The burden of being the only black African player in the Proteas squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and US did not weigh heavily on premier fast bowler Kagiso Rabada.
But the 29-year-old has called for more discussions on issues of transformation which is a government imperative in all spheres of life to address the imbalances of the past.
In the squad that travelled to the tournament, South Africa also had coloured players in Ottniel Baartman, Bjorn Fortuin and Reeza Hendricks and Indians in Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj.
Lungi Ngidi, who is black African, was a travelling reserve.
Speaking as they prepare to face the West Indies in the first of two Tests next week, Rabada said he was not going to be comfortable being in the national squad knowing he didn’t deserve to be there.
“It didn’t put any pressure on me at all. Yes, I am a black African player and if I didn’t feel like I should be there on merit then that will be fine because I am not invincible and I can be dropped,” he said.
When he announced the squad for the World Cup, Proteas white ball coach Rob Walter said he only picked players based on merit, but admitted something needs to be done to develop and provide opportunities for black cricketers in South Africa.
“I believe in myself, I think it will be such a heavy thought during a World Cup thinking about yourself being the only black player in the team. That seemed like torture for me and I think that takes away the focus,” said Rabada, adding he doesn’t know how players of the past felt under this situation.
“You wonder how players must have felt in the past and how players in the future might feel, these are issues we need to address. I can be brash about it and say I didn’t think about it too much.
“Generally, I didn’t have any pressure on myself, it was just about winning that trophy, but for other players you will never know how it feels. Media have their say about the situation and it can really mess with the psychology of the players.”
Rabada also questioned why the topic always comes when they are playing at the World Cup, where people often blame failure to win the tournament on performances of black players.
“Those are certain things that we have to make peace with in South Africa because we have a unique landscape. This whole transformation thing, it always seems to come up when we are at the World Cup for some reason.
“That always happens in World Cups but when we are winning a series or losing other games it is not so much of an issue. That’s where there may be inconsistencies and if you ask yourself truthfully and look back in the past, have we not won a World Cup because of transformation?
“Sometimes things can be blown out of proportion, it is a unique system and a lot of people have different opinions on it because of where our country comes from. It is not a system that is particularly easy to just understand and move on from.
“It is something that has to be looked at in context but getting back to your original question, I didn’t let that get to my head.”
