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“Maybe get rid of quotas?” Quotas, Targets, whatever CSA wants to call it, and how best to implement it, certainly needs to be discussed. But let’s face it, GENUINE TRANSFORMATION IS NOT A HEADCOUNT OF WHO’s WALKING ONTO THE PITCH. For me, it’s about PEOPLE, & THEIR BELIEFS. https://twitter.com/colinbryden1/status/1294325623696105472
So, you can have whatever system/structure you want, WHAT ARE PEOPLES BELIEFS? My Beliefs, taught to me through life experience, through cricket, is this. I grew up on the multi-cultural, multi-racial, exposure to different ways of life, during APARTHEID.
What it taught me, through SPORT, CRICKET & FOOTBALL, was that, THE LIGHTER THE SKIN, does NOT EQUAL THE BETTER PLAYER. This, I learnt as a 9/10 year old alongside the cricket ground, when my father, a lighter skinned coloured man, was a member of Black African Cricket Club.
He played for United Cricket Club, PE for a little while. Alongside people like Khaya Majola, Mongesi Majola, Kadi and others, he was just another player, by no means the star of the show, with his lighter skin. So, I learnt there and then, colour doesn’t matter.
Fast Forward. What does matter, are BELIEFS. Ask yourself this question and answer it honestly, you don’t have to answer me. Do white people honestly believe that BLACK PEOPLE can be better than them. Do they really TRUST them in crunch moments, or in any moment for that matter?
So you see, under APARTHEID there was a certain belief system, people can deny it now if they want. But you and I know this is true. Ask yourself, if REAL TRANSFORMATION IN BELIEF has taken place. I have my thoughts about this, but it matters not what I think.
What matters, is that when we WALK ONTO THE GROUND as 11, THAT THERES 100% TRUST, not some people walking out alongside you THINKING/WISHING THEY COULD HAVE HAD SOMEONE ELSE, because they can’t bring themselves to TRANSFORM their BELIEFS.
So I will publicly say this, as a player, I was always ready to go toe to toe. Regardless of the fact that I lived, schooled, were coached and played as a child predominantly in a coloured township, with its obvious lack of privilege, under Apartheid rule.
And as a coach, I’d love to be able to just pick a team and not have to worry about X Y AND Z. But ask yourself, our system, from the bottom up, DOES it NUTURE, BELIEVE in, TRUST in a BLACK CHILD the same as it does a WHITE CHILD?
So I say, Besides getting to a level playing field as far as facilities are concerned, which is nearly impossible. Can we at least get to a level playing field, in how we’re treating every child? I’m really interested in your thoughts.
