Ken Borland

Racial tensions have been laid bare in South African cricket over the last 48 hours with 31 former Black players and five current Black coaches sending a letter to Cricket South Africa urging them to support the Black Lives Matter movement and confront racial divides in the game, while the president of the players’ association, Omphile Ramela, sent a letter to the sports minister asking him to throw the lawbook at the organisation for their lack of transformation.

Cricket South Africa, through their acting CEO Jacques Faul, have already issued a statement saying they stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Former franchise players have provided a window into their experiences of racial discrimination as well, with their overwhelming narrative being that systemic racism upholds and perpetuates all the past wrongs.

The Titans, perhaps because they have been the most successful franchise, but more probably because Faul and Proteas coach Mark Boucher come from there, have attracted the most attention. Ethy Mbhalati, the leading wicket-taker in Titans history whose career ended in 2015 due to his involvement with matchfixing, said “there is institutionalised racism at Northerns” and “unfortunately when you questioned things, the system kicked you out and we were scared to lose our jobs”.

But Tebogo Siko, the current president of the Northerns Cricket Union and Titans cricket, has been involved in the administration of the franchise for many years.

“I can tell you that the Northerns Board is 70% Black and if the structures were blocking change then I don’t think that would have happened. Of course we are never in a position to say the status quo must stay the same, but the Titans seem to be being attacked left, right and centre based on our achievements. Which include having a Black coach [Mandla Mashimbyi] and assistant coach [Geoff Toyana],” Siko told The Citizen on Wednesday afternoon.

Siko also issued a statement on Wednesday responding directly to Mbhalati’s claims: “We’ve recently come to learn of the experiences of racial discrimination, cultural bias and remuneration bias Mr Mbhalati was faced with. There was never a formal complaint laid by Mr Mbhalati and this makes it difficult for us to deal with such a matter. We can also go on record and say Mr Mbhalati was among the top earners at the franchise towards the end of his career.

“The history of South Africa is a very dark one and we are well aware that remnants of our past live on 26 years later. It is clear that in our society people still battle with the difficulties from pre-1994 and some of these difficulties are experienced even within the game we love. As citizens of South Africa, we understand what we have been through and as a union and franchise we acknowledge that past and where we are currently. With this having been said, it is important that we make it clear that we do not tolerate racism and discrimination of any sort at franchise level, provincial, or anywhere within our pipeline.

“We have never had any complaints of racism in the past or in the present. Players and staff are aware of the processes they need to go through to lay a complaint. Our board has a Transformation and Ethics Committee, which is responsible for dealing with such matters should they arise,” Siko said.

Typical of the nation-building, reconciling force for unity he has always been, former Proteas batting star Hashim Amla made a rare foray on to social media in order to back Lungi Ngidi’s call to support BLM and also state that he stands with all those who are oppressed.

“The Black Lives Matter campaign has relevance for everyone. The person who believes the imagined superiority of Whites over Blacks or Blacks over Whites, or one nationality over another, is simply delusional. Many of us, including myself, have borne the brunt of these delusions and have crazy stories to tell, which is why it makes it even more admirable to see exceptional youngsters like Lungi Ngidi doing his bit to represent us all.

“The end product of being racist is only self-destruction.There are oppressed people here in this country and the world over, of all colours and walks of life, cricket included. However the darker-skinned people have had the worst of it. I stand with all those who are oppressed. And I stand with Lungi Ngidi,” Amla said.

In the first two editions of the Mzansi Super League (MSL), feted cricketers like AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle have been marquee players allocated to one of the teams but that is all set to change, along with many other aspects, in this year’s T20 carnival.

The third instalment of the MSL will see only eight CSA-contracted players allocated to teams. The plan is for each of the eight franchises to then be able to choose one Kolpak or non-contracted South African and one overseas player from the draft.

In that way the MSL draft will become a much more exciting extravaganza with the eight teams competing for some truly top-class attractions. It means someone like De Villiers, who is a non-contracted player, will no longer be allocated to the Tshwane team but will no doubt cause something akin to a bidding war amongst the eight teams as he will be available on the draft. And there will also be much jostling for international players, who have been of mixed quality over the first two seasons.

