SOUTH AFRICA CRICKET

BACC unhappy over Smith's appointment as CSA's director of cricket

by Telford Vice • Published on

Smith was recently appointed as the acting director of cricket. © Getty

Graeme Smith's honeymoon as an administrator ended abruptly on Friday when he was accused of not being fit for his job. Smith, whose appointment as Cricket South Africa's (CSA) acting director of cricket was announced on December 11 and immediately heralded as a step on the right path, captained national men's team in a world record 108 of his 117 Tests. But, seen through the prism of the country's febrile race politics, that's not good enough.

At least, not for the Black African Cricket Clubs (BACC), a Gauteng-based pressure group, whose chairperson, Ntsongo Sibiya, said: "The director of cricket has a responsibility to develop everyone. I'm not sure what [Smith] understands about a kid in Soweto [a black city alongside Johannesburg] or in a rural area. I don't think he understands those dynamics. Anyone who has the potential to play must be given the opportunity to shine at the highest level, regardless of where they come from."

The BACC say their beef is with what Smith represents. He grew up as a privileged white South African during the last years of apartheid, which meant he would have a more affluent and stable upbringing than most of his peers - borne out by the fact that he attended the elite King Edward VII school in Johannesburg, which has nurtured 25 official international players where he had access to superior coaching that wasn't available to poorer, typically black, children.

"You're dealing with a boy from a school that has produced 21 [sic] international cricketers, none of them a player of colour," Sibiya said. "If you tell me I must trust in the next generation of black African players without me and him sitting and talking about how do we - together - make sure that black African players can come through, we have a problem.

"If you were a black man and Graeme Smith becomes the director of cricket would you trust him to develop your son?"

Asked if the BACC's problem was with Smith himself, Sibiya said: "I'm talking about the position, not Graeme Smith the man. We need a guy that will understand, not necessarily a black African - a guy who will understand a kid in Zwide."

But it seems the BACC's issue with Smith is indeed personal, as suggested by another member of the group, Lewis Manthata, who said: "If you had said had Adrian Birrell was the director of cricket, none of us would have an issue. Or Greg Hayes. They have, over time, a track record of producing cricketers."

Hayes and Birrell have been involved in developing the game in the Eastern Cape - where blacks have a rich history of playing cricket stretching back more than a century, albeit it limited by state subjugation and consequent poverty - since the late 1980s, and Birrell served as South Africa's assistant coach under Russell Domingo. But both Hayes and Birrell are white, which would seem to undermine the argument that Smith's appointment is untenable because his whiteness is unbearable.

Sibiya and Manthata spoke to the press in Centurion after a two-hour meeting called by the BACC at the Wanderers on Friday morning to, Sibiya said, "reposition black African cricket - to sit down and say where are we taking black African cricket?".

That follows a steady bleaching of the South African cricket landscape comprising the appointment of Jacques Faul as CSA's acting chief executive along with Smith, Mark Boucher as head coach and Jacques Kallis as batting consultant. All are white in a nation that is more than 80% black African.

In a statement later on Friday, Smith was quoted as saying he had empathy for the anger emanating from black cricket circles: "I'm fully aware that in times of change in any organisation there will be instances of uncertainty and distrust from members of certain groups. I'm also well aware that in South Africa it will take a lot for some members of the black community to put their trust in a white man of my background. I can assure them, however, that I fully intend to do my best to advance the transformation agenda of [CSA] and ensure that young black African players are given the opportunity that they deserve to reach the highest levels in all areas of the game."

It doesn't help the optics of the situation that two of the most high profile black Africans in cricket, CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe and interim men's team director Enoch Nkwe, have respectively been suspended and demoted to Boucher's assistant. Temba Bavuma and Lungi Ngidi - both black Africans - are not playing in the first Test against England in Centurion because of injury. But their absence has only further focused attention on South African cricket's racial disparities.

Only eight of their 107 Test players since re-admission have been black Africans - despite the fact that cricket is played and followed by more blacks than whites countrywide. Those numbers don't add up, and until they do South Africans will keep seeing and playing cricket in black and white.

© Cricbuzz

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