Quota rules stop Sunbirds’ flight to final

The Mpumalanga Sunbirds’ first ever chance to make it to the finals of the Telkom Netball League was crushed on Sunday when their victory over the Kingdom Queens was declared null and void.

They won 43-42 in the league which concluded on Tuesday, and initially made it to the final. Their hard fought victory in the division B semi-final vanished before their eyes. It became a 42-0 loss when the team was deemed not to have been racially representative because of the lack in white players in the second quarter of the match.

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As a result, the Aloes were crowned champions after beating the Kingdom Queens 35-31 in the division B final. The Western Cape Tornados later went on to beat the Sunbirds 45-25 in the play-off match for third and fourth.

If they had faced the Aloes and won, they stood a chance to be promoted to the A-division if they reigned supreme over the Kingdom Stars who ended last in the A-division, instead they need to accept their fourth place after sitting on top of the leaderboard for the majority of the league.

The Kingdom Stars was accused of a similar offense in 2019, twice, but it was ruled that the oversight was corrected within a few minutes and not after more than a quarter of play. According to Netball SA, the Sunbirds in the semi-final played the entire second quarter with six black players and one white, and have therefore been docked points, losing the game 42-0.

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“The Sunbirds forfeited the match according to rules 3,6 and 3,7 of the tournament. It states (3,6) that provincial teams should be 2/5 or 3/4 on court and should apply at all times. Failing to comply, points and goals will be taken from the non-complying team. Provincial demographics will be considered on approval of players and team management. The competing team (3,7) should play 2/5 or 3/4 in each quarter of the game, if a team play 6/1 on court for the entire quarter and complied with 2/5 or 3/4 in other quarters, that team will be considered non-compliant of target system and such teams will forfeit points and goals of that game,” Netball SA stated.

Shortly after the team had received the news which left them devastated, coach Theresa Rossouw lodged an appeal. It contains allegations of bullying of an already regressed team. She added in the appeal that the team were left embarrassed by appearing on live TV with dresses either too big, or too small. “We became the laughing stock of other teams,” she said.

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Furthermore, Maria Cato, the team manager, had also been admitted to hospital and as a result could not attend the semi-final. “This led to the oversight of the representation,” Rossouw said.

“It was never part of our game plan to break the rules – we didn’t have to do that as our whole team are more than capable of representing Team Sunbirds,” she said.

The appeal was unsuccessful, as Netball SA ruled that the rules were communicated thoroughly. “We take note in her appeal that she acknowledges oversight on her part. We believe that it was not malicious, but it has unfortunate consequences,” Netball SA said.