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The president writes to Smith and Boucher saying that South Africans must show “to the world that we are all together in opposition to racism at all times.”
The Cricket South Africa interim board has expressed concern about the men’s national team’s response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, but maintains that it will not force the team to act in a particular way. Instead, the chairman of the board, Judge Zak Yacoob, has written to cricket director Graeme Smith and national coach Mark Boucher pointing out people’s right to free speech, but stating that he feels South Africans should show ” to the world that we are all together in opposition to racism at every turn. “
Yacoob has also made himself available to any player who is convinced to demonstrate the anti-racism message to contact him directly and highlighted the interim board’s position in favor of BLM.
“The Interim Board (IB) reaffirmed the importance of the current global movement against systemic racism in sport, noting that it was not a sectarian political cause, but rather a broad social justice campaign that garnered broad support from athletes across the globe. world, assembling a coalition of support across national, racial, class, religious and generational lines, “read an interim statement from the board. “The IB feels that the lives of blacks have particular meaning given South Africa’s apartheid past. Therefore, the IB has confirmed CSA’s support for BLM, first expressed on 9 July in the wake of the letter. submitted to CSA by 36 former national players and senior coaches. “
While CSA as an organization and individual players like Kagiso Rabada have repeatedly supported the BLM movement, the national team, as a collective, has not been as strong in their stance. The team did not kneel on its return to international cricket, against England, on November 27, the first time they played together since March, but wore black armbands to mourn the lives lost in the coronavirus pandemic. Two days before the game, the team released a statement expressing its commitment to dismantling anti-racism “by building commitments to each other and demonstrating ways of participation that we have simply never had before as a team.”
In that statement, the team recalled the 3TeamCricket (3TC) exhibition game in July, where all 24 players and all involved support staff members knelt. Coach Mark Boucher said that in that act the team felt that “we have done what we had to do.” The team then took a slight U-turn and a banner reading “We stand in solidarity against racism and gender-based violence” was displayed in the stands in Newlands when they played England in two of the three T20Is. Game 3 was at Paarl and the banner was not transported to Boland Park.
Between July and November, CSA also established a Committee for Social Justice and Nation Building (SJN), chaired by former independent board director Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw. The committee had a wide range of responsibilities, which included considering remedies for those players who had been discriminated against in the past. An ombudsman, ombudsman Dumisa Ntsebeza, was introduced in August and tasked with managing an independent complaints system. That process, along with the entire SJN, has been suspended while the interim board gets a legal opinion on how to move forward.
Firdose Moonda is a correspondent for ESPNcricinfo in South Africa
