With the issue of transformation coming to the fore again in the Proteas men’s team, Cricket South Africa says it has been left with no choice but to issue a stern warning to all its affiliates to strictly comply with targets leading up to the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa.
The transformation issue was top of the agenda in CSA’s three-day DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) indaba attended by players, coaches, senior managers, provincial presidents, CEOs and stakeholders behind closed doors in Pretoria last weekend.
The conversations at the indaba also covered topics such as selection trends, opportunity quality, development methods from grassroots to professional levels, leadership within organisations, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
The topic of transformation sparked discussion again when the Proteas squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup included only one black African in Kagiso Rabada and a total of six players of colour — the fewest in an ICC event squad since 2016.
When pressed and heavily criticised, Proteas white ball coach Rob Walter reasoned that the national team had a nanoscopic pool of “black” players to choose from domestically.
This was in contrast to the resolutions made at the 2018 indaba.
The most recent indaba was the third in the past 10 years, after 2013 and 2018.
The CSA 2020/2021 annual report shows that out of a breakdown of 187 player selections across three formats, 106 were white players.
This led to CSA decentralising the transformation function in the CSA 2022/2023 report and making it part of the performance areas of each executive director.
A transformation manager reports to the CEO on matters related to this objective.
This approach broadened the reach of transformation endeavours as it looks holistically at the transformation within CSA, its various supply chains and in terms of the game of cricket on the field.
But that appears to have failed.
“In the past few years, affiliates have not been complying with transformation and other CSA targets,” CSA non-independent director and Border Cricket president Simphiwe Ndzundzu told the Dispatch.
“That is what the indaba stressed mostly this weekend.
“What happened in the recent World Cup was not a good scene for the demographics of the team and is something that should not be happening in the future, especially with south Africa hosting the World Cup in 2027.
“When Rob Walter wants black players for the national team, he must be able to have a bunch to select from because really, he had a small pool to pick from in the recent World Cup because there are no players domestically,” he said.
Ndzundzu applauded the selectors’ process in the South Africa Emerging squad for the August series against Zimbabwe Emerging.
The 14-man squad captained by Western Province all-rounder Mihlali Mpongwana featured 60% players of colour which Ndzundzu says should be the blueprint of the Proteas going forward.
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