Why Quotas in South African sport must fall

Why quotas in South African sport must fall

By Dhirshan Gobind

Quotas in South African sport, conveniently disguised as “transformation”, have long been a contentious issue among administrators, politicians, players and most importantly fans. To tackle this burning issue, we need to go back to its roots. Only then can we deconstruct it, try to understand where it’s going, explain its impracticality and why it simply offers more negatives than positives and does more harm than good.

By now, all sports lovers understand the gist of it. Apartheid caused a great divide. This spread across all facets of society, none more so than the sporting spectrum. South African teams were selected on colour and all non-white athletes were prohibited from participating in sport. We were ultimately and rightly so, banned from competing internationally.

Post 1994, the new government looked to address these past injustices and level the playing fields, particularly in sport. Quota systems were introduced in sports such as rugby and cricket, among others, to include black players and afford them opportunities. A worthy initiative that was met with mixed reactions and sparked debate, which has meandered on through the decades into present day where there is still no consensus.

So what is the ultimate solution? The bottom line is that if teams are still picked on colour and not merit then it is indeed a form of apartheid in reverse. If we do not learn from history then we are bound to repeat it. If we are to convince the world that we are indeed a rainbow nation then we need to start living by it. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity.

Yes, past injustices need to be corrected but do it smartly. Implement platforms and structures at junior levels to include and nurture black children and afford them opportunities that they once missed out on. Groom them from the youngest possible age in order to provide them with the best possible chance of success. But, when you begin enforcing strict quotas on provincial and national teams that is where we are veering extremely off course and heading into the proverbial abyss.

Currently, Cricket South Africa has given birth to a new quota system whereby each team has to include six players of colour, including three black Africans. Standards will inevitably drop. Even if a black player deserves his place, he is always going to be under scrutiny. South African Rugby has already committed to a 50% non-white Springbok rugby team for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Saru president Oregan Hoskins has sadly stated that “transformation” will take precedence over results in the next four years. With such mentality and thinking, we shouldn’t even be participating on the world stage.

How do coaches carry out their primary function of leading teams to victory, without such issues hindering them and their squads in a negative manner? How do such coaches “fit” certain players of colour in for the sake of doing so? If a provincial cricket team has a squad of three African players and all are injured, how is the stipulated quota to be fulfilled? This is the kind of problem the Lions cricket team encountered lately when they were embarrassingly forced to field their coach and a spectator from the crowd simply to meet certain quota criteria.

Instead of being concerned about strategies, tactics and winning formulas, coaching staff instead have to focus unnecessarily on these types of issues. How do black players feel, knowing they are there to make up mere numbers? How do the deserving white players feel, knowing they should have been included? This is what leads to an exodus of talent, Kevin Pietersen being the prime example. It messes with player’s livelihoods as it prevents the omitted, yet deserving, players of building up match fees, as well as the chance to impress national selectors.

These are just a few of the many negatives that a quota system brings. Specific examples include the 2007 Cricket World Cup squad. Loots Bosman and Roger Telemachus were selected ahead of the deserving Dale Steyn and Albie Morkel to make up a pre-promised quota of seven black players. Both players managed one game between them. How is a team expected to win world cups? The 2015 edition dished up “text-gate”, where Haroon Lorgat allegedly messaged management to include Vernon Philander ahead of the in-form Kyle Abbott in a crunch semi-final.

How do we expect to catch the All Blacks in rugby for example, when we are sabotaging ourselves? There are also double standards at play. If equal race representation is of such importance then why is our national football team exempt? The bottom line is that rugby is traditionally a white man’s game and soccer a black man’s sport. Let us play to such strengths and use it to our advantage to build our teams.

If this is not learnt quickly, we are soon going to be the laughing stock of the sporting world. Ironically, our cricket and rugby teams have done incredibly well “in spite” of enforced quotas but our football team, with no such worries, still fails. Imagine if cricket and rugby were simply allowed to pick their best teams? Proper transformation produces players such as Bryan Habana and Kagiso Rabada. Quotas simply leave a sour taste in the mouth for all concerned, even those benefiting from it. Only individual sports such as golf seem safe.

