Publications
Partners
Good afternoon,
I send this request as a South African cricket supporter to ask for the International Cricket Council for their view/standpoint on Cricket South Africa’s policies of interfering with the selection of players based on merit. In my opinion this is nothing else than government getting involved in the selection of sporting teams, something I am sure should be of concern to the ICC.
This was in the news again over the last week when Haroon Lorgat announced targets for the cricket domestic competition in South Africa. Haroon is the current Chief Executive of the CSA and was Chief Executive of the ICC from 2008 -2012.
FIFA suspended the Nigerian football team in July last year for government interference which I think sends a strong message to governments on where their area of responsibility ends.
Obviously I don’t want to see the Proteas suspended, however I hope that the ICC can influence CSA to not have apartheid like policies. We all know that 2 wrongs don’t make a right.
There is very little room for error in international cricket, at semifinal stage of the world cup it is zero. It would be a real shame if one day our captain (tears in his eyes) has to defend his ‘team’ at the post match press conference, knowing that it was never a team. In addition we should never judge the impact of selecting a quota player on his performance on the day as that is insignificant compared to the impact it has on the team and preparation leading up to the game.
I look forward to the day when South Africa will be represented on the sporting field by players represented by our countries demographics, however only when this is based on merit.
It would be great for the ICC to make a statement on this topic. Apologies if this has been done previously, I have not managed to find any reference to this.
*Copy of this was sent to ICC and CSA for response.
Regards
Hendrik du Toit
