Proteas head coach Mark Bouchers’ statement revealing that the national cricket team did not intend on kneeling, to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement was met by an expected uproar and surprise by a section of the country’s sporting fraternity. A strange choice of reactions to a decision that is seemingly so synonymous with the organization that carried it out.
Let me take you on a short trip down memory lane quickly, with our first stop being Lungi Ngidi. In June, the 24-year-old fast bowler, showed maturity beyond his years when, at a glittering and glamorous occasion where he won CSA’s One-day international as well as T20 cricketer of the year, he decided to sacrifice his own spotlight, and rather chose to redirect it towards the elephant in the room. Ngidi decided to become the first cricketer to take a stand and publicly as well as actively advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement, with him resonating with the parallels it drew with how players of colour were treated in the cricket system of South Africa. He immediately drew plaudits from a massive section of people of colour around the country, with his support even stretching beyond those with sporting interests, depicting just how significant this movement was, on a humanity level alone.
A lot of people even labelled him “brave”, and rightfully so for obvious reasons, but that right there, is exactly where the problem lies. How can a 24 year old still be considered to be “brave” for speaking up about a racist system that we were led to believe had been abolished two years before he was even born? The fact that he could stand to lose so much, including his fledging career for fighting for a worthy cause, that shouldn’t even require a fight in the year 2020, is the exact reason why the movement, that evidently frightens CSA and its decision makers, exists. The fact that the likes of former Proteas Pat Symcox, Boeta Dippenaar and Rudi Steyn took Ngidi’s cries for awareness as an opportunity to compare the life time pain of people of colour, with the farm murders is yet another reason why CSA should’ve decided to kneel.
Now nobody is advocating for the farm murders, but it is preposterous to try and silence a movement that affects millions of black people across every continent on a daily, because you feel not enough is done for a minority group suffering in practically one section, at that, a very small section of the globe. It is the mere fact that when a black person expresses their pain, they’re subjected to comparisons to very rare instances of struggles from a different race, belittling, nullifying and trivializing their plight, instead of an attitude or act showing solidarity as well as a willingness to find solutions. The fact that, that is still a struggle in 2020 is the reason why CSA should’ve decided to kneel.
Ngidi’s comments seemed to spark a lot of other conversations around the topic, with many ex-professionals of colour coming out to substantiate their backing of the movement using their own lived experiences in the country’s cricket system. Twitter quickly turned into a sports journalists ‘heaven’ as almost every retweet that surfaced on your timeline took you to a headline that wrote itself, LITERALLY. You need more reasons why CSA should’ve decided to kneel? CSA should’ve decided to kneel, to stand in solidarity with the likes of Ethy Mbhalati a veteran seamer who had more than paid his dues over a number of years on the domestic scene, to the extent that he made the South Africa “A” side so many times, it almost felt like he had overstayed his welcome at that level. Yet in the form of his life, he was told he could not be accommodated alongside Makhaya Ntini,and that he would get his chance when Ntini retires? CSA should’ve decided to kneel, purely because of the fact that it had to be “either or” when it comes to fast bowlers of colour.
CSA should’ve decided to kneel in solidarity with the situation involving Ashwell Prince’s brother, a situation that brought him to tears, as he details how the system in the Western Cape deprived his brother, who he claims was an even more talented batsman than he is, yet the system chose not to give him an opportunity with the bat due to racial prejudice, because you know… a player of colour has to be a bowler (preferably a seamer) and a good fielder around the third man area, and lower order batsman as an added bonus of course. CSA should’ve decided to take a knee, in acknowledgment of their hand in creating and making that stereotype acceptable, CSA should’ve decided to take a knee as a sign of taking responsibility and charge in a motion that seeks to redress that for future generations going forward.
CSA should’ve decided to kneel in solidarity with players of colour failed by their system despite being a cut above the rest, players like Tulani Ngxoweni, who played three-years of SA Schools and two years of SA U19 cricket, yet Border refused to send him to the High Performance Academy, paid him peanuts compared to his white teammates he had achieved more than, couldn’t secure him a kit sponsor, before his career ended without him making a single first class appearance.
CSA should’ve decided to take the knee in solidarity with Thami Tsolekile and his black teammates who were separated from their white counterparts on a tour, and were housed in the township while the white players were comfortably accommodated in the luscious conditions of a state of the art Grey P.E High School hostel as scholars. They should’ve decided to take a knee in solidarity with Tsolekile, who had to play second fiddle for so long at test level, that even when the person he was an understudy for was no longer active, he became an understudy to a player who was not even a specialist keeper. They should’ve decided to take a knee in solidarity with Tsolekile who Graeme Smith reportedly informed a coach that, should the wicketkeeper batsman be selected for a particular match, he would refuse to play.