Quinton de Kock, formerly of the Cape Town Blitz, has been mooted as the new marquee player for the Centurion-based side.

The other change will be in the names of the teams. The six domestic franchises will now be able to choose whether to continue with their MSL brands or revert back to their own names – i.e. Cobras, Dolphins, Knights, Lions, Titans and Warriors.

It means cheesy names like the Tshwane Spartans, which have developed little traction with fans (what are Spartans anyway?), will be ditched.

Franchises will also be able to source their own sponsors and will share in whatever profits the tournament makes.

A new broadcast deal has yet to be signed for MSL III, but CSA are known to have offered the rights to SuperSport. The first two editions of the MSL were broadcast for free by the SABC, contributing to the massive losses the tournament made.

Geoff Toyana will give his Eagles team his usual shrewd strategic input before the game but the veteran coach knows that the nature of 3TCricket is such that that will only be the tip of the iceberg and captain AB de Villiers will need to be at his sharpest and most flexible if they are to win Saturday’s inaugural unveiling of the new format.

The country’s best 24 available cricketers will return to action in a SuperSport Park bio-bubble and the beloved game will return to our television screens on Saturday in a fundraising match for the cricket industry’s hardship fund. But it will be a version of the sport never seen before as three eight-member teams will battle it out at the same time, each batting for 12 overs in six-over blocks against each of their opponents.

The Eagles, Kingfishers and Kites will get their first sip of 3TCricket on Thursday when they play a practice match, but Toyana is already certain that captains will play the leading role. He has full confidence in his skipper, former Proteas captain De Villiers, who will lock horns with current national limited-overs captain Quinton de Kock (Kites) and ace fast bowler Kagiso Rabada (Kingfishers).

“It’s something new for all of us and we are still finding our strategy, tomorrow [Thursday] is the perfect opportunity to test things out and also sharpen up on the rules. There’s not just one opponent to worry about now but two and you need to be smart in terms of who bowls against who, each bowler only gets three overs, so do you bowl say Lungi Ngidi for two overs against the first team or against the second side?

“There are going to be headaches like that and the last man stands rule in batting is also very exciting. I think the captain is going to be the big player and he needs to get his tactics spot-on. He’ll have to really think on his feet, but fortunately AB is really positive and passionate about this. And he’s hitting the ball extremely well, as good as I’ve ever seen him hit it in fact,” Toyana told The Citizen on Wednesday.

While the Covid-19 restrictions will rob the match of some of its joy, Toyana said the players are all delighted to be playing cricket again.

“It’s just a really good thing to be back on the field again, the sun’s shining and we had really good training. Rassie van der Dussen is also looking good although he keeps wanting to bowl, Andile Phehlukwayo had a good hit too and Bjorn Fortuin was in his element. Lungi Ngidi and Junior Dala have been hard at work here at the Titans for the last two weeks and they are very excited too.

“We will have to observe social distancing of course and there are some strange red lines on the field. Plus the players all use their own balls, which makes it tricky for the coach because you hit one to a player and he ignores it because it’s not his ball! But these are tough times, it’s a charitable cause and the guys all just want to help out,” Toyana said.

Originally, Proteas white-ball spinner Tabraiz Shamsi was the only slow bowler named in the squads, but Highveld Lions star Bjorn Fortuin has subsequently replaced Sisanda Magala, who has pulled out due to a family bereavement. Judging by how spinners were fatally under-rated when T20 first came along, not having a frontline spinner could hurt the chances of the Kites, although Jon-Jon Smuts is far from a part-timer.

“I think this game will be good for spinners as well and I’m glad we’ve got one. And Bjorn is one of the best in the country at controlling the field, we could even use him up front against certain batsmen,” Toyana said.

Boeta Dippenaar and Pat Symcox are two former cricketers I have admired and whose company I have enjoyed from time to time, but I hope their faces are as red as tomatoes after their ill-judged reactions to Lungi Ngidi’s comments that the Proteas need to make a stand against racial discrimination.

