End in sight for South Africa's quota system
It wasn't easy to tell on the small screen, but when Graeme Smith walked out to bat on Thursday, at the start of South Africa's series against New Zealand, he may have done so with a lighter tread than usual. Trouble was he was stomping back to the pavilion six balls later, his leg stump flattened after dragging on to New Zealand's Chris Martin. But if the comments from Makhenkesi Stofile sac vanessa bruno pas cher, South Africa's Minister of Sport, are to be believed this week, the job of captaining South Africa at cricket is about to get a whole lot easier. Racial quotas may be on the way out.
Unofficially tiffany blue nikes, it has been widely accepted that every South African team which takes the field must include four 'players of colour' to use that horrible South Africanism. This week, Herschelle Gibbs, Hashim Amla, Makhaya Ntini and Ashwell Prince were those players.
Unlike rugby, cricket administrators have believed in a 'top down' approach to making the sport less elitist and more representative. Norman Arendse, the president of Cricket South Africa, recently articulated this policy: ''As long as we have an abnormal society, quotas and targets are not only desirable but also a constitutional imperative." The presence of a 'role model' in the national team like Makhaya Ntini was thought to be the best way of inspiring young blacks to take up the game. Trouble is it hasn't worked out that way. There are not many Ntinis on the horizon lululemon.
Then along came South Africa's rugby triumph in the World Cup, greeted enthusiastically by the whole of South Africa despite the presence of only a couple of nonwhites. Even one of those, Bryan Habana, was educated at a posh and predominantly white public school in Johannesburg. Before the tournament, there were disparaging noises made by politicians about the makeup of the Springboks. The head of the parliamentary sports committee sounded off about removing the players' passports if the team did not become more representative and Stofile lululemon outlet, himself, had often complained of its unrepresentative nature.
But when selected purely on merit windows 7 product key, sporting teams always reflect, if not the nature of society as a whole, then the role of that sport within society. The Springbok team was almost exclusively white because rugby has yet to infiltrate the black community to any great degree http://www.mountaingraphicdesignwnc.com. It is still an elitist sport and no amount of artificiality will change that Pandora Necklace UK. The same can be said of cricket, to a lesser degree, but not football. The two football squads announced this week by the South African football coach consisted of mainly homegrown, nonwhite players.
The England team ergo infant insert, likewise true religion jean outlet online, fully reflects the role, the importance and the changing nature of cricket within our society the increasing influence of Asian cricketers, the declining numbers of those of Caribbean extraction ビトン 財布, the need for Kolpaks and overseas players to support a system that is not producing enough homegrown players of quality. Kevin Pietersen straddles both worlds: over here because of being discriminated against over there http://www.airconditioningrepaireagan.com. Where Pieteresen led, others have followed so that there were more than 30 South Africans plying their trade in county cricket last year. If English cricket was producing homegrown players in sufficient numbers and of sufficient quality, Pietersen and his cohorts would find counties less receptive to their charms.
Now, Stofile and other politicians are changing their tune, recognising perhaps that, most of all ergo baby, people want to be associated with success and that instead of imposing artificial quotas, it would be better to focus on improving facilities and opportunities within predominantly black schools. A 'bottom up' approach, in other words. This week, advising a parliamentary committee on sport as to the best way forward, Stofile said that quotas were mere 'window dressing' and on the way out victoria secret outlet. It doesn't yet amount to an official change in policy but it is the first step towards it.
This surely must be right, despite the injustices of the past. Sport is supposed to be the ultimate meritocracy, the sporting field a place where background, colour, creed and class at least of the social kind are irrelevant. And over the last few years, whenever South Africa have taken the field it has not been entirely clear whether it has been on merit or not.
Smith himself has spoken openly about the outside pressures that have impacted negatively upon his captaincy. When he wanted to leave Ntini out of what was effectively a World Cup quarterfinal against England in Barbados last winter, he was able to do so only after a lengthy onetoone meeting with the chief executive of South African cricket, Gerald Majola. More recently, Prince and Amla have shown themselves to be international players of calibre. Amla made his debut when England last toured there and there was widespread condemnation of his selection chan luu bracelets.
Older ヴィトン バッグ, white South African cricketers were openly cynical. No doubt this was partly because of his look the long beard poking through his helmet his unorthodox, openchested play and the racism that still permeates through elements of South African society.
And this surely is the strongest reason why quotas should be abolished, to spare cricketers like Amla the embarrassment of being seen to be, in Dube's words, 'a puppet who doesn't belong'. Amla does belong, as his 176 not out against New Zealand showed yesterday, but he doesn't need or deserve the insinuations that he has had to deal with ever since he was first selected. Select him on merit or not at all. No wonder many of South Africa's cricketers, led by Prince, sent a letter to Cricket South Africa at the beginning of the year demanding an end to artificial selection policies.
Lucky Dube won't get to see the end of affirmative action in South African cricket. He was killed recently in a carjacking in Rosettenville, a suburb of Johannesburg. After the minister's comments this week, though, that day may not be long in coming.Related：