Cricket set for quota system

CRICKET Namibia and its main sponsor MTC yesterday announced the implementation of racial quotas at all levels of the game to speed up transformation of the game in Namibia.

At senior national level a minimum of three to four black players must be included in the team, with at least two actively playing, while from U/13 to U/19 level, a minimum of four black players must be actively involved in matches. Furthermore, Cricket Namibia (CN) must accommodate at least two black representatives on their board, and two black representatives on their national and other age group selection committees. At a press conference at MTC’s head office on Tuesday, their spokesman Tim Ekandjo said that they had launched an investigation into allegations of racism in Cricket Namibia (CN), and although they could not prove it, both parties agreed to the implementation of a transformation target system with the aim of increasing accessibility of all players to cricket. Allegations of racism recently surfaced when two white South African-based players, who are eligible to represent Namibia, since their mothers were born in the country, were included in the Namibian Under-19 team that went to the Cricket Under-19 World Cup. In the end, though, their passports could not be obtained in time from the Ministry of Home Affairs and they had to be replaced by two other Namibian players. ‘I wish to point out that allegations of racism are extremely difficult to prove because racism is not tangible. Knowing that, the focus for MTC shifted to whether transformation has indeed taken place and whether CN has made any strides in developing and integrating black players into the various national teams,’ Ekandjo said. He said they had interviewed a lot of people who were adamant that there had been little transformation in Namibian cricket, and that cricket would remain a white sport unless something was done to open it up to players of all colours. ‘It is our view that the desired transformation has not taken place based on the current statistics of black players in our national teams. After so many years of independence, our national team should have been more representative of the demographics of our population which is not the case at the moment, and of course we can argue and debate this all we want, but the statistics don’t lie,’ Ekandjo said. ‘It is also our view that knowing that we have a limited pool of black cricketers, that more should have been done to take care and preserve them and to give them as many opportunities as we possibly could in the hope that they will develop into full-fledged players to earn their rightful places in the national teams,’ he added. Ekandjo said that both parties had agreed on the implementation of a transformation charter which would be reviewed at regular intervals and which would include some of the following goals:Demographically representative entities, the equitable allocation of resources, equitable access to sporting activities, attitudinal changes, and the appointment of a Transformation Officer to ensure that the transformation agenda receives priority. The CEO of Cricket Namibia, Graham MacMillan, said they recognised their moral duty to ensure that Namibian cricket grows and flourishes among the previously disadvantaged members of Namibia’s society. ‘Cricket Namibia’s development programme reaffirms our mission to bring cricket to all the people of Namibia. Availability of funding goes hand in hand with this mission and we urge the government to become involved in the financing of this aspect,’ he said. MacMillan said that the transformation policy that they had agreed upon, was an attempt to formalise and already existing internal policy of having transformational targets within its junior teams. ‘This has been in place and implemented in practise for the last few years already. We believe that the extension of the targets to the senior structure will enhance a visible transformation process,’ he added. The president of CN, Francois Erasmus said they had struggled in the past to get enough black representatives appointed to the board or on selection committees, because very few had been nominated by their clubs. ‘We have struggled to get black people on board. It’s not easy because no one gets paid for this and it is done for the love of the game. However, we will now actively appoint people to see if they will be part of the selection process,’ he said. Erasmus said he was confident they had enough quality black players to be selected for the national side.

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