South Africa puts in racial quotas for the national team

Cricket South Africa (CSA) have decided to introduce racial quotas for the national team across all three formats of the game so as to increase the number of black players in the team.

According to the new regulations, an average minimum of six Black players has to be in the squad, in matches over a season, the organisation announced on Sunday. This new regulation won’t have much impact on the recently concluded Test series against New Zealand as the regular skipper AB de Villiers was injured for the tour.

“The test starting XI that played in the recent series against New Zealand contained six players of colour and two Black Africans, and the ODI starting XI had as many as eight players of colour in their most recent series against the West Indies and Australia,” CSA President Chris Nenzani said in a statement.

“With the targets being measured over the full season and being cumulative across all three formats, our selectors and team management will have the flexibility to deal with varying circumstances.”

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“This shows very clearly that the targets are very attainable and sustainable and we will maintain the world-class standards that our players regularly produce,” he added.

South Africa will be now heading for an ODI match at home against Ireland on September 25, before leaving to Australia for the ODI series starting on September 30. However, the racial quotas have already been introduced in their domestic franchise competitions, with at least six players of colour, including three black African players.

The South African government had banned its national cricket and rugby federations from hosting or bidding for international tournaments for at least a year in April as they failed to increase the number of Black people representations.