One-Day Cup quota kerfuffle highlights continued lack of black African talent development in SA cricket

Hollywoodbets Dolphins celebrate winning the final with the trophy during the CSA 1-Day Domestic Cup, Division 1 final match between Goldrush Boland and Hollywoodbets Dolphins at Boland Park on March 16, 2025 in Paarl, South Africa. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)

By Keanan Hemmonsbey

19 Mar 2025

Cricket South Africa and unions need to get serious about developing black African talent to ensure last week’s One-Day Cup mess never happens again.

The Dolphins were crowned One-Day Cup champions on Sunday after clinching a tense four-wicket win over Boland in Paarl on Sunday.

It was a thrilling match, with momentum swaying from one side to the other throughout before the rising star Hanu Viljoen hit the winning runs in the final over.

Despite all of this, the overriding takeaway from the 50-over competition is that the Dolphins claimed a trophy when they only made the playoffs after intervention from Cricket South Africa (CSA).

After the league phase of the seven-round One-Day Cup competition, the Dolphins, Titans and Warriors all finished with four wins, but the Titans had accumulated the most bonus point wins, followed by the Warriors and then the Dolphins.

It meant that the Titans would host the Warriors in a playoff match in a battle to take on Boland, who had won five of their league matches and sat at the top of the table.

CSA, though, had determined and announced that the Warriors had not selected their minimum transformation “target requirement” in their match against the Dolphins on 16 February – 21 days before this announcement and a few hours after they had announced that the Titans and Warriors would contest the final – and would subsequently be docked points.

The Warriors are also required to pay a R500,000 fine, with another fine of R500,000 suspended for five years.

The league match between the Dolphins and the Warriors in Durban had taken place on the opening weekend of the One-Day Cup campaign. The Warriors triumphed by 126 runs.

Upon arrival in Durban, head coach Robin Peterson had determined that the slow Kingsmead wicket required another spinner. He opted to select Jason Raubenheimer in place of a quick such as Siya Plaatjie or Alfred Mothoa, so the side would go into the clash with three spinners.

That meant that, while the side had the required six players of colour in total, only two of them were black African – when three is the minimum requirement – in wicketkeeper Sinethemba Qeshile and all-rounder Andile Mokgakane.

The Warriors have spinners Wezo Gqiba and Siya Simetu as part of their larger squads, but neither was part of the squad that went to Durban.

Lack of development

The Dolphins did nothing wrong in winning the tournament. They won four matches in a row before the playoffs and continued that winning streak into the final.

But what the situation does raise is the way transformation is handled in South African cricket.

CSA taking 21 days to mete out the punishment – right before the playoffs – is one issue.

But a bigger problem is the overall lack of development of black cricketers. The Warriors play out of the Eastern Cape, in Gqeberha and East London, where more than 85% of the population is black African.

For them to not have three (out of 11) black players capable of representing the side is worrying and emphasises the absence of player development and the lack of pathways to ensure players progress to the required level.

Since the reintroduction of transformation targets in domestic cricket in 2013, domestic sides have picked players to fulfil the requirements as a means to paper over the cracks of a broken system instead of developing players who are capable of filling the required roles.

The fact that (most) teams only ever select three black African players is testament to that.

quota cricket The Dolphins celebrate winning the One-Day Cup final against Boland in Paarl on 16 March 2025. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman / Gallo Images)

If it were compulsory for teams to select two players as a minimum, they’d probably only select two. If it were one, what are the chances they’d select one?

The only side, in recent times, that has consistently exceeded the minimum required number of black (and brown) players is the Lions. This season they have selected up to eight players of colour in their teams and have also played four black African players in their XI.

This hasn’t hampered their on-field performances in any way. In fact, it’s added to their success, since they are currently top of the overall season promotion/relegation log with three rounds of the four-day series still to play before the season culminates.

Window dressing

While the Lions have flown, other teams are sinking in their transformation obligations. Young, talented players are being put into positions they aren’t ready for yet.

Western Province batter Valentine Kitime has played in nearly all of the side’s matches this season, across formats. He has struggled to put any substantive score on the board outside of an outstanding 87 off 94 deliveries against the Titans in the One-Day Cup.

It’s his highest score across formats but it was followed by back-to-back ducks against the Dolphins and Warriors in a 128-run campaign in six innings.

This follows struggles in red-ball cricket as well for the opener where he averages 11.33 in 12 innings.

It’s not that Kitime isn’t a talented player. He has a solid technique and looks organised at the crease. There is clearly a player with potential there, but he has been thrown in the deep end and is struggling to swim.

Kitime is only 21 and his game needs to grow outside of the pressures of division one cricket. If Western Province’s aim was to nurture Kitime and not use him as forward defence against questions of transformation, he would be playing a lower level of cricket.

And based on his potential, he could comfortably come back a better player, ready for the rigours of professional division one cricket.

But Western Province, a union in continued financial difficulty, can’t afford to send the player they deem the best black African batter in the province away to improve and develop.

Whether they care to do so is another issue. Because when Tony de Zorzi returned from international duty, like he did in the last round of the One-Day Cup, he simply replaced Kitime in the side.

Nevertheless, the window dressing does more harm than good to players filling round holes with square ability not yet chiselled to fit the task.

Domestic unions, and CSA in particular, need to do more to ensure that the pool of capable black African players is big enough at domestic level to ensure embarrassing situations like what happened with the Warriors and Dolphins never happens again. DM

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