Cricket South Africa recalls India's role at Silver Jubilee Event

Cricket South Africa (CSA) recalled India’s role in helping them come back into international arena nearly after 4 decades of isolation, at a gala dinner at Johannesburg to mark the silver jubilee of non-racial cricket in the country.

“They welcomed us back with open arms,” CSA said in a video message as dancers performed to the music of AR Rahman’s Oscar-winning song ‘Jai Ho’.

Former cricket supremo Dr. Ali Bacher recalled how the different cricket boards around the globe had been racially divided under apartheid had come together to start developing the sport. “For the first time, people had an equal chance to represent their country at international level,” Bacher said.

“Until then, South Africa could only play against Australia, New Zealand, and England. Now, for the very first time, India, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka made the sky the limit and the future for South African cricket was awesome,” Bacher added.

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South Africa coach Vincent Barnes recollected his memories how his white colleagues at his workplace were granted special leave to go and play Tests, whereas he along with his other Black players were never granted those leaves. “With no facilities, our kids learnt to play on the streets with makeshift wickets, which is when I decided that I could make a significant difference by giving other youngsters the opportunity that I never had through coaching,” Barnes said, adding that he had to go overseas to qualify as a coach.

South African skipper AB de Villiers he was 8 years of age when the transformation in South African cricket started after the release of Nelson Mandela.

“There are only about 4,000 schools out of about 30,000 (in the country) that have cricketing facilities that can be described as adequate, which gives us a sense of the enormity of the task that lies ahead of us,” CSA President Chris Nenzani said.

“Our national team must be a team that represents all in our country that inspires all of our people,” Nenzani concluded.

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