Does CSA have double standards?

COMMENT

The Warriors and Eastern Province Cricket (EPC) find themselves in hot water after being sanctioned by Cricket South Africa (CSA) earlier this week for breaching Clause 3.2.2 of the governing body's administrative conditions, which requires teams to field a minimum of three black African players in the starting XI.

Not only have the Warriors missed out on Wednesday's play-off in the ongoing CSA 1-Day Cup — having been docked five points — but they also find themselves at the bottom of the overall Division 1 standings. This puts them at risk of relegation at the end of the season, in addition to facing a hefty R500 000 fine.

All of this stems from their failure to report, before their 1-Day Cup fixture against the Dolphins three weeks ago, that they would require an exemption — a process that multiple teams followed this season when they were unable to field the prerequisite number of black players in their team.

The Warriors and EPC now face unwanted scrutiny. However, CSA’s strictness in this case raises questions of transparency and equity. Perhaps the most pressingly obvious:  Where was this level of enforcement during the SA20 last month when teams were fielding all-white line-ups?

After all, CSA is a joint owner of the SA20, and given their stated ambition to transform the sport to better reflect the country’s demographics, one would expect these transformation policies to apply to their premier tournament as well.

It is understood that CSA, unlike the domestic competitions, don't fully control the SA20, with teams largely owned by private investors, limiting the organisation's ability to enforce their transformation targets. 

Nevertheless, if requiring three black African players per XI is deemed unattainable for the SA20, then the system is arguably flawed. Would it perhaps not be best to implement lighter targets in that tournament to ensure greater exposure for players of colour, in what is widely regarded as the format's second-best competition after the IPL?

Instead, Pretoria Capitals fielded only one player of colour this past season – Senuran Muthusamy – as Wayne Parnell did not participate in the third edition of the tournament. The newly crowned SA20 champions, MI Cape Town, had only one black player in Kagiso Rabada — raising questions about where CSA’s transformation ambitions disappeared to, during the four-week-long competition.

CSA was aware of the lack of black African and other players of colour in the tournament as early as October 2024 — three months before the third edition began — yet failed to intervene, or were powerless to do so.

Does CSA have double standards?

It seems so ...

Do they turn a blind eye because of the millions of rands private investors pour into the SA20?

It looks like it ...

And while South African cricket is in desperate need of financial investment, at what cost has it come?