SOUTH African cricket has been through a turbulent phase in the past. For twenty one years (from 1970 to 1991) the team was ostracized from world cricket because of the apartheid policies followed in that land. After its return to mainstream cricket, the spectre of match-fixing haunted some of its top players. But in spite of these obstacles, the team has shown grit and fighting spirit.
Yes, the team’s record in big events has not been all that great and the tag of chokers has been attached to them in the past. But I feel, more than anything else, the quota system has done more harm than good to the team. And if the team has been guilty of choking in the past in times of crises, it is because the best players have not always been in the side.
According to the current policy in SA cricket, there have to be at least three colored players in the starting eleven. This policy has been adopted by SA cricket to compensate people of colored origin in the country, who were severely deprived of equal opportunities during the apartheid regime.
While something must surely be done to redeem people who have been deprived in the past, I’m not too sure having a quota for colored players in the national cricket team is the best way of going about the ‘rebuilding of the psyche’ task.
The best eleven players – irrespective of the color of their skin – should always be in the team. I think that’s what sport is all about. In the peculiar case of South Africa, things have admittedly been different but sports should be kept away from this quota business. Surely there are other ways of redeeming people, than by diluting the selection process and making it mandatory to have colored players in the team, knowing fully well that there are other more talented white players, who are being kept out for no fault of their own. (But for the fault of their forefathers).
Even now, SA cricket is going through such a predicament. The management is in a dilemma over the selection of (out-of-form) paceman Makhaya Ntini. In the opening Test of the on-going series against England, SA had the upper hand and were very close to winning that game. Debutant paceman Friedel de Wet brought them on the brink of victory with an inspired burst of pace bowling. But in the very next game this promising white bowler was dropped from the side in order to retain Ntini.
Dale Steyn was returning from injury and needed to be brought back for the second Test. But after a promising debut, De Wet did not deserve to be dropped just because of the color of his skin. As it turned out, South African bowling was abysmal – with Ntini being particularly listless – and it wasn’t surprising to see them lose heavily to England in that Test. Why? Because they did not pick the best eleven. They wanted to hold on to their colored players at all costs, even if that meant compromising the balance of the side. It will not be wrong to say that at the moment there is a bit of “reverse apartheid” going on as far their cricket selection is concerned.
This “reverse apartheid” has seen SA lose players of the calibre of Kevin Peitersen (and we all know what a loss for SA he has been) in the past. More recently, Jonathan Trot has become the latest “white reject” from SA to play for England. And Trot showed what a talented player he is with his match-winning century against Australia during the last Ashes won by England.
SA management are desperate to cling on to the likes of Ashwell Prince (player of colored origin) in their batting line-up. But have no place for talented batsmen like Peitersen and Trot (white players). Admittedly, apartheid was a most deplorable policy. But why should the likes of Peitersen and Trot suffer for the mistakes made by their forefathers?.
Apart from Peitersen and Trot, there are several other white SA players who have left their country and are now playing county cricket in England under the “Kolpak Rule”. They have chosen to leave SA because, like Peitersen and Trot, they too have realized that the quota system gives them little or no chance of getting into the national side.
Undoubtedly, colored players like JP Duminy and Hashim Amla select themselves. But what the quota system means is that even if these players (Amla & Duminy) are in poor form, they can only be replaced by other colored players. Ntini has been a great bowler for SA in the past. He has played more than a hundred Tests for SA. But now he is woefully out of form and needs to be replaced. The color of Ntini’s skin should have nothing to do with his selection. An out-of-form Ntini should not be retained in the side purely on the basis of his being black.
SA wants to compensate people of colored origin, who have suffered in the past and that’s great. But sport should be left out of this “reverse apartheid”.
