Former sports minister Fikile Mbalula has criticised the make-up of the Proteas’ squad for the upcoming T20 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies and the United States.
The team named by Cricket South Africa (CSA) and white ball head coach Rob Walter last month features just one black African — Kagiso Rabada. Walter defended the selection, saying he had consulted with CSA to select the best possible team.
Only 1 African player selected in the Proteas Team for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 Team. Definitely a reserval of the gains of transformation and doesn't reflect fair representation of all South Africans in the national cricket team pic.twitter.com/IOqMo4v5YD
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) May 13, 2024
“The reality and my number one imperative is to create a winning Proteas team. In order to do that, every time I have to pick the best at the time that I think will give us a chance of doing that,” Walter said at the time.
The move was criticised across social media, and on Monday, Mbalula took to Twitter to voice his opinion, calling the selection a “reversal of the gains of transformation”.
“Only 1 African player selected in the Proteas Team for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 Team,” Tweeted Mbalula, whose last job in government was as minister of transport, and currently serves as the Secretary-General of the ANC.
“Definitely a reversal of the gains of transformation and doesn’t reflect fair representation of all South Africans in the national cricket team.”
Mbalula’s criticism comes after renowned former administrator Ray Mali said the sport had taken a step backwards in terms of transformation.
Former Cricket South Africa President Ray Mali says cricket has gone backwards in the country. He says Proteas having only one Black African player in the T20 World Cup bound squad is unacceptable.
📹 #SABCSport’s @Velile_Mnyandu #SABCSportCricket pic.twitter.com/4TpHq2Hrtx
— SABC Sport (@SABC_Sport) May 8, 2024
“I cannot understand why we can’t have a number of black players in the South African cricket team in this day in age. No, it’s not acceptable,” Mali said in a video posted on X — formerly Twitter — by SABC Sport.
“We have betrayed the people who asked us to negotiate unity for this country. Players are mentored or monitored right from the early days, up to the top. You know which players will represent South Africa,” he said.
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