Transformation in Sport: For or Against?

F

feo

Honorary Master
Joined
Jan 22, 2006
Messages
13,722
Reaction score
109
Location
Pretoria, South Africa
Yesterday Jozi101 posted this thread about the lack of players of colour in our rugby team. Now I only saw that thread after it was locked but I still think a discussion about "transformation" in sports is in order.

I googled a bit to read up on what exactly the motive behind this transformation is. I came across this ANC letter from 1998, it's old I know but it may as well have been written in 2007 since nothing's changed since then.

The birth of a democratic dispensation in South Africa in 1994, brought fresh hope to the oppressed majority of our country.

The millions of people who voted for the African National Congress gave us the mandate to transform the South African society in all its spheres.


As the end of our first term of office draws nearer, we can look back with pride and say: "We have laid the foundations for a better life for all!" Indeed we have scored major successes in the short period. There are however, certain areas where more should have been done.

The transformation of sports in our country is one such area where we have done very little.

Since South Africa�s submission to the international sporting arena, all sporting codes were given an opportunity to transform themselves - to ensure they are representative of all South Africans. Many codes committed themselves to transformation and indeed succeeded in winning the hearts and minds of the broad South African public.

However, there are still sporting codes which are not truly representative of the South African nation. Both the rugby and cricket national teams remain lily-white despite their much publicised development programmes in previously disadvantaged communities.

Many young black people have already demonstrated great potential in the fields of rugby and cricket but nothing has been done by rugby and cricket associations to help them develop to levels where they would be considered for selection in the national teams. Even those exceptions, for example in cricket where Makhaya Ntini and Paul Adams have proved themselves beyond any doubt, the national selectors left them out in the cold for the first test against the West Indies for the flimsiest of reasons.

The persistent defense by minority parties of white racism in sport only serves to confirm that apartheid is still firmly entrenched in their psyche.

The African National Congress remains committed to its objective of transforming South African society, and sports is no exception.

The ANC will ensure that parliament adopts legislation entrenching transformation of all sport codes. We hope that with the establishment of the Sports Commission next year, transformation of sports will no longer be a pipe dream, but a reality.
Click to expand...


Now my question to all of you is: are you for or against it? Please give reasons. It's a simple question so trolls that intend to derail the thread and get it locked, please do everyone a favour and stay away.

My view now. I'm against this so-called transformation in sport. It's pretty clear cut why it won't work, same reason people are fedup with BEE systems. In our sports teams there are positions that can be filled by ANY player regardless of colour i.e. those positions are filled by players who are in SA teams by MERIT. THEN there's a few positions reserved for "players of colour" or "quota positions". Now there is no way on earth that SA can ever send out a FULL strength side in any sport when distinctions are still made based on the colour of a player's skin.

Maybe I'm just a bit dof but I thought one of the main reasons we have sport is to send out our most competitive team, a team that will maximize our chance of beating the opposition NOT a team that is simply representative of SA (whatever that means). SA is made up of South Africans, period. Why can't the same also hold for our teams? As long as we have South Africans in the team that should be enough for everyone to support their country, not whining about the fact that there's not enough players of colour that represent us.

Please lets' DISCUSS this and not flame each other with Grade 1 comments mmmkay. Keep it clean.
 
I'm against it. Players should only be able to get a spot in a team based on merit, not on skin color or any other factors.
 
we should field the best 15 players in the country in rugby, the best 11 in the country in cricket... and, they not defined by colour.

sport is about winning, we need teams that will make the nation proud regardless of their race
 
The bok team will be made 90-100% black. Young whites will then leave SA and go play for Australia etc. Our new black team will then be thumped by ex-South Africans :D
 
What ever happened to those fairy tales about creating a non-racial South Africa?
 
The thing is the process to find the best players, if you dont go to the right schools you stand little or no chance of making it even to provincial level.

If you watched the 20/20 final, the commentator spoke about how Tendulkar, Pathan bros and Murali were found, they were playing cricket in small villages and the Indian cricket board went out to find talent!! And now they some of the best in the world.

I believe Mark/Steve Waugh are also part of an ICC initiative to "find" talent in places like India and Bangladesh.

SA should get a system like that or even something like in Aus.

IMO players of colour in our country get demotivated most of the time, and quit before they make the national team. They reach the ages of 24-28 and still dont make the national side, but life goes on and they start working and give up cricket.
 
Against it: Best players on the field in whatever sporting discipline. That is the only way to move foward and possibly win World Cups. By choosing players based on race instead of merit, it will always mean you don't have the best team on the field. What South African politicians fail to realise is that it's a global playing field - the other countries aren't going to enforce quotas because we are; they are going to pummel us into submission both physically and mentally.
 