My humble opinion is that if such a biased system continues to be implemented, true sports fans must push for an international ban just like before. The quota system goes against all international sports policies and simply put, we cannot mix sports and politics. Major teams such as the Wallabies and Indian cricket team should boycott tours and series involving us. Our players should officially strike or boycott matches themselves and fans should stay away from matches. A form of tough love in order to wake up our administrators once and for all.

Quotas seem a convenient way to incite a bit of revenge for the past and if you wish to sugar-coat it, “transformation” seems a noble way to correct the past. But where is our national pride for goodness sake? All this coming from a non-white, but patriotic citizen, such as myself, should make some statement. An official red card to the quota system! #QuotasMustFall

Dhirshan Gobind is a 30-something freelance sports columnist/writer and a University of KwaZulu-Natal alumnus with a degree in marketing management. He also has a tri-weekly column in The Post.

Tags: cricket, race quotas, rugby, sport

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 blobbok
The issue of racism in SA is a tragedy and raise its head when incited by politicians.  But what happened in reality on the sportsfield - whether in rugby or cricket?  For me the defining moment is when players embrace players on the field of play when a certain player - irrespective of race - does well.  That to me is why there is hope for our future.
In the case of Universities the chaos is caused by politicos - assisted often enough by outsiders - not students at all.   When they are indeed registered as students - they are not interested in passing - but want to be donated degrees.  The vast majority of students - irrespective of race - are real students only interested in getting their degrees.
The fact is that last Monday a group of students attacked the university they are supposed to study at when they tried to disrupt a official event at the university.  That is a disgrace and they got what they were looking for in the first instance.  I wonder whether the first incident - when the protester leader attacked a female student and hit her on the head with the microphone he was carrying was not the actual reason for the chaos that followed.
A lot of spectators at the match were not White - but the real question mark is why did the incident become a racial incident - when the spectators are of all races.  They went to the game to enjoy themselves and support their team - the protesters went there to destroy their enjoyment of the game.  To my mind they got what they deserved.  
In the end there were photos of Whites helping the injured protesters from the field - but that counts for nothing in this race war the various political parties wants to wage in this election year.
My whole argument is that we need to unite in sport and select merit players irrespective of race.              
  

 Sadly, I don't think anything will change ........... the ANC have total control over our sports & they'll never ever relinquish that power & control. Our talented youth will continue (in even greater numbers) leaving to greener pastures overseas . Eventually sports fans getting increasingly gatvol will boycott watching their substandard teams .

Vokking bleak & depessing .

 Bob thanks for a great article.
By now, all sports lovers understand the gist of it. Apartheid caused a great divide. This spread across all facets of society, none more so than the sporting spectrum
Of course racism in sport is the least of our worries. Job discrimination is far worse.  We are living in the new racist South Africa as I have always said.Bob I do hope that nutter ab ass wont through his toys out of the cot re this article. He will probably argue you are a racist for bring it up.I am also surprised ou maaaikie isn't complaining about this political article as this is after all a rugby forum. Ou maaaikie was of course completely duped into thinking the anc were a bunch of angels and I guess he now is trying to distance himself from the rabble. ou maaaikie as we have seen re the USA election discussion is easily duped a she sucks up main stream media like a sponge. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha Yes ou maaaikie had so much egg landing he desperately wanted no more discussion about the USA election. Bwaha hahahahahahahaha
You could get rid of racism in sport but that is only the tip of the iceberg in the new racist south africa. As usual the main and critical factors are overlooked. Thankfully Beeno is here to set the record straight.
As for competing with the hapless wee abs the abandonment of quotas would help and this includes coaching - who is ricardo loubscher really?. Then we must thereafter deal with bent down under refs be it ever so severely. Then somehow stop the overseas exodus - a difficult one. Then get in central contracting. Restructure the provincial set up and reduce the number of provinces down. Then utilize our best coaches and get in some overseas talent re attacking/backline play as we are behind.To achieve all this we need a Trump as president. The duffers in charge are too incompetent to do anything.

