It seems like there is no getting rid of the ‘politics’ in sport in South Africa. Not too long ago all the talk was about Jake White and the Springboks, now over the last couple of days the focus has been on the South Africa national cricket team. To sum it up, the national cricket selectors picked the team they wanted to tour Bangladesh but the president of Cricket SA, Norman Arendse, had other ideas and picked his own team that he thought should go on the tour. As expected in such a situation, trouble flared.

And all of this is stemming yet again from the issue of ‘transformation’ which has been a common occurrence in sport in South Africa. It is reported that Cricket SA believe that there should be at least 7 black players in the touring party of 14 and that such a tour to Bangladesh, which is the weakest of the test playing teams, would be a great opportunity to give new young players a go. Point taken, if you are ever going to give new young players a go, there would be no better place than giving them a crack against a team they are more than likely to beat. It would be a different story if you are to debut youngsters against a team like Australia. Chances are, the new young players could be badly beaten and that could knock their confidence for the rest of their careers.

On the other hand, one has to understand where the national selectors which include team coach Mickey Arthur are coming from. They (the selectors) want to pick the best team available to them and not have to worry about the composition of the team with regards to race. As a country, shouldn’t we want to see the best team and players available to South Africa represent South Africa?  Transformation is needed in cricket in South Africa but shouldn’t the black players be picked on merit? Look at Herschelle Gibbs, he has been dropped from the touring team because he is in poor form. If you are not playing well, you do not deserve to play.

This whole cricket row has yet again gone to show that there is a long way to go in cricket in South Africa before all parties involved agree on a common goal and find a way to make transformation work. Because of this disagreement, coach Mickey Arthur was almost sacked from the selection pool but it would have been a breach of contract if Cricket SA had sacked him as a selector. That now also makes me question Cricket SA, how can they come out and threaten to sack the coach meanwhile they know it is not possible as the coaches contract states that he has to be part of the selection team. You do not come out and say things you know you can not do!

Now that this selection row is over let us move on and support the team during their tour and lets hope we do not go through this again, but chances are high we have not heard the end of this and it is going to crop up again.

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