South African government imposes restrictions on CSA for failing to increase representation of black players
Proteas banned from hosting global tournaments
The South African government has banned Cricket South Africa and three other major sporting bodies from hosting or bidding for international tournaments for at least a year for not sufficiently increasing the number of players of colour in their national teams.
South Africa sports minister Fikile Mbalula said the rugby, athletics and netball federations were also barred from bidding to stage global events, after an annual transformation report showed that four out of the country’s five biggest sports had failed to create enough opportunities for black players.
We have revoked ASA, CSA, Netball & SARU's right to host international tournaments; for failing to meet agreed transformation targets
— RSA Min of Sport (@MbalulaFikile) April 25, 2016
The ban comes into effect immediately.
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South Africa's government has been pushing for more players of colour to be included in the nation's most popular sports, and CSA is one of five sporting federations to have signed a memorandum of understanding with the sports ministry last May, committing to change and to reach specific targets.
"I have therefore resolved to revoke the privilege of Athletics South Africa (ASA), Cricket South Africa (CSA), Netball South Africa (NSA) and South African rugby (SARU) to host and bid for major and mega international tournaments," Mbalula said in a statement.
The soccer federation was the only one of the five to meet its transformation targets, he said.
Cricket South Africa has yet to comment on the announcement.
South Africa are currently due to host two International Cricket Council events – the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2020 and the ICC Women’s World T20 in 2022.
However, the report praised CSA for assigning dedicated resources to transformations data, including a transformation committee.
Mbalula said he would review his decision after receiving the results of the federations' transformation efforts for 2016-17, expected to be either at the end of next year or in early 2018.