However selected, support SA teams
Cricket quotas
SEEMINGLY lost among all the noise of local electioneering rhetoric was a statement from Cricket South Africa setting out proposals for the quota system to be implemented in local and international teams here in South Africa. This is a highly emotive issue with a large portion of a small minority who cling hard on to the past, but at the end of the day no wailing and gnashing of teeth is going to stop quotas being part of our major sport codes, particularly those perceived to have been the domain of the white community, that is rugby and cricket.
Both of these sports feed off the private and former Model C schools where football is not overly exposed so it is unsurprising that few white players are represented in either club or the Bafana sides. However the imposition of quotas seems to me to place a heavy burden on the players involved.
The question the players will be asking themselves is, “Am I here on merit or to fill a quota?” They have to turn up at matches with naysayers just hoping that they don’t perform so that they can say, “We told you”.
There is no doubt that there are many talented black rugby and cricketers out there, and it would be unfair to paint them all with the “quota player” brush. You simply cannot regard young Kagiso Rabada as a quota player. His performances speak another story. The merit players in the sides also have a heavy burden to carry in that, knowing that some members of the team are likely not there on merit, responsibility falls on them to ensure that the team as a whole performs, which can lead to some resentment when the team fails. Notwithstanding all this, we as self-proclaimed South Africans need to support our teams, both provincial as well as national, irrespective of the spectre of quotas.
By boycotting matches or badmouthing the teams, we do a disservice to the players, merit or quota selected, who will always be giving their best. By staying away we would deprive ourselves of seeing our good players do well as well as the coming of age of some of the quota players.
Bafana Bafana has had its fair share of criticism and most white folk I know regard them as a bunch of losers, but as a South African, I feel that they are our Bafana Bafana as much as the Proteas and the Springboks are our Proteas and Springboks no matter the makeup of the teams. Quotas are here to stay, so let’s stop bitching and get behind our teams regardless.
Malcolm Dodds, Sherwood, Port Elizabeth