Transformation harming the Proteas, says batting legend

South Africa great Graeme Pollock believes the Proteas will have to accept being a “middle of the road” Test side at best if they stick with transformation-based selection.

The 73-year-old, who was named as South Africa’s Cricketer-of-the-Century in 2000, accepts players of his era could have done more to help their non-white counterparts, but is concerned the balance has now swung too far in the opposite direction.

Also read: Proteas have (finally) ditched JP Duminy

South Africa face England in the second Test at Trent Bridge 1-0 down in a four-match series after a crushing 211-run defeat inside four days at Lord’s last week.

Pollock believes political reasons are undermining South Africa’s long-term competitiveness as a Test nation.

“The major thing is the problem with the politics and interference with the selection of players,” Pollock said at a meeting of cricket enthusiasts in London.

“It’s affecting the performance of the side – they don’t put the 11 best players on the field.

“It’s never going to change. As South Africans, we’ve got to accept that South Africa are going to be middle of the road in their future Test cricket.”

As of last August, Cricket South Africa (CSA) implemented targets for the Proteas, requiring them to play an average minimum of 54% black players and average minimum of 18% black African players over the season.

The target at franchise level is a stricter six players of colour per side per match, of which three must be black African.

Pollock said it was at domestic level where the effects were most noticeable.

He cited the elevation of white opener Heino Kuhn as a case in point.

“You are going to pick a guy like Heino Kuhn, the opening batsman, who got a couple of hundreds in first-class cricket. He’s not good enough to play Test cricket.

“The guys are playing in a bad standard of first-class cricket in South Africa because of the politics and interference in selection,” Pollock, uncle of the Proteas’ leading wicket-taker in Tests Shaun, said.

Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw are among several players who’ve forfeited their South Africa careers in order to play for English counties and Pollock said: “There are so many South Africans playing county cricket. The exchange rate is a big factor.”

However, current South Africa captain Faf du Plessis insisted Thursday that transformation could not be used as an excuse for poor performance.

“Within the team it has never been a challenge. We understand what to do and what to expect and what is best for our country. We’ve been getting on with it,” he said ahead of the second Test against England in Nottingham on Friday.

Pollock’s own Test career was cut short in 1970, after just 23 matches in which he had already scored 2,256 runs, including seven hundreds, by an anti-apartheid boycott that saw South Africa exiled from official international cricket for over two decades.

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