 Funny how the blacks feel the need to force their way into anything and everything white ... playing the race card as far they go ... as if that justifies their forced entrance ... and after they've gained access ... the event's not only spoilt but it crashes and burns, becoming yet another failure. 
The whites leave ... never to return.
Funny how the whites have no desire to join in anything black. How they feel quite comfortable doing their own thing. Quite comfortable enjoying the works of their own hands. There's no desire to invade ... no desire to force their way in where they'r not wanted ... not invited. 

Can the black man not put something together of his own? Is he really that useless? Is his only form of enjoyment white based? Why then is he so racist? Why then is he so anti-white? 
Makes me think of a story I heard awhile back ... 
A black family finds themselves living in a desolate African city. There's no power in the city ... no running water ... no food apart from the last dry crust of bread they're about to eat ... even the wild life has been slaughtered and consumed ... the city's covered in garbage and litter ... sewage runs freely down the side of the streets ... the local shop no longer carries stock due to corruption and theft ... in short ... their circumstances are desperate ... dire!!
Suddenly the lights go on ... there's a splutter at the kitchen sink and water starts pouring from the tap ... they hear a squeal of tires outside followed by a loud thump only to peak out the window to see two guys dropping a bag of maize meal and other basic food items ... and then race off on their way to the next desperate location.
Husband turns to his wife and says "Bring me my panga dear, the white man's back" ... 

CC I agree with your sentiments but would say that a discussion based on  ‘us’ and ‘them’ 

is going nowhere. I believe the vast majority of the ‘them’ are law abiding decent humans who want the best for their families and do not support the breakdown of society in SA. 

The problem is the minority who constantly cross the line in the knowledge that there will 

be no accountability because  they only have to point at their colour and reference apartheid.

 

This is the freedom the great new government has spawned.

Action point 1. get rid of the cANCer. 

Fees must fall? 

 There are many very valid points in a very lengthy article but there are also a few fallacies. This one  being the biggest, IMO.
"South African teams were selected on colour and all non-white athletes were prohibited from participating in sport."
That is simply not true. "Non-white athletes were never prohibited from  participating in sports". That is a blatant lie. There were many sports people of colour long before 1994 and many of them competed at a very high level. 
"By the late 1970s, South African sports boards began receiving more autonomy from the government. A major result of this increasing independence was greater racial integration of the different sports. This marked a first step toward South African participation in international competition."
There were even some of them who obtained national colours long before 1994 or even before 1990. Some names come to mind:
Athletics:Matthews Temane - 17 national titles from 1982 - 1989. Matthews  Batswadi - The first black athlete to  obtain Springbok Colours. Got Springbok colours in 1977. "Batswadi received Springbok Colours in 1977 after the national athletics federation, the South African Amateur Athletics Association, deracialised its constitution to allow blacks and whites to compete against each other."Matthews (Loop-en-val) Motshwarateu.  
Boxing:Dingaan Thobela. Norman "Pangaman" Sekgapane. Peter Mathebula. Welcome Ncita. 
Rugby: Errol Tobias. Avril Williams. 
There are many names, from various sports disciplines that could be added. Fact that, no matter how hard some people would cry that it is not true, blacks simply had no interest or very limited interest in rugby and cricket. Yes, there some interest and there were black clubs and governing bodies  but it was nowhere near the interest that they had in football. 
I have asked the same question many times over and has never had an answer. "Why were there black football clubs with huge support for many years, to such an extent that the whites were almost 'pushed out of football', but the same could not happen in rugby and cricket?". Many people  might not even know it, but there was a time  when SA had an all white Springbok football team. I had a friend whose dad was a Springbok football player. He played for SA against NZ and OZ in 1947. 
My conclusion is that it simply has got to have something to do with interest in the game. 
That brings me to the rest of the article which touches on many of the sentiments that I have had for a long time. We went about the whole transformation issue in a completely wrong way and that has set us back by probably thirty+ years in successfully "transforming" the sport. There is no way that anybody was going to get it right by forcing the issue. 
To address it, you have to start off with asking yourself  why young black players have not been playing the game in big numbers. Note that I am referring to black players in particular because that is the focus point of the govt. They don't feel a fark about the fact that there are no Indian rugby players. Nobody has ever said a word about that. 
The answer is that, on average, the parents of the youngsters do not have an interest in rugby (and  cricket, for that matter). In addition, there is no interest from the average black schools either. The players of colour, who are making it to the top in rugby and cricket are all from so-called "white schools". The predominantly black schools do not play rugby and cricket.
There is nothing going on at "grassroot-level" in either rugby or cricket. Zero. That is  where they should  have started many years ago. As far back as the late 1970's, when the sports governing bodies got more autonomy from the government. That was when they should have started to reach out to the blacks to raise their interest in the game. Only problem  is that, at that time, we had so much political unrest that it was virtually impossible to expect any white coach, PR officer or whatever official that you wanted to use, to go into those areas to try and raise the interest in the game. 
That is where we missed the boat to get blacks involved in the game. It was then aggravated when the ANC took over and, instead of going to back to primary school level and create an interest in the sport right there, they tried to force it at the top level. Think about it. Where does the interest in rugby and cricket come from, in each of us on this forum? Where did it start? Our dads played the game and they encouraged us to play it from a young age. The black kids did  not have that. Their dads played football and were not interested in "the white man's game".
Bear in mind  that TV was in  its infant shoes in SA at the time. It is not even worth it to dwell on the effect thereof. The only thing that can be said is that it would have been a major boost to create awareness in rugby and cricket, had we had TV from the time  that the rest of the world had it. 
One last remark. Everybody blames the evil white Nationalist Party for the debacle and say that they were responsible for starting all this BS. In cricket the name of Basil  D'Oliviera always crops up to demonstrate how the f*ckers in the white govt screwed him. The Pomms like to wrap us over the knuckles about it. Fact is that they conveniently choose to forget about the case of "Krom  Hendricks". 
Krom Hendricks? (Remember that the National Party was founded in 1915)
"Armien 'Krom' Hendricks was a South African cricketer. Hendricks, a Cape Malay, was considered the fastest bowler in South Africa in the 1890s.[1] He suffered from the racial segregation in South Africa throughout his career, particularly in a much publicised prevention of him touring England in 1894. He instead made gradually reduced appearances in South African domestic cricket."

