The ANC Youth League has urged the sports ministry to fastrack transformation in cricket, saying the game is led by racists who regarded blacks only as ”cleaners and coffee-makers”.
The League was commenting on Wednesday on the launch by the United Cricket Board (UCB) of the book titled: The story of an African Game.
The league welcomed the publication of the book as ”a victory for many unsung black players”.
African National Congress Youth League President Malusi Gigaba said the book had proved as a fallacy the idea ”created by a large section of our racist media and backward selectors — that black people have no history and no experience in both rugby and cricket.”
Malusi said it was contradictory that, while the UCB acknowledged the major contribution by blacks in the sport, it continued to undermine black people in general.
”To the UCB and its racist leaders, blacks are only good as cleaners and coffee makers during and after the cricket game” said Malusi.
Malusi said black cricket players had a colourful history but they had no future.
”As the youth of this country, we are getting impatient about this abnormality (the lack of transformation in cricket). We are capable of playing the sport, and we demand a space on the field immediately”.
The book is dedicated to the late Khaya Majola, who served as the UCB’s director of amateur cricket. It was launched on Tuesday by the Minister of Sports and Recreation Ngconde Balfour and the UCB.
Author Professor Andre Odendaal told the launch that black cricket had a 100-year history but, unlike the white game, had been largely hidden. – Sapa