When the Win Didn't Count - 22 days later

'Peculiar' Warriors Elimination

The Warriors began their CSA 1-Day Cup campaign against the Hollywoodbets Dolphins on February 16 at Kingsmead and it went well. Opener Jordan Hermann batted throughout the innings for a fine, unbeaten 148 around which Matthew Breetzke (62) and Beyers Swanepoel built a formidable total of 343-2.

It was far too many for the home side who succumbed to 217 all out handing the Warriors an emphatic bonus-point victory by 126-runs. And that was that. Or not.

On a typically dry Kingsmead pitch the Warriors’ selected an extra spinner, Jason Raubenheimer, who hails from Schauder in Port Elizabeth, an area which locals tell me is not somewhere to be stranded after dark and from which it is extremely difficult for youngsters to make their dreams come true. But he worked incredibly hard in pursuit of his, was awarded a scholarship to Selbourne and eventually became a professional cricketer. He was evidently a good rugby player, too.

But he is not a Black African and his place in the starting XI, awarded to him by coach Robbie Peterson, meant there were only two Black Africans – not three - amongst the six Players of Colour required by the Cricket South Africa playing conditions for competitions under its jurisdiction.

Teams are permitted some flexibility with the composition of their starting XIs but only in the event of injury and with a special dispensation from CSA before the match. In the event of a warm-up injury just before a fixture, the match referee can be consulted and ‘emergency’ permission granted which is later ratified by CSA.

On Sunday evening, following the final round of group matches in the tournament, with the Warriors having clinched a place in the 2^nd vs 3^rd Qualifier match against the Titans at Supersport Park, the Warriors were penalised for their selection mistake 22-days earlier. All five points they earned for their 126-run victory were taken away and their place in the Qualifier match was gone.

But that’s not all. Bizarrely, the Dolphins were also awarded four points for winning a game in which they had been thrashed. These points saw them not just leapfrog the Titans into the Qualifier with a chance to play Boland in the final, but into second place with the added advantage of hosting the Titans at Kingsmead. The Titans, it would appear, were caught in the crossfire.

But that’s not all. CSA’s decision to incorporate two divisions in domestic cricket – with promotion and relegation – was noble in its intent but fraught with danger. Whereas the success and progress of teams like Boland and the North-West Dragons is laudable, a nightmare scenario is playing out at the bottom of division one with the Dolphins, Warriors and Western Province stranded in the bottom three places. One of them will be in division two next summer. All Test venues.

The Dolphins unexpected and unexplained extra four points are worth their weight in gold – or beer sales at the very least. It makes the chances of Garden Route Badgers and Iinyati being spotted at Newlands next season all the greater, but perhaps even more likely at St.George’s Park if the Warriors are relegated.

There are many questions to be asked: Why did it take CSA 22 days to take action against the Warriors when their error was obvious to everyone on the day it occurred? More esoterically, are more cricketers like Raubenheimer being disadvantaged by the current system than are being advantaged by it? Real Transformation, as we have been reminded often by CSA, is about providing opportunities for the (previously) disadvantaged, not skin colour.

Another might be whether Peterson’s selection was an honest mistake. He had just won the SA20 with MI Cape Town six days earlier, a tournament with no racial composition requirements. It’s difficult to imagine that he ‘forgot’, or that nobody reminded him, but it’s possible. But probably irrelevant as ‘rules are rules.’

We have come a long way since the Thando Bula story 20 years ago when the club cricketer was hauled out of the stands to take his place in the Highveld Lions XI for a Standard Bank Pro20 match after Ashraf Mall was injured 25 minutes before the start of the game and the 12^th and 13^th men were both white. Nobody even dared to contravene the four Players of Colour rule, as it was back then.

The need to encourage the development of more Black African players is both pressing and real. There is not, and should never be, a way around or past that fact. Is it worth considering implementing at provincial level the system which operates with national teams in which the Proteas are marked on their overall team composition at the end of a season rather than in every match?

· A massive, unconditional ‘thank you’ to Hollywoodbets whose sponsorship has paid the running costs of this column for many months. They also contributed significantly towards my journey to Long Island, NY, for the T20 World Cup. Amongst the many sports betting companies in South Africa, they are profoundly different. Registered in South Africa (unlike many others) they provide over 6000 local jobs and contribute many millions of Rands to local clubs, not just cricket, and are singularly responsible for the major Women’s Cricket 50-over competition.

Their logo, discreet at their request, has generated negligible web traffic and I have been utterly remiss in promoting it. But it’s not ‘goodbye’, per se. Hollywoodbets have expressed an interest in supporting my determination to be at the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June. If you are a punter, may I suggest you place your wager with them. They are good people.