“Those injustices were done to us as blacks. I doubt that any white player out there has ever been called a monkey.” – Geoff Toyana
TELFORD VICE | Cape Town
A statement on Tuesday in support of Lungi Ngidi’s stance on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has thrown into stark relief the gaping racial divisions in South African cricket. The release lists 31 former players and five current coaches as signatories. Not one of them is white. Neither have any white current or former national players volunteered their backing for Ngidi.
The document, which former Titans player and Lions coach Geoff Toyana told Cricbuzz was the work of “a collective”, seeks to “invite our fellow white cricketers to join in this move to defend human dignity”. Had any whites been approached to back the initiative? “No, but that’s a very good question,” Toyana said. “Those injustices were done to us as blacks. I doubt that any white player out there has ever been called a monkey.”
The atmosphere around the game has been racially charged in the wake of Ngidi being asked, during an online press conference last Monday, whether South Africa’s current players were talking about supporting BLM. “That’s definitely something that we will discuss once we are together in person,” he said. “We have spoken about it and everyone is well aware of what’s going on. It’s a difficult one because we are not together, so it’s hard to discuss. But once we get back to playing that is definitely something we have to address as a team.
“As a nation as well, we have a past that is very difficult because of racial discrimination. So it’s definitely something we will be addressing as a team and if we are not, it’s something I will bring up. It’s something that we need to take very seriously and, like the rest of the world is doing, make a stand.”
That earned Ngidi disapproval from former white players, who with no apparent evidence took his view to mean he was telling his peers what to do. “What nonsense is this,” Pat Symcox posted on social media. “[Ngidi] must take his own stand if he wishes. Stop trying to get the Proteas involved in his belief.”
In perhaps the only note of notable white support for Ngidi, Vince van der Bijl, a former fast bowler, disagreed: “BLM does not say other lives don’t matter … Respect is allowing others to have their opinions. You are allowed yours. We do not have the space to state all the things that we talk about. And agree on. Saying one thing does not exclude other beliefs. We ache for so many things in this country. Hopefully we can help the healing as opposed to widen the divides.”
Tuesday’s statement said: “We note … that the most outspoken criticism directed at Ngidi has come via former players such as Pat Symcox, Boeta Dippenaar, Rudi Steyn, Brian McMillan and others, and we urge that their views be challenged. We are not surprised at their comments.
“Given South Africa’s well-known past, black cricketers have borne the brunt of subtle and overt racist behaviour for many years, including from some colleagues. Consequently, there is a need to understand how white privilege feeds into the perpetuation of these old attitudes and assumptions.
“Our attitude, mistakenly, we now believe, has always been to say: ‘These are teething problems, and that these will be resolved if we are patient’. But after almost three decades of cricket unity, the views expressed from one side of the racial divide are still very much part of our lives, and we now believe: ‘Teething problems cannot be allowed to continue for this long’ …
“We represent, or have represented, South Africa on merit. Far too many white South Africans cannot accept that black cricketers have proved, time without end, that they are good enough to play at the highest level.”
South Africa’s 2019 rugby World Cup triumph, achieved with a squad captained by the black Siya Kolisi and that included 11 black or brown players — six of whom started the final — was proof that diversity bred strength, the statement said.
“We want to remind South Africans that, as recently as 2017, we were told that a South African sister sport, rugby, was ‘dead’ — killed by ‘transformation’. But guess what? South African rugby won a World Cup last year. We cannot recall anyone suggesting that the victory was due to transformation. Why is transformation always rammed down the throats of national teams when they lose, but never when they win?
“… We are determined that future generations should not have to experience the pain we have had to endure, and that no South African cricketer should be discriminated against in the future. Racism is a global problem and, as the great Michael Holding explained, we can no longer just keep on laughing, grimacing and moving on.”
Former Test fast bowler Holding, now a television commentator, made an impassioned plea for racial justice last week during coverage of the first Test between England and West Indies in Southampton.
Racial unity in South African cricket was proclaimed in 1991, but the game continues to struggle to properly represent the country’s black and brown people — who make up more than 90% of the population — on the field. Of the country’s 345 men’s Test players, 316 — more than 90% — have been white.
Makhaya Ntini, the only one among South Africa’s nine black Test players to earn 50 or more caps, was among the signatories of Tuesday’s release. The brown Hashim Amla, who played 124 Tests, was not. Neither was the brown Russell Domingo, the first South Africa head coach who is not white.
Such colour coding is grim. Not that it was, for the first 100 years and more of cricket’s history in South Africa, difficult to say which race was winning. But the match situation is changing — to the chagrin of some, not nearly quickly enough for others. Who’s winning now? That’s difficult to say, but this struggle is a long way from decided.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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