WHEN limited-overs coach Rob Walter named his squad for the recently concluded T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean, one of the glaring differences compared to squads of the past was how it only featured one black African player in Kagiso Rabada.
Naturally from the South African cricket community, this topic followed the side right through their World Cup campaign, and after it, despite them becoming the first Proteas men’s squad to reach a World Cup final.
Asked whether he felt any added pressure during the tournament because he was at the centre of the transformation topic probably for the first time in his career, the 29-year-old fast bowler replied that it was not the case.
In the same breath, Rabada highlighted that some players would perhaps have been affected by the tag following them around in such a big event.
“I’m a black player, yes, but it didn’t put pressure on me at all. I think it would be such a heavy thought during the World Cup, thinking about yourself being the only black player in the team. That seems like torture for me, and that takes away focus,” said Rabada.
“These are challenges, because you wonder how players must have felt in the past and how players in the future might feel, and these are things that you need to address.
“I can be brash about it and say I didn’t think about it too much, but generally I didn’t have any pressure on myself. For me, it was just about winning that cup, but for other players, you never know how they would feel.
“What the media has to say about this situation can really mess up a player’s psyche, and those are the certain things we have to make peace with in South Africa because there’s a very unique landscape.”
Rabada does not seem to believe that transformation or the inclusion of players of colour in World Cups is responsible for the side not having won the ultimate title yet.
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“This whole transformation thing always seems to bubble up when we are at World Cups for some reason. You ask yourself what are some of these factors that might make a player feel that way, that they are the only black player.
“It’s factors such as we lost because of transformation, because we had to include players of colour or black Africans.
“And that always happens in World Cups, but when we’re winning series or losing other games, it’s not so much of an issue – and that’s where it gets inconsistent.
“You tend to look back and ask yourself truthfully looking back at the past: ‘Have we not won a World Cup because of transformation?’ I mean, really?
“Sometimes things can get blown out of proportion, and it’s a unique system.
Red-ball head coach Shukri Conrad has today named a 16-player squad for the two-match Test series against West Indies, which starts on 07 August in Trinidad and Tobago.
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Dafabet Warriors batter Matthew Breetzke has received his maiden Test call-up after impressing in last… pic.twitter.com/kBlTnDkugp
“A lot of people have different opinions on it because of where our country comes from, and it’s not a system that is particularly easy to understand and move on from. It’s something that has to be looked at in context.”
The Proteas will play in the first match of a two-Test series against the West Indies from August 7 at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.
In addition to the ongoing tour to the West Indies, the Proteas are scheduled to play a historic three-match One-Day International series against Afghanistan from September 18 to 22 in the United Arab Emirates.