The subject has come up again after the latest information has come out on Transformation targets. Here’s where CSA needs someone like Rassie Erasmus. He was well aware of the targets set by SA Rugby but chose the approach that everything should be out in the open and only picked players who deserved to wear the Springbok shirt. No player felt as though they were making up numbers or not good enough because of clear lines of communication, something CSA has always struggled with in the past. Now is the time they need to rectify that we have any hope as a cricket nation.
The transformation approach isn’t one I agree with, but it is what is. My method would be to build up areas where players of colour come from. So you take a cricket club in that area and invest. Now, when I say invest, I mean really invest! Make the club a jewel within the community that creates jobs and offers alternatives to crime. Eventually, the club will become a facility with a school system, creating even more jobs. If you continue to grow the club, ultimately it will become a town and need infrastructure, housing, roads, shops etc. The possibilities are literally endless for this community. That in my mind is what real transformation is.
Right now the best most talented players get plucked from these communities and being sent to the best schools and colleges, but, if they had an alternative within the community that was just as good or better than those outside it, parent’s would opt for the one on their community. Right now no parent will turn down a scholarship to a big school or college because they see it as a way out but what if they didn’t need to get out to have the same opportunity as those at the big schools and colleges.
In time these clubs will become the cornerstone pillars of the communities they represent.
By keeping players within their community, they will inspire more kids to play sport, and sport and education go hand in hand now because the club has become a school and college thus, uplifting the community as a whole.
I will admit that this is a dream of mine and one that I am very passionate about. The current system is broken and doesn’t work.
My system will take probably ten to twenty years to implement and see results, but, if you could imagine a Langa academy in 50 years with top of the line facilities for sports and education, then the first 10 years seems like a drop in the ocean. Unfortunately, my plan would cost an exorbitant amount of money, but I believe it will be worth it in the long run.
Creating opportunities for those who don’t have any is the goal of transformation, and creating an environment for young people of colour will increase the opportunities tenfold, not just in the sports sphere but in every aspect of life!
