The Warriors have been stripped of their One Day Cup playoff spot, after being docked points and fined for not fielding the requisite number of black African players in a round-robin match against the Dolphins on 16 February.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced on Sunday evening that the Warriors — who finished third on the log standings after the last round of action on Sunday — would take on the second-placed Titans in a playoff match on Wednesday. The winner of that match would face log leaders Boland in the One Day Cup final on Sunday.
However, on Monday, CSA released another statement saying that the Dolphins, who finished fourth, would instead host the Titans after the Warriors were docked points.
“CSA has announced that the Dafabet Warriors will lose their spot in the 1Day Cup playoff after being docked match points due to a breach of the CSA Administrative Conditions,” read the statement.
“Following a comprehensive review and investigation, the CSA Board has determined that the Warriors failed to meet the stipulated transformation requirements during their match on 16 February 2025 against the Hollywoodbets Dolphins in Durban.
“The breach pertained specifically to Clause 3.2.2 of the CSA Administrative Conditions, which requires teams to field a minimum of three Black African players in the starting eleven.”
The Warriors won that match with a bonus point so were deducted five points, leaving them in fourth position, while the Dolphins were awarded four points for the match which shot them above the Titans to second.
No communication
In each domestic cricket match, both sides are required to field at least six players of colour, with three being black African.
Wicketkeeper-batter Sinethemba Qeshile and all-rounder Andile Mokgakane were the only two black African players selected for the Warriors, who are coached by former Proteas spinner Robin Peterson, in the match against the Dolphins.
In total, however, the Warriors fielded six cricketers of colour, with Diego Rosier, Senuran Muthusamy, Jason Raubenheimer and Junaid Dawood joining Qeshile and Mokgakane.
The Warriors will also have to pay a fine to CSA, the amount of which was not disclosed.
“A monetary fine has also been included, with 50% payable before the end of the current financial year,” read the CSA’s statement. “The remaining 50% will be suspended for five years and will only be activated if a similar breach occurs within that period.”
Teams are required to communicate to CSA when they cannot meet transformation targets. In this case, the Warriors did not, hence the harsh penalties.
“To our knowledge, no penalties of this scale have been imposed before, and the Warriors have never previously breached CSA’s transformation targets,” said Eastern Province Cricket president Donovan May.
“To our knowledge, other teams have failed to meet these requirements on multiple occasions without facing similar sanctions.
“Eastern Province Cricket (EPC) has formally disputed the sanctions under the CSA Memorandum of Incorporation.
“EPC is awaiting CSA’s decision on whether the dispute will be resolved through mediation, a roundtable meeting, or arbitration.”
Eddie Khoza, CSA’s head of domestic cricket, told News24: “If you look at the situation we are dealing with at this point in time, there was no approach to CSA.
“For every situation, there would normally be communication from the member if there’s a problem [on meeting the transformation numbers].
“For example, when Western Province played against North West, one of their black players got injured in that match, and the following day, they had to play the Titans; there was no break in between.
“They had to ask permission because they couldn’t comply the following day, because the player they wanted to bring up couldn’t get the flight.
“On matters of that nature, we engaged with the Titans and Western Province to say we are sitting on this challenge, and they can agree to say they can go into this match without fulfilling the required target.”
Western Province will have to field an additional black African player in another match (four in total) to make up for fielding only two on that day. However, because they explained the situation to CSA beforehand, they were not fined or penalised by having points deducted. DM