Durban, Nov 12: South Africa`s development programme to increase the number of black players in the national cricket team will continue as before, United Cricket Board President Ray Mali has said. The assurance from Mali and his portfolio committee on sports came yesterday at a meeting of parliamentarians in Cape Town about the transformation of cricket from a white dominated sport to one that reflects the entire South African population. Ray said the UCB had done away with the word "quota" because of its negative connotations and replaced it with "target" as their aim was to ensure transformation without any hindrance. He said as far as he was concerned the UCB`S development programme was making tremendous progress in producing players of colour and the programme could be used by other sports bodies as well. Mali also tried to allay fears that the advancement of black players would take a back seat with the doing away of the word quotas. There are two regular coloured players in the current South African team in Makhaya Ntini and Herschelle Gibbs.
Bureau Report