If you’ve been following the Cricket South Africa saga, it has been a long-drawn-out affair. You are probably somewhat relieved by the news that the current CSA board has stepped down. They held on as long as they could but facing a ban from the ICC and perhaps thinking that the players don’t deserve to suffer for their incompetence, they stepped aside to get the wheels of change in motion.
With the news of Victor Mpitsang coming in as Convenor of Selectors, many believe that there is hope for CSA. Putting someone in that position with considerable experience and knowledge about both our players and our system can only help. That was a small step in the right direction, and now we need more!
We need cricket people in charge behind the scenes people who want our cricket to get back to what it once was. According to the CSA launch, transformation targets are being met, but a continued effort in this regard will go a long way to elevating perceptions. Transformation, especially at grassroots level and inclusion and clear understanding are the stepping stones to mute the transformation conversation forever. If our players of colour feel valued and appreciated, then we will see many more come through the ranks. As we saw with the Chasing the Sun documentary, when players understand why they have been picked, and there is a clear understanding not just by players of colour but white players as well, great things can happen!
CSA, as an organization, has been through the wringer over the past 2 years, mostly self-inflicted it has to be said, but hopefully, we can all learn from this situation. Fans, players, board members and anyone else who contributes to cricket in this country need to come together and support each other moving forward. There are people in the system, who genuinely want our cricket to be great again, and I speak for all fans when I say all we want is equality and excellence on the field.
Fans also don’t want to be left in the dark. The previous CSA board chose to hide because they were not to be trusted. So there was very little communication from CSA. Hopefully, this changes going forward, and we can have some transparency from whoever will be taking over. For now, we wait to see who that will be, but they are off to a great start with Victor Mpitsang.
Hopefully, more appointments of this stature will be made. They could then build towards something great! The talent is there, it’s coming through as well, but mismanagement of resources will derail any attempts to climb the cricket ladder once again, and have made the mistakes in recent times. Let’s hope that lessons were learned and won’t be repeated going forward.
