Controversy Erupts: CSA’s T20 Squad Features Just One Black African

After only one black African player, Kagiso Rabada, was chosen for the Proteas side for the T20 World Cup 2024, Cricket South Africa (CSA) is under pressure. Both the former head of the CSA, Ray Mali, and the former minister of sports, Fikile Mbalula, expressed worry, claiming that the game had declined throughout the nation.

Rabada is one of six players of colour in the initial 15-man roster. According to CSA policy, the South African playing eleven must include six players of colour during the course of a season, with at least two coming from the black African population.

As the only other black African on the roster, Rabada, the national team is unlikely to meet this condition.

Reeza Hendricks, Bjorn Fortuin, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, and Ottniel Baartman are the other players of colour in the team. Another black African, Lungi Ngidi, is not in the starting lineup but is one of the travelling reserves. Temba Bavuma, the captain of the ODI team, was not selected for the T20 World Cup team, which will begin play in the USA and the West Indies on June 2.

“Only one player from Africa was chosen for the Proteas Team in the 2024 T20 World Cup. On his ‘X’ account, Mbalula stated, “This is definitely a reversal of the gains of transformation and does not reflect fair representation of all South Africans in the national cricket team.”

Ray Mali, a former president of the ICC and CSA, voiced worries, saying that South Africa is seeing a decline in the game.

“Although I think a lot has been accomplished, we are not improving in cricket; rather, we have regressed. It is unacceptable that there aren’t more black players on the South African cricket team these days; I don’t understand why. The people who urged us to negotiate this country’s reunification have been misled. “You know which players will represent South Africa because they are trained and watched from the bottom up,” Mali said SABC Sport.

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Mali added that in a multicultural nation like South Africa, the selection committee should be reinstated rather than having a single person choose the side. As of the now, CSA lacks a selecting committee. Head coaches Rob Walter (ODI and T20Is) and Shukri Conrad (Tests) choose the team.

Walter, meanwhile, defended the 15 players picked for the ICC tournament the following month, claiming that there isn’t enough depth in the Rainbow Nation’s home circuit to put together a more diversified squad.