When Ashwell Prince moved from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town back in late 1990s he quickly became aware of the levels of prejudice that existed in the professional, domestic game – not that he was unfamiliar with prejudicial bias having endured it at every stage of his young career.
Duncan Fletcher was coach of Western Province and it was his keen eye for special talent that resulted in Prince’s move from EP. It was in the earliest days of domestic quotas and provinces were scrambling to ensure they were suitably equipped for the new ‘era’.
It was a cynical time for players of colour who were traded as commodities to tick administrative boxes. I will never forget an instance at Newlands when Fletcher was asked by a middle-aged white man whether Prince was “one of the better ones.” Fletcher didn’t often lose his temper, at least not in public, but he didn’t hold back on that occasion. There was some unfamiliar spice in his language.
Fletcher said he had no doubt that Prince would play for South Africa and would have a distinguished international career. I recall him saying Prince would score at least 10 Test centuries, but that may have been a few years later. I may even have imagined it. Perhaps he said he “wasn’t surprised” when he scored his 10th. That’s the problem with time and the effect it has on your memory, we fit events to match our recollection of them.
In his recent testimony at the Social Justice and Nation Building (SJN) hearings, Prince was as nuggety as he was as a batsman. Not pretty but highly effective, honest and uncompromising. And difficult to get out, too, as he accepted the offer of an extra half hour from the SJN Ombudsman, Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza.
He recounted many occasions of unfair treatment in his career including clearly being made one of the scapegoats of South Africa’s dismal collapse to 27-5 and 149 all out in the semi final of the 2007 World Cup. Prince was caught by Adam Gilchrist of the bowling of Glenn McGrath for a second ball duck. It was to be the last of his 52 ODIs.
He also suggested that when it was apparent that his only way back into the Test team was for AB de Villiers to take the wicket keeping gloves and for Mark Boucher to be dropped thereby opening up a place for Prince in the middle order, de Villiers refused. He said his back was problematic and that he wanted to concentrate on becoming the best batsman in the world. A couple of years later, when Prince retired from Test cricket, de Villiers did become the Proteas ‘keeper.
Following the 2007 World Cup I was commissioned to write a lengthy feature on what had ‘gone wrong’ with specific reference to the ‘clique’ which had formed around captain Graeme Smith and the undue influence it had over coach Mickey Arthur and the way the team was run. The ‘power base’ included de Villiers, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis (by association) and, it was said, Justin Kemp.
One player told me: “If this team was a ship they would be sitting upstairs behind the wheel while the rest of us are downstairs in the engine room without much air.” To his credit, a 26-year-old Smith, four years into his captaincy, spoke to me honestly for the article and admitted that, if the perception existed, there was a problem.
That he was unaware of it may be used as a stick with which to beat him, if that is what people want to do, but not everyone has the ability to be as socially aware in our mid-20s as we are in later life. The ‘clique’ may have been selfish, exclusive and occasionally obnoxious. The questions might be – was it deliberate and conscious and, far more important, was it deliberately and consciously racist?
Khaya Zondo’s omission from the team on the tour of India in 2015 when J-P Duminy was injured – (Zondo was the designated reserve batsman) was one of the worst looking decisions in modern Proteas history. Especially when Duminy’s replacement was Dean Elgar who was flown in at the last-minute.
Although Elgar’s part-time left-arm spin was used as a reason for his like-for-like swap for Duminy, it was a shocking decision. Elgar, an opener, was listed to bat at seven and never bowled because South Africa scored 438 (for the second time) in the deciding game of a five-match series and won by 214 runs. But of all the questionable selections over the last 30 years which could be attributed to racial bias, that was the most numbing. And most writers, of all races and colours, said so at the time. How could we not?
The elephant-in-the-room question may be this: When ‘squad’ players have not been used either on a replacement or rotational basis over the last 25 years, why have they most often been black players? Is it because the selectors, the majority of whom have been black or brown over that time, have completed the composition of their 14 or 15-man squads with players who ‘tick’ the boxes they are required to tick?
Or did the problem lie with white journalists like me who perpetuated the perception that the reserve players were of lesser value? Did we simply look at their career statistics and deduce that they were fortunate to be included – without considering the difficulties and conditions with which they contended just to get their chance? It is a question I have asked myself for many years and would be happy, and necessarily challenged, to discuss amongst players, selectors, administrators and editors.
My heartfelt question is this: Where do we want to go from here? Will tearing down the reputations of our cricketing heroes and casting them as racists help? Do Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers, amongst others, have any chance of a fair hearing at the SJN Hearings by explaining ‘cricket’ decisions? Or will they simply sound like excuses?
As I have written many times, the SJN hearings were not just important, they are vital to a brighter future. Ombudsman Ntsebeza promised they would be inquisitorial rather than accusatorial. They have not been. Wrongs, of a sort, have surely been committed. The reason and motive for them is what needs to be examined. There were ‘cricket’ reasons for all of them, perhaps even – at a stretch – Aaron Phangiso not playing a single game at the 2015 World Cup.
But by displaying the hearings in public the process is already compromised, although the motive for doing so was honourable.
If a figure as influential and powerful as Prince could accept that at least part of his relationship problems with the ‘clique’ were personality rather than race driven, and the white players could accept that subconscious race bias is a reality which leads them to be prejudicial, we may be able to move forward.
It has been 10 days since my last cricket column. I have thought about it for hours every day. Every sentence I wrote, in my head and on-screen, caused doubts. There were always those who would slay me, on both sides. There have been grim times in SA Cricket in the last 30 years, but this feels bleaker than any. The game desperately needs a group hug. It desperately needs someone, or some people, to remind all of us that we have a future together.
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One of the most personal articles you have shared Niel. Thank you.
I have a huge problem with the fact that sweeping allegations of racism have been reported as fact by the media without the alleged perpetrators being given an opportunity to respond to the allegations. Its palpably wrong not to apply the audi alteram partem rule in a process that is meant to contribute to "nation building". Typical of CSA's incompetent and destructive officials. They simply don't have a clue about anything, let alone cricket!!!