England it was Tsolekile’s chance, but instead AB de Villiers was persuaded to keep wicket.
Tsolekile had been informed he would be reserve keeper before joining the team but to now say this made everything OK and assume he was happy shows a lack of understanding and respect. Why draft him at that point in his career if you had no intention of playing him? Do you really think he was happy? He was a star but was treated like a quota player.
I don’t think we will ever know how much of a detrimental effect this had on Tsolekile. I can only imagine it being confusing and humiliating.
We cannot turn the clock back but Tsolekile’s story should be heard. Instead of trying to justify everything that happened, Cricket SA (CSA) should make its own admissions, learn some lessons and commit to real changes instead of cosmetic ones.
I was fortunate to play alongside this exceptional sports person. Tsolekile was a once-in-a-generation sports person whom most national sports bodies would have welcomed and done all they could to support. Tragically, not CSA.
* McInroy played 45 hockey internationals for SA. He founded the Unogwaja Charitable Trust