Another Handicap

South African sport is in a unique position that other countries just don't have. Political meddling is just part and parcel of what is expected and it doesn't seem to go away.Ninety percent of all sport has teams manipulated by government rules and the one sport that is immune is football as it is a black sport in this country.

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Yesterday I was reading an article about the Cape Cobras which is a franchised provincial cricket team avoiding sanctions by Cricket South Africa. These rules are why I have turned off from watching and supporting the local teams here.

Imagine a team being told that they have to select a team based entirely on skin color. Out of a team of 11 players, 6 must be players of color and 3 of those must be black. Select less than the requirement and there are penalties imposed on the team. Normally you are warned and advised to catch up later in the season by adding more players of color.

This I find shortsighted as the whole process was not to have a national team or a provincial team full of black players ,but a team of players who have all had the same opportunities.This has been the case since 1994 and 26 years later the waters are still muddy with racist tendencies from the governing bodies. Equal opportunity and that is that as far as I am concerned and you are either good enough or you aren't.

Selecting a team not on ability but skin color is not only wrong, but it is disgusting in my opinion and should never ever be raised. I personally don't care what color skin you have as long as you deserve to be there on talent and ability alone.

If I was still playing sport and had team mates who were not as good as others in the squad it would make me want to move. Every team in the provincial set up is in the same position so the quality is somewhat dire to say the least. The whole competition has been diluted which results in the entire standards dropping to the point that it is unwatchable. i don't joke when I say my club side could beat most of these teams or give them a good run for their money.

The problem comes in when they take these numbers into the International arena as that is a handicap too far. South Africa has two black bowlers who are of international standards, unfortunately Lungi Ngidi is injured leaving just Rabada in the bowling line up. R
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The idiot picked up another demerit point and has been banned for one match.

Rabada has been banned from the next Test match so I would like to see what they do now as now they face the possibility of not having one black player playing. Something tells me Bavuma will be called back into the team even though he is a waste of time weakening a struggling team already.

If you scour the entire country you will struggle to find a replacement. Philander who plays in the team is a colored player so he doesn't count along with Keeshav Maharaj who is an Indian. This may sound odd and foreign to everyone, but this is the reality of what the teams have to put up with. I see it as racist thinking as this is exactly what it is as there is nothing else, but to call it for what it is.

Surely the best solution is to target individual players with promise and send them to a high performance academy. There are no guarantees though and only if they are good enough can they force themselves into a team.

Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher have been coming under fire for selecting a team that doesn't meet all the criteria laid down to them. The criteria are unrealistic and in today's world should not even be considered. Surely a team arriving to play in front of a paying public should be the strongest team possible otherwise they are being duped and robbed. The reality is the team is playing with one arm tied behind their back which is not fair.