An awkward step in the right direction

A good thing. Abolishing the veto right. Not only in cricket, but it should be in all sports. . We all know that power corrupts...and absolute power corrupts absolutely. A presidential veto is a bit too much power in the hands of 1. No matter what the skin color of that 1 is.

All well and good. If your football league consists of ten teams and one of those teams must have a certain percentage of it's players made up of one-legged players then it's not terribly difficult to see which is going to be relegated at the end of the season. If all ten teams have to play under the same restrictions, as happens in the domestic competitions in South Africa, then there isn't too much of a problem (although, as Niel Manthorpe says, there might be some pretty unfortunate casualties). However, I cannot see England, Australia, India et al being forced to pick any other than the best players for their sides, while South Africa is forced to compile their players from a politically expedient pool. England must be besides themselves with glee to have an opportunity to kick the backsides of a side which clearly does not contain some of South Africa's best players.

Spare a thought for the poor white South Africans. It seems they are no longer welcome in the world of test and first class cricket. In South Africa they are not black enough. And in Englang, as Kolpak players, soon they may not be considered English enough - unless they are unusually gifted and have three lions tattooed on upper arms like KP. Do the sons bear the sins of the fathers? I suspect so.

The thing with quotas is it perpetuates the old way of thinking along colour lines. If quotas persist we will still be talking about black players and white players ten years from now. How this is suppose to encourage racial harmony and social transformation I do not know. Let's bury the hatchet it pick the best eleven.

I'm all for transformation, but why at international level, ideally transformation at school should be the best option and if not, maybe at provincial level, but doing it at international level is just not on. Many talented young black or coloured players are picked too early, because of this, they are thrown into the deep end and are not good enough in the early stages of their careers. They then sometimes never recover and are lost because wrong decisions from the men at the top. Justin Ontong is a prime example of this, he was a talented young batsmen but far from ready for international cricket 4 years ago, but the selectors disregarded this and threw him in the deep end. He struggled and took very long to recover from that early setback. Now i think he is ready for international cricket, but he could have been much earlier if it hadnt been for incorrect desicions earlier.

The quota system is flawed, good players like KP, Ryan ten Doeschate, Strauss and many more are lost to Europe. Another problem is that due to the entire quota system some of the players feel like this isn't they way they should be here - not on talent but on color. Some of them also feel that there should be something else. But the bad thing is of a country around 92% black there is only one black regular member of the squad. this is a worry - look at zimbabwe, their team is virtually all black with a few whites reflecting on the real demographics of the country and that is what South African cricket team must do.

I really feel administrators are getting this all wrong. by trying to change things from the wrong end. I am all for transformation, but the goal of the professional teams in South Africa hast be to field the best eleven players possible. We have come very far from the Apartheid days, where a play will not be overlooked because of his color, only his skill. Money should be and I'm sure is being poured into cultivating cricket in black communities at grass routes level. Things will not change overnight, it will take many years. But one thing nobody seems to be talking about is that cricket just isn't a black persons first choice of sport. Football is by far the biggest sport in South Africa, and there is no needs for quotas there, as the youth all want to be soccer players, there is more money and more opportunities there for them, so good luck to them. But by trying to get all children into cricket at an early age, is always gonna be a better plan than forcing it at a top level!

Affects of apartheid were long lasting on their local population. Hope the crusaders understand it first before trying to overcome that. Also hope they field their best 11. Let it be 11 white men or 11 black men or 11 men of Japanese origin. South Africa never won a world cup, its time to do it with their best team!

To the rest of the cricket playing world South Africa's policy of righting the wrongs of the past may seem awkward and unnatural, but that's mostly because apartheid was wrong and unnatural. Using the same policies used during apartheid can never be right. Using skin color as a determining factor is wrong. I would love anyone to explain to me how racism as a principle can be right sometimes and wrong others?!?! And why should the cricket team reflect the demographic of the country??? The targets they have are flawed. They should be striving to get to a point when they can pick a South African team on ability only. But their aim is to see 80% black faces. That is pure racism. Dress it up anyway you like but that is racism. If the argument is, that if all things had been equal then South Africa would have a demographic team, then I beg to differ. Look at the NBA in America (just one example of many). 10% black in the country, 90% black in the NBA.