"Hendricks played in a Combined Malay XI against Walter Read's touring England team on 2 March 1892,[3] where he took four wickets for 50 runs. He also batted at six, making eight and five.[4] He was described by Test cricketers George Rowe and Bonnor Middleton as "one of the fastest bowlers they had witnessed".[5] His wickets were not included in the tour averages, however he "earned the published respect of the visitors as the fastest, most challenging legitimate bowler in South Africa, one whom batsmen were keen to avoid."[3] He was singled out by Read as being "central to any SA side that might be selected to tour England" and many white members of the South African Cricket Association and local newspapers advocated for his inclusion in the South African team to tour England in 1894.[6]

Transvaal and Western Province both called for Hendricks' inclusion in an 1894 tour of England. Walter Read said that if they were to send one player on the tour, to send Hendricks.[2] However, political pressure from the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, Cecil Rhodes, saw the head of cricket in South Africa, Sir William Milton leave Hendricks out of the South African touring team because of his race. The official decision was ruled as it was seen to be "impolitic to include him in the team."[3] Harry Cadwallader, secretary of SACA, suggested Hendricks' travel on tour as a baggage master, an offer Hendricks' publicly refused. Augustus Bernard Tancred made a statement alluding that Hendricks' would never be treated equally if he did travel.[3]

Hendricks was never selected to play for his national team,[1] and the media used Hendricks' case as an illustration of the need for racial segregation.[3]South African first-class cricketer and historian André Odendaal described Hendricks' exclusion as "entrench[ing] segregation in South African cricket and confirm[ing] that the English political and sports establishments were responsible for this."[6][7]

Later in 1894, Hendricks performed strongly in a Cape Town cricket competition, prompting calls for him to represent the Colonial Born side against an invitation Mother Country team, however he was not allowed to join the team and Western Province cut him loose from their squad also.[3] He was again prohibited from facing England in the winter of 1895–96, and from appearing in a league championship in 1897. Support from Western Province fell away, as their Cricket Board voted eleven to three to not include him in their team.[3]"