England Legend Fans South Africa 'Quota' Controversy: 'Pick Players On Merit'
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Former cricketer Allan Lamb has called for an end of the South Africa's 'quota' system. He believes inequalities don't exist anymore and players should be picked on 'merit'.
South Africa-born former England international Allan Lamb believes the Proteas could be a 'stronger' side if they picked players on 'merit', instead of the transformation racial-quota system, which aims to promote inclusivity and correct historical wrongs against colored citizens of the country.
The transformation targets require the Proteas to field an average of six coloured players, including two Black Africans, averaged over the course of a season. The policy has been credited for helping achieve a level playing field in the sport — with Temba Bavuma's World Test Championship 2023-25 winners the biggest example — but continues to be argued against by a section of stakeholders.
'Rugby seems to have got it right, but cricket hasn't got it right," Lamb told PTI. 'The (Quota) system has been overdone. It's now basically, you are only allowed a certain amount of white players playing."
'South Africa could be a stronger team if they pick players on merit (and not on quota). Those days of Apartheid are long gone. The coloureds, the Indians and the blacks and the whites, they've got to work properly together and say, 'hey, if that guy's good enough, he must play'. We must pick the best team we can have," he added.
Although the Apartheid era is over, South Africa remains a severely divided country, where most of the wealth is held by the White minority, who make up less than eight percent, according to the latest data. Researchers for years have contended the illusion of 'merit', saying sporting merit is usually a result of better opportunities available to the wealthier sections of society, who don't have to fight discrimination on a daily basis.
'The ICC is going to have to do something about it because the format they have for international Test matches, people are not too sure what is going on there as it's done over two years. There are some teams, like everyone said, that South Africa qualified due to the fact that they played all the weaker teams. But that wasn't South Africa's problem. That was the ICC's problem. They came up with that," he said.
'And, I believe, you need a two-tier structure. And that's got to come in very rapidly. The ICC chairman, he's got to sit down, otherwise, cricket's going to be at a loss. You need strong teams playing each other but they've also got to play the weaker teams," Lamb added.
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