CSA hosting ban lifted

Cricket365
May 9, 2017

Cricket South Africa’s adherence to transformation targets over the course of the last 12 months has earned them the right to bid to host international events again.

Newly appointed Sports minister Thembelani Nxesi confirmed that the moratorium imposed on Cricket South Africa and the South African Rugby Union bidding for events such as the world cup has been lifted.

This comes in the wake of the presentation of Eminent Persons Group (EPG) report to the minister on Tuesday.

The EPG is an in dependant committee who have been given a ministerial mandate to monitor the level of commitment to transformation displayed by various sporting bodies in South Africa.

Nxesi has decided to lift the ban originally imposed by his predecessor Fikile Mbalula who had grown frustrated at the sluggish process of transformation in South African sport.

ALSO READ: Lets look at transformation in SA

Transformation has been a divisive issue in South Africa since 1994 with the democratically elected government eager to attempt to reverse the effects of 46 years of apartheid government and hundreds of years of colonial rule that deprived black Africans and people of colour of access to a variety of public amenities and economic activities.

Targets have been set by organizations like Cricket South Africa primarily to measure the progress made by transformation initiatives and ensure that real steps have been taken to allow disadvantaged communities access to sporting facilities and programmes.

CSA announced new targets last year which would be measured over the course of the whole season rather than on a game by game basis and stipulated that the minimum goal was to have an average of six players of colour, two of whom need to be black Africans, in the national team.

ALSO READ: Results should calm transformation hysteria

CEO of Cricket South Africa Haroon Lorgat indicated that Cricket South Africa have no intention of bidding for any events in the near future.

Lorgat told ESPN Cricinfo: “We are optimistic of achieving good outcomes but we would not want to pre-empt anything at this stage. Regardless, we are committed to transformation and we will continue to engage with the ministry and other stakeholders to ensure we achieve our transformation goals.

“We have engaged constructively with the EPG secretariat and the Department to correct data errors and to develop a tailored scorecard for cricket.”