CSA should’ve decided to kneel in solidarity with Ntini, a man many saw as a hero, an icon, in fact, in the townships and rural areas many saw themselves as Ntini, while running up to bowl against their friends. But out of all the things we saw him as, we failed to see him as a lonely and broken man, at the hands of his own teammates who would go out of their way just to exclude him from their plans, to such an extent that even his young son would notice. They should kneel in solidarity with Ntini, who was not afforded the opportunity to go out on his terms, like the other recognized legends he played alongside. Instead he was prematurely ousted from the national set up, being told that at his age, it was better to make way for the younger players, a conversation that seemingly never took place with Dale Steyn, who CSA had backed and showed patience with through long injury layoffs and advancing age. In fact, Steyn even enjoyed the luxury of being selected in a World Cup squad even though it was an open secret that he had not fully recovered from his injury, and subsequently had to be sent home…injured! Without playing a single game. The mere fact that he was afforded the privilege of being given every chance to make the tournament, while a player of colour might’ve not, is the reason why this movement is relevant.
But the fact that CSA could treat a legend of the game like that, and also let every other above mentioned incident become just one of many similar and normalized incidents, is the reason why it would’ve been more surprising had they decided to kneel in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. In fact, maybe CSA made the right decision as, this definitely represents more of what their true colours look like, at least a lot more than Smith kneeling next to the man who he claimed, his loneliness he wasn’t aware of. All of a sudden he had grasped awareness of his pain and loneliness, together with that of millions of other black people in the country, he hadn’t had the opportunity to let down yet? The decision not to kneel, should give you a more accurate answer in that regard.
Boucher speaking of inclusivity and trying his best to once again take the focus away from the group that is actually suffering in that inclusive space, is no different to the “All lives matter” stance of Symcox and co. and looks to rather undermine all of CSA’s statements claiming to be in solidarity with the movement, and their efforts to offer remuneration packages to those who suffered from the system’s racial injustices. It is subsequently a spit on the face, on all the cricketers who signed a petition in support of the movement and the momentum they had garnered. It then makes you really wonder how successful the culture camp was, as to me it seems to have produced a mirror image of a situation which would seem all too familiar to many who have attended the so called “prestigious former model c” schools.
The most important thing to protect for them is their public image, as soon as they come under scrutiny they will move fast to do some damage control. In this case, CSA’s statements seemed to be less genuine and more for the purpose of damage control. Boucher claiming he has spoken to Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada and that they’re all on the same page, is reminiscent of being that odd scholar who knows and is not afraid to challenge the school for oppressing your rights, but then get the call into the headmasters office, who then threatens you to tow the line, or risk being kicked out and having your whole reputation and future damaged. In fact, if you look at the body language and facial expressions of Rabada in a video interview with Cricket South Africa discussing this matter, you would see he gives a lot of hints about his possible discontent with CSA’s decision not to kneel. He even goes as far as opposing the general public consensus that, it was a collective decision, as he emphasizes that “Mark decided”.
With all the turmoil CSA has had to endure this year, including with this movement and the touching stories that have arisen from it, this was a golden opportunity to finally get something right and garner some good publicity for once. Usually I would say “but they stumbled at the first hurdle”, but not in this case, as they failed to even make it to the starting line of the race. Now imagine an English side beating them to all of that on home soil, showing more solidarity to a race which mostly populates Africa, while the so called Africans don’t even show support for themselves.
Now, I would be wrong if I were to say that black lives don’t matter to CSA, of course they do! They matter only when Ntini becomes the first South African to take 10 wickets at Lords, when Tsotsobe becomes the leading wicket taker in the world in a particular year, when Rabada finishes the year as the number one ranked test bowler in the world, and when Ngidi holds his nerve to win the Proteas a closely contested match in the final over. That mirrors the actions of a certain “prestigious former model c” school who snubbed one of their athletes of an honours blazer award, before he all of a sudden mattered and was placed on the honours board after his impressive displays at the 2012 Olympics were used to boost the schools public image (a school Boucher would know all too well interestingly enough). So in an organization that has constantly proven that black lives matter with “terms and conditions applied” are you really surprised that they decided not to kneel?
