On Tuesday, 30 black former international players issued a statement alleging racism remains a factor in the game, after current fast bowler Lungi Ngidi supported Black Lives Matter movement last week, and called on his home board Cricket South Africa (CSA) to so the same. Signatories included fast bowler Makhaya Ntini, Vernon Philander, Herschelle Gibbs, Ashwell Prince, Paul Adams and JP Duminy. A total of 36 people, including five coaches, were named on the document, which said, “We commend Lungi Ngidi for supporting #BlackLivesMatter – and we’d like to add our support for it too. We note the criticism aimed at Lungi for expressing his views – and we hope that Cricket South Africa (CSA), together with fellow cricketers – both present and past – will come out strongly in support of #BLM”.
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“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’.”
The group has now called on CSA to not just back the BLM movement, but implement lasting changes.
“We see this as an opportunity for CSA to be unequivocal about its position and to make sure the problem is confronted, and we also invite our fellow white cricketers to join in this move to defend human dignity. We represent, or have represented, South Africa on merit.”
-TIN Bureau