In the UK, rugby is played mainly at private schools and soccer at government schools. The same goes for this country. The development of players and the love of the game usually starts at this level. Talent is exposed and nurtured at this level as well. Offer rugby at schools that only currently offer soccer and you will have more interest in the sport by all colours. Development money can then flow to a new wider base. Grass root amateur players of any colour should be developed on an equal opportunity basis. If a player is talented enough to make it to professional level, he should then have to perform on merit to get provincial or national selection.

Representation based on national demographics and not on player and supporter demographics is daft. To me, that is a wrong way to start. Forcing the issue from the top-down instead of from the bottom-up would kill the interest in the sport by the current player and supporter base. Hijacking the professional game could force a breakaway system based overseas, taking away any talent that are excluded selection on the basis of merit. Not much money will flow into developing a wider base of players if the fans are not prepared to pay to watch a sport that is not competitive and which is run on the basis of some AA/BEE scheme.
 
Agreed with the points here. But with rugby, I notice that the clued up rugby analysts always say that the black guys come through in their numbers at school and uni level but never make it to the U/22 level and the A and national sides, anyone know why?
 
feo said:
Agreed with the points here. But with rugby, I notice that the clued up rugby analysts always say that the black guys come through in their numbers at school and uni level but never make it to the U/22 level and the A and national sides, anyone know why?
Click to expand...

Eh perhaps because they are just not good enough to play at that level
 
alanf85 said:
Eh perhaps because they are just not good enough to play at that level
Click to expand...
The analysts say otherwise. I don't know much about rugby at that level but I don't think that it's true. Just look at last night's game, Habana, Ndungani and Pietersen all played so there's definitely players filtering through.
 
feo said:
Agreed with the points here. But with rugby, I notice that the clued up rugby analysts always say that the black guys come through in their numbers at school and uni level but never make it to the U/22 level and the A and national sides, anyone know why?
Click to expand...

Want to know if I know why? Yes.
Kwotas.

At school at provincial level and lower there must be a amount players of colour.

Now they move up and there is just so many places available for under performing players.

Let us not bluff ourselves. Maybe two or three of the players currently playing in our national cricket and rugby teams came through the transformation exercise. Most came from "privileged" private schools. Ntini, Gibbs were both at prestigious schools which most whities cant afford to attend.

This whole transformation issue is a political scam. It ha absolute nothing to do with sport.

Now listen to our ANC cronies or perpetually disadvantaged members blame every thing but themselves.:o
 
Freshy-ZN said:
"Transformation" implies political interference. This is a disaster.
Click to expand...

Yeah just like Apartheid but to maintain the current status quo is a far bigger crime and disaster than letting the govt step in fundamentally reshape things so that it reflects the way things WOULD have been in South Africa had we not had the Apartheid system i.e the name changes , land, economy and sports.
 
tibby.dude said:
Yeah just like Apartheid but to maintain the current status quo is a far bigger crime and disaster than letting the govt step in fundamentally reshape things so that it reflects the way things WOULD have been in South Africa had we not had the Apartheid system i.e the name changes , land, economy and sports.
Click to expand...

How arrogant of you and the government to assume that you know how things would have been without apartheid. Do you have a crystal ball?
 
Against.... I feel people should be in a position on merit and ability. It is a form of racism to exclude or include someone on the colour of there skin, or religeon
 
feo said:
Agreed with the points here. But with rugby, I notice that the clued up rugby analysts always say that the black guys come through in their numbers at school and uni level but never make it to the U/22 level and the A and national sides, anyone know why?
Click to expand...

This is something that is a huge concern for provincial and even club level unions. One thing is for sure in rugby : size does count (Yes skill is obviously the first selection criteria, but once you have 2 players of equal skill, the the nature of rugby results in natural selection of the bigger player). While at school / varsity level players are spread between many teams, once you get to provincial / national level only a select few get to play, hence more competition, hence only the best being able to compete.

Now I haven't been able to find any studies showing proof of what I'm about to say, but the general view is that southern african blacks just aren't all that big (for whatever the reason ... some say nutrition as youngsters, but your guess is as good as mine). Before you say this is BS and there's no proof... do yourself a favour at lunch time today and take note as you walk down to the local BreadBasket for a sarmie. Through observation you'll see there is some merit to this

[ oh yes.. and I disagree with the way transformation is being implemented , but do feel that if proper resources are assigned to devlopment of sport in this country, we'll be tapping into a huge unused source of naturally talented players)
 
Last edited:
The skill levels simply are not there. Is it due to lack of development? Lack of money? Lack of interest from the black community? It is like in the USA. Nearly all there players are born outside the United States. American players do not have the skills. Probably because of a lack of interest in rugby. I reckon it is the same in the black community. Just because our masters decide that the team now be 90% black, does that suddenly make 90% of the black community interested in playing rugby? If you look at the most powerful rugby playing nations, they have been playing rugby for generations. How long have black South Africans been playing rugby for?
 
To say the skills aren't there is clearly crap unless you are saying to play rugby is genetically coded in whites' DNA
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X