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Jonty Rhodes, the former South African cricketing great, has opened up to the age-old turmoil and chaos within Cricket South Africa (CSA), pertaining to racism.
Rhodes has affirmed that the South African cricket’s inconsistency can be attributed to the long-standing administrative crisis. He strongly believes that racism has played an integral part in the country’s ecosystem.
CSA is currently looking at a massive financial crisis and allegations of racism from its cricketers. As a result, the board lost its cream to Kolpak deals, as its players moved abroad for financial stability.
Moreover, CSA is presently in great hands under the directorship of former captain Graeme Smith.
“The sad thing for me is that even though top 30 players in the country want to work together for the game, the administration is in such chaos that unfortunately, it does have an impact on things (on the field),” Rhodes told PTI.
“Someone like me who is not part of the system, we are reading about issues in South Africa cricket week in and week out and it has not been resolved. The same mistakes are being made and there is not much accountability. It saddens me…it does impact on-field performance. Even though we have some great players, we have been lacking consistency in performance because of inconsistency off the field,” he added.
Rhodes is part of Kings XI Punjab’s (KXIP) campaign in the 2020 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) as the fielding coach.
On Black and White cricketers criticizing each other
“It is interesting because that is what a democracy is all about. You are entitled to your opinion and interesting thing is your opinion is different to somebody else but you are still part of the same system.”
“This white privilege still extends and carries on generation after generation, it is difficult for young black children coming up in a disadvantaged community to have a better life than their parents just because of lack of facilities. There is so much corruption,” Rhodes concluded.
