Random Cricket Thread (International Cricket)

[Dr Cricket]

lol quota country wants 6 players of colour in the team and which two of them have to be black Africans.
hard to see them ever being good or winning many cricket game now unless they get rid of the ridiculous quota system.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/south-afric ... 41567.html

God knows what SA would do when Rabada get injured or if Bavuma struggles in Test crickets.

[The Professor]

Even South Africa A follow the same pattern as their senior team. Lose an opener, consolidate, an upper middle order that doesn't push on and then a collapse. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/m ... 12791.html

[Arthur Crabtree]

Quite a bit of the SA Test team playing there.

[Aidan11]

25 years ago today the famous TMS commentary regarding Botham not being able to get his leg over (the stumps).

[GarlicJam]

Australian commentator Jim Maxwell has been taken to hospital while commentating on the Olympics (in Sydney). No word on the health of the 66 year old yet, just that he is undergoing tests.

Speedy recovery, Jim.

[hopeforthebest]

25 years ago today the famous TMS commentary regarding Botham not being able to get his leg over (the stumps).

Agnew has been using his part in that story for years and recently tried together with Michael Vaughan to create a competitor to it by going on about the difficulty of putting rubbers on bat handles.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Hope the admirable Jim Maxwell is ok. Maybe a nudge to lose some weight.

[Dr Cricket]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/south-afric ... 47271.html
good article, quite baffling how such a racist country can still be playing cricket.
People shouldn't even touring such a racist country.

Personnel aside, what makes New Zealand happy is what used to make South Africa happy: that they could play with freedom. New Zealand are not beholden to government policy or higher authorities, and although South Africa have always been answerable to some extent, never before has the spotlight on the politics of sport shone harsher.

This is the first series which will be played since CSA confirmed the introduction of a selection target into the national side which will dictate the number of players of colour to be picked in each XI. The specifics of the policy have not been discussed, not even with Domingo who said he had received no instructions five days before the series, but they will come.

Beyond the rights, wrongs and reasons for this intervention - and there are many - there are the effects, and the biggest one is that it creates an us and them. Even players like Amla, whose spot in the team has remained certain for years, will now be part of the numbers that make up the target. The obvious consequence is insecurity.

A player like JP Duminy, whose poor run saw him dropped from the Newlands Test against England earlier this year, may end up wondering whether his recall was because of the double hundred he scored for his franchise Cape Cobras, or because of his colour. And the opposite will hold true too. If Wayne Parnell is picked ahead of Chris Morris, Morris may wonder if he was left out because of team balance or target balance.

Government is such a disgrace.

[Making_Splinters]

"People shouldn't even touring such a racist country"

I would assume you have at enough historical knowledge to know that this is a rather daft thing to be saying, Bh.

[Dr Cricket]

What happened in the past does not make it fine or right of what is taking place now.
What SA are doing is not defendable irrespective of what happened in the past.
It is wrong people are placing a blind eye on this just because what happened in the past.

[Making_Splinters]

"What happened in the past".

You make it sound so trivial.

[sussexpob]

Allow me to step in the middle here. Bhaveshgor might have chosen his words a little better considering the sensitivity of the issue, but I have to agree with his general point. One cannot create a policy that disenfranchises the merits of an ethnic minority, and claim a reverse policy in the past gives justification to it.

Basing selection on skin colour over merit is the pure definition of racism, and should be called out and challenged as thus. And yes, I think other teams should re-consider playing South Africa is they continue to do this.

If this was a white majority making sure enough whites were in the team, imagine the reaction to that!!! Racism goes both ways, sometimes people seem to only acknowledge white on black racism, not the other way round.

[Dr Cricket]

So you think it is fine to pick black people over white people not on ability but on colour just because what happened 20-30 yrs ago?

Edit what Sussex said I apologise if my words did cause offense, English isn't my greatest subject.

Doing this won't even fix the problem considering sports people are made on facilities and resources if they want more black people playing sports start reducing the money and social class between them and start getting no more black people into the better school it isn't surprising vast majority of the black SA sports men come from private school.

government are being lazy and doing this because it easy rather them actually fixing the problem.

Having a quota system isn't justifiable considering vast majority of players and people running the game don't want it yet government imposes it and not only that vast majority of the overseas media allow it to happen because of what happened in the past.
England went to SA in the winter and the English press barely cared about the quota system even if the rules state that it cannot happen.
Technically SA should be banned in cricket now considering the government got involved in the selection of the team and have admited it now that quota do exist.

[sussexpob]

So you think it is fine to pick black people over white people not on ability but on colour just because what happened 20-30 yrs ago?

Edit what Sussex said I apologise if my words did cause offense, English isn't my greatest subject.

I wouldnt worry about it, I didnt think it was offensive, more put quite bluntly.

[Making_Splinters]

As someone who has lived in South Africa at various points over the last 40 years, perhaps I have a slightly different take on this from those who have not.

While apartheid - I don't see why it is so difficult to actually write that rather than dancing round the issue - has ended and there's been 30 years of ANC rule, there still exists deep racial inequality in South Africa socioeconomically and this carries through to the players that have the opportunities to represent their country. So we're talking about something which still exists in many ways in current day RSA.

Most top cricketers - like in England - come from a selected group of schools an colleges, needless to say these are hardly the hot bed of diversity. The results of all of this are you end up with national teams that bring up very bad memories when they take the field and actually demonstrate the inequality that is in the system.

Now, I'm not in favour of a quota system and there are certainly much better ways of dealing with the issue, for example actually dealing with why this happens proactively at the grass roots than the end result. That said, such measures take a long time to show rewards.

The ECB did something not to far away by paying Counties on the basis of the nationality of players they selected to play for them. That's discrimination is it not?