Such a shame after a really good tournament (bar England) to get a final like that was a massive let down.
Kiwis and choking hey
Kiwis and choking hey
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I think it's been a really poor tournament. A couple of decent matches but for the most part they've been one sided affairs.Originally posted by RichC View PostSuch a shame after a really good tournament (bar England) to get a final like that was a massive let down.
Kiwis and choking heyComment
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Too easy.Comment
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[ame]https://twitter.com/dwright75/status/582510822603288576[/ame]Comment
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Cricket SA‘s board hung Vernon Philander out to dry by demanding his selection for the World Cup semifinal, making captain AB de Villiers reluctant to play in the match, say sources close to the Proteas.
A selector said the panel “had to okay four players of colour” for last Tuesday‘s semifinal, in which Philander was thrust in from the cold after an injury lay-off to play alongside Hashim Amla, Imran Tahir and JP Duminy.
“AB didn‘t want to play in the semi because of this; it is a clear case of interference by the board — they ordered Philander‘s selection,” said a well-placed source who declined to be named.
“It was a purely political decision. The players are fuming about it but they won‘t say so.”
De Villiers could not be reached for comment.
Tony Irish, chief executive of the SA Cricketers‘ Association, refused to comment.
“I will be talking to the players [today] when they get back [from Australasia],” he said.
If the claims are true, a star bowler who has taken 121 wickets in only 29 Tests has been cynically undermined. Philander has earned every nugget of his success but being drafted into one of the most important matches in South Africa‘s one-day history in this way makes him look like a player who has benefited from being black.
The other factor is that Kyle Abbott was denied an opportunity he deserved — and which possibly cost South Africa a place in yesterday‘s final. Abbott was the Proteas‘ best bowler in the tournament in terms of average, economy rate and strike rate.
The Philander fandango was danced as Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula warned at the weekend that CSA and the SA Rugby Union faced expulsion from official South African sport if they failed to deliver on agreed transformation targets.
“We will ...withdraw national colours; we will ensure that we deregister those that are intransigent,” he warned.
The SA Cricketers‘ Association is also “considering our legal options” following a claim that CSA‘s board unilaterally raised the quota for players of colour in provincial franchise teams from five to six. CSA denied that Philander‘s inclusion in the semi-final was to fill a quota.
“Team management could perhaps be in a better position to respond to your query. I have not in the past interfered with the selection of the team and I do not intend to do so in the future. We have always emphasised that national team selection must be on merit,” said CSA president Chris Nenzani.
CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat said: “There was and is no political interference in our selections. We have a selection panel that includes the coach and independent members, and this panel selected all the teams at the World Cup in the same way that they did before the World Cup.”
Team doctor and manager Mohammed Moosajee said he was “not aware of political selection or interference”.
Moosajee explained that: “The selector on tour generally selects the team (the starting XI), obviously with the input of the coach and the captain. There is always a selector on tour,” said Moosajee.
Convenor of selectors Andrew Hudson failed to return The Times‘s call.
Despite CSA‘s insistence that it had not interfered in national team selections, there is a precedent.
In 2001, the then United Cricket Board president, Percy Sonn, personally overruled the selection of Northern Transvaal left-handed batsman Jacques Rudolph in the Test team to play Australia and demanded that he be replaced by Boland‘s Justin Ontong.
Reports from Australia claimed that South Africa‘s captain on that tour, Shaun Pollock, was still uncertain of the composition of his team 15 minutes before he walked out for the toss. — Additional reporting by Nivashni Nair and David IsaacsonComment
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