The ministerial committee of inquiry into the transformation of cricket has recommended that the United Cricket Board (UCB) rescind its decision to scrap the quota system at higher levels of the game.
The committee was appointed by Sport and Recreation Minister Ngconde Balfour on July 18, following the UCB’s decision at a July 7 National Consolidation Conference to scrap transformation quotas at national and senior provincial level.
Balfour released the committee’s report during a media conference at Parliament on Thursday. The committee found that the UCB’s decision was taken without any consultation with its affiliates and various structures. It had also been based on an inadequate assessment and consideration of its own Transformation Monitoring Committee’s (TMC) views, and on an erroneous analysis of the available data relating to the achievements of its various affiliates.
The decision therefore required speedy and fundamental reconsideration by the UCB, ”as a matter of urgency” before the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
Balfour has held two stormy meetings with the UCB and other cricketing role players, the minutes of which were released on Thursday.
The minutes were apparently released to counter the ministerial task force report.
The News24 website quoted Balfour as saying: ”I’m disappointed with both of you (Sonn and the UCBSA chief executive Gerald Majola). Percy you treat the ANC and MEC’s flippantly. Gerald, you are not carrying out the vision of your brother. I don’t want to hear your excuses, I don’t give a shit,” Balfour said.
Concerning black players not wanting to feel like quota players, News24 quoted Balfour said: ”You say black players don’t want to feel like quota players. Tough shit. It is the media that calls them that. It is for more players than them. If they can’t stand it they must get out. I don’t care a shit about that. They must take the pressure like we had to in the struggle.”
The Minister said that he did not go to Newlands to watch players like Mark Boucher and Kallis. He went to watch Paul Adams and Makhaya Ntini. ”Who is Jacques Kallis? Jacques Kallis means nothing to me,” he said, adding that black people wanted black people on the field.
The committee appointed by Balfour also recommended that the UCB, after consultation with its various affiliates, increase the transformation targets in its transformation charter, possibly on a ”differential basis”, taking into account the unique demographics and historical disadvantages of certain provinces.
Another recommendation was that the UCB executive committee re-assume the responsibility of centralised driving and monitoring transformation. This responsibility had been delegated to provincial executives after the decision to scrap quotas, and had led to ”a lack of common understanding” by UCB affiliates regarding their transformation responsibilities.
Among other things, the committee recommended that the definition of transformation targets be revised to exclude black players ”purchased” from other provinces, and who were contracted to the national team, as this undermined their own development programmes.
The monitoring system undertaken by the TMC and Provincial Monitoring Committees — abolished as a result of the UCB’s decision — should be reinstated, and comprise of people ”sufficiently objective and independent”.
In broader terms, the committee recommended a consultative process to draw up a National Transformation Charter, clearly defining the respective roles of government and those of the various sporting codes. However, the report also commended the UCB for its transformation programme, and described it as ”perhaps being unparalleled in South Africa”. – Sapa