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Campaign to get Indian-origin players in SA national cricket
Durban, Oct 03: An Indian-origin cricket club here has launched a major campaign to bring their players into the national side, which still remained a team largely representing the privileged community here.
Durban, Oct 03: An Indian-origin cricket club here has launched a major campaign to bring their players into the national side, which still remained a team largely representing the privileged community here.
The Chatsworth United Cricket Club, which was established in 1965 in the giant Indian residential area of Chatsworth, launched the campaign at the Sun Coast Casino and
Entertainment Resort in the city Wednesday night.
"The club was very concerned that 12 years after integration in cricket there was not a single player of Indian origin in the national side," club CEO and general manager Dr Ravi Govender said. He said except for two players of colour, the national team still remained a team that largely represented the privileged community in South Africa.
"To us this is just amazing - and we have therefore relaunched our club by proclaiming that 'the time has come for us to act'," he said.
He said countries like England, West Indies, New Zealand, Canada, Zimbabwe, Holland and Kenya all have Indian players in their teams but South Africa was still unable to produce a single national player from the large population of Indian origin here.
Despite more than R100 million being put into development there were only two regular players of colour in the national team while there were 4,000 Indian league players in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN). There are 150 senior Indian teams in KZN alone and almost 60 per cent of all juniors here are Indian.
"These facts are worrying and we decided that we must act on them. We are not prepared to sit back and let things happen as they did during the apartheid days. The time has come for us to act - and we will," Govender said.
While a number of Indian-origin businessmen have already donated large sums of money for the club to produce players of high quality, he said the club would provide the best facilities and coaches for their players.
If need be they would either send some players to India or invite players from there to join the club, he added.
"We want to send a clear message to the powers that we cannot be ignored any longer," he said. Bureau Report
"The club was very concerned that 12 years after integration in cricket there was not a single player of Indian origin in the national side," club CEO and general manager Dr Ravi Govender said. He said except for two players of colour, the national team still remained a team that largely represented the privileged community in South Africa.
"To us this is just amazing - and we have therefore relaunched our club by proclaiming that 'the time has come for us to act'," he said.
He said countries like England, West Indies, New Zealand, Canada, Zimbabwe, Holland and Kenya all have Indian players in their teams but South Africa was still unable to produce a single national player from the large population of Indian origin here.
Despite more than R100 million being put into development there were only two regular players of colour in the national team while there were 4,000 Indian league players in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN). There are 150 senior Indian teams in KZN alone and almost 60 per cent of all juniors here are Indian.
"These facts are worrying and we decided that we must act on them. We are not prepared to sit back and let things happen as they did during the apartheid days. The time has come for us to act - and we will," Govender said.
While a number of Indian-origin businessmen have already donated large sums of money for the club to produce players of high quality, he said the club would provide the best facilities and coaches for their players.
If need be they would either send some players to India or invite players from there to join the club, he added.
"We want to send a clear message to the powers that we cannot be ignored any longer," he said. Bureau Report