For the record, Ngidi was asked a direct question about the Black Lives Matter movement and whether the Proteas team would seek to support it as the West Indies and England sides have done in their return to action in the Southampton Test.

Ngidi said: “It’s definitely something we need to discuss in person but we are all well aware of what is going on. It’s something we have to address as a team, as a nation as well because we’ve had racial discrimination in the past. It’s something we need to take very seriously, we need to make a stand like the rest of the world.”

Now saying a stand should be made against racial discrimination is surely not something so divisive that the Proteas would be halved into different camps for and against? Surely Ngidi was standing for something everybody can support, like being against gender-based violence?

So why the furious reaction?

It was another former Protea, top-order batsman Rudolf Steyn, who fired the first shot with a social media post that read: “I believe the Proteas should make a stand against racism, but if they stand up for ‘black lives matter’ while ignoring the way white farmers are daily being ‘slaughtered’ like animals, they have lost my vote.”

Firstly, it has to be in very poor taste to start bartering over whether you will support someone else’s right to life depending on them supporting your cause. Yes, All Lives do Matter, but in the world as a whole, the priority has to be to ensure that the importance of Black Lives are upgraded so that we no longer see the shocking, senseless deaths of people like George Floyd and Collins Khosa.

If someone told you that their father had died of a heart attack, would you say “what about all the people who have died of cancer”? If someone asked you to support research into eliminating breast cancer, would you say “only if you support anti-HIV initiatives”?

By responding to a question about Black Lives Matter, it by no means suggests Ngidi is against any other lives mattering. In fact, a furious response to Black Lives Matter suggests an attitude that they don’t matter as much as other lives.

Both Symcox and Dippenaar then replied highlighting the plight of farmers and farm attacks. Also a worthy cause.

Many critics of Black Lives Matter say it has become politicised but this is also true, perhaps even more so, of Farm Attacks. According to AfriForum’s own figures, there were 57 farm murders in 2019 and, while every one of those deaths is a tragic injustice, to somehow extrapolate that into an organised campaign of racial genocide is ridiculous. In fact, 57 murders a year is quite close to the daily figure for all murders in our terribly violent country. The Transvaalse Landbou Unie released a statement this week saying there had been 26 farm murders so far this year.

Or do some lives take priority over others? Which I guess is exactly the point of Black Lives Matter. As West Indian great Michael Holding put it this week, we all know White Lives Matter, that has never been in doubt.

Cricket in general has often been halfhearted in responding to issues of social justice so the efforts of the English and West Indian teams, and even the ICC match officials, have been tremendous to see.

I was also impressed with how Cricket South Africa’s relatively new director of cricket, Graeme Smith, handled the grenade when it was tossed to him at the same press conference as Ngidi’s. He was a huge driver of diversity and inclusivity when he was a Proteas captain, but he has not been a ‘suit’ for that long and has had a couple of mishaps already when it comes to dealing with political issues.

Smith said: “We are all very aware of what is going on around the world and our role as CSA. When the team gets together again we will figure out how to play an effective role in the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s important to have buy-in and for everyone to be invested. I have no doubt that will be the case, but to have the discussion is important. There certainly needs to be something done and we will discuss various ways of handling it in an effective and authentic manner.”

And the Titans, who have won more domestic cups than any other franchise, have also led the way in responding to the cause. The squad unanimously agreed that coach Mandla Mashimbyi should issue the following statement:

“We know only too well how important the Black Lives Matter movement is. We bat vehemently against discrimination of any kind, and we will always strive to provide opportunities within our Titans family for all the colours and cultures of our rainbow nation. We also want to lend our voice to those shouting for the scourge of violence against our mothers, sisters and daughters to stop.

“The only way we can stand against evil is by showing acts of love to people no matter their race, religion or gender. We should see love as the foundation that helps us find solutions, find refuge and hope because love is the foundation of life. If we can begin to view things through the perspective of love before race, religion or gender we will move forward as a society,” Mashimbyi said.