Two former South African cricketers have slammed at sports minister Fikile Mbalula after he threatened to withdraw national teams from competing internationally if they do not agree to 60-40 quotas in sports favouring black players.
Mbalula announced that as sports in the country were falling behind with transformation and development, and insisted on a change from a 50-50 proportion to a 40-60 representation both provincially and nationally.
According to Sport24, Mbalula also warned that the government could withdraw funding to bodies that fail to comply that fail to comply or de-register and bar sponsorship to any body that fails to transform, although former South African captain Clive Rice said that Mbalula's threat is nothing more than election propaganda.
Stating that the minister does not understand how failure on the playing field works, Rice also said that such politicians have no clue about what happens on the playing field, adding that a lot of promising black players' careers have been ruined by this obsession with quotas.
Rice also said that by only picking black players to get the numbers right, quality is sacrificed, which forces those players to play at a level they are not ready for yet.
Meanwhile, Rice's former teammate and the current coach of the under-19 team Ray Jennings said that the players' careers should be carefully managed, adding that it is very dangerous to push players too early.
