Cricket is a numbers game. Runs, wickets, averages and strike rates are the currency of the sport. But in South Africa the numbers mean something very different altogether and the team that plays against England at Lord’s in the first Test this week has had to meet a numerical target way beyond the bat and ball.

Two years ago Cricket South Africa presented a 37 page document to the national government outlining how it would implement transformation policies aimed at giving opportunities to “previously disadvantaged” people. The specific focus was on “on increasing black African players", whose progress had stagnated since readmission two decades earlier.

It has resulted in a quotas policy at all levels of cricket that is being felt right to the top of the national team. At provincial level there now have to seven non-white players of which three must be black African in every team.

At first-class level the number is six non-whites of which two have to be black African. It is non-negotiable.

For the Proteas, as the national side are known, the quota number is the same as at first-class level but it is more flexible and an average is taken across the year, rather than implemented in every match.