CSA launch bid to give all players chance to succeed

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

TO many, Thami Tsolekile is a standard bearer for what SA cricket might have been given an equitable distribution of resources and recognition of the merits of all who play the game, regardless of race, to be given a fair chance to do so at a high level.

But Tsolekile, one of only five black Africans among the 318 men who have played test cricket for SA – or 1.57% despite a black African population of 79.2% - is reluctant to wear that mantle.

“I was one of the fortunate guys,” he said on Wednesday. “I was given a bursary (to Pinelands High School in Cape Town), where I was able to play hockey and cricket. My cricket went from strength to strength.”

Tsolekile, who lives in Gauteng, was home on Wednesday: in Langa, the Cape Town township that has given the game him, his Lions teammate, Temba Bavuma, and Ben Malamba, among other quality players.

“I’ve seen a lot of cricketers from the townships who couldn’t afford to go to schools like Pinelands and their cricket just went down because of the coaching and facilities they had,” Tsolekile said.

“I know there were cricketers who were probably better than me. But we never had the right structures and the facilities were never appropriate.”

Tsolekile was in Langa to help launch Cricket SA’s (CSA) stated bid to find and nurture more black players – specifically more black African players.

The Langa Sports Complex, with its cricket, hockey and football facilities, is the heart of its community.

Now, it is one of nine “Regional Performance Centres” and 46 “Hubs” around the country which are scheduled to be operational next month.

The aim, a CSA press release said, was to “increase the number as well as to improve the quality of competitive matches and to ensure the best coaching for cricketers with potential to progress into the high performance pipeline from this stage”.

CSA will raise their investment in their “excellence programmes” from R8-million to R17-million – the spending of which they aim to track closely and tie even more closely to the results it achieves.

Corrie van Zyl, CSA’s cricket general manager, said 80% of SA’s international players were produced by what he called “blue chip schools” like Wynberg, prestigious alma maters that have, are and will continue to be out of reach of most black South Africans.

“Those schools play around 50 matches a season, while Hub teams (in townships) can play as few as five games a season,” Van Zyl said, adding that 20 games would be the benchmark in future.

CSA have come up with detailed plans to try and ensure that happens. The focus is on coaching, facilities and transport.

The new plan seems founded in belated altruism, but it was driven by more practical ambitions.

“With a minority playing the game, we are the best (test team) in the world,” CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

“Can you imagine how much better we would be if we accessed the full population?”