The Social Justice and Nation Cricket Transformation hearings chaired by Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC continued unabated for a third week. Presentations were made by former players Omar Henry, Aaron Pangiso and Roger Telemachus. But the most anticipated submission will be that of civil society group Afriforum.
In a carefully researched submission Afriforum has made several points where the Transformation project has floundered, and seemed somewhat skewed towards Black Africans to the exclusion of white players. It has meticulously traced transformation from the formation of the United Cricket Board through to Cricket South Africa from 1998 to the present. It has also followed every statement by every Minister of Sport and Cricket South Africa efforts of taking the sport to all the peoples of South Africa. They also quote every instance where a black player was selected in the place of, according to their submission a better white player.
The quota selection process, where politicians and Cricket South Africa sought to make the national Protea Cricket Team representative has come for a stick from Afriforum and other organisations like it, sometimes even from players such as Pat Symcox.
Afriforum has for some reason changed its vocabulary with reference to black players from Non-white players, African or coloured or Indian players to Players of Colour- a term which has not gone down well with some section of the black community at the hearings. Surprisingly there is no reference to the apartheid of Sport of the past years, at the height of National Party rule.
The strict adherence to apartheid policy of separate sport for the various tribes. No mention of the events that shaped the fights against apartheid in sport, stories such as the Papwa Segowlum story, who after winning a golf tournament at The Royal Durban, was presented his trophy through the window in the rain after beating favourite son Gary Player of all people. The protest by the apartheid government against the inclusion of Basil D’Oliveira in the English team to tour South Africa in 1968.
Strangely, the civil body applauds the exploits of white South African players who opted to undermine the Cricket South Africa transformation policy and programme by plying their trade in England with the hope of playing for England. This is the route players Kevin Pietersen, Kyle Abbott and a host of other players took, taking advantage of a ruling by the European Court in a case that involved a Slovak Basketball player, a ruling similar to the Bosman ruling in football.
The Kolpak ruling is a European Court of Justice ruling handed down on 8 May 2003 in favour of Maroš Kolpak, a Slovak handball player. It declared that citizens of countries which have signed European Union Association Agreements have the same right to freedom of work and movement within the EU as EU citizens. Thus any restrictions placed on their right to work (such as quotas setting maximum numbers of such foreign players in sports teams) are deemed illegal under EU law.
The legal actions in Germany set a precedent for professional sports in Europe, which have had a wide-ranging effect, especially in regard to English county cricket and European professional rugby. A Kolpak player, or Kolpak, is a term used in the United Kingdom for players in the domestic leagues in cricket and both rugby codes from overseas, subject to the Kolpak ruling. These players in line with this European Court of Justice were eligible to be selected for England, in the same way as Kevin Pietersen qualified to play for England. These are players, in a sense who undermined the Transformation policy of Cricket South Africa, they contented, that the Transformation policy of CSA precludes them from selection for South Africa.
The question now will be, now that there had been a Brexit. What is going to happen to these players? Are they going to be a special case? As of 1 January 2021, all Kolpak players have had their registration cancelled by the England and Wales Cricket Board with immediate effect due to Brexit. … I have noticed that Kolpak players who denigrated and undermined the Cricket South Africa Transformation policy have been drafted into the provincial set up and are to compete in this year’s domestic competitions. Will they be eligible to play for Proteas without censure?
These players it should be remembered thrashed the Transformation policy of CSA. Until recently Jacques Kallis took up a post with England and cited the transformation policy of CSA as an obstacle to his progress.
