Photo Credit: Cricket South Africa
CSA welcomes the 2018 EPG Report on the Transformation Status of national federations.
The kind of in-depth recording of a federation’s pursuits of transformation that the EPG Report outlines in a singular focus through multi-dimensional lenses is important to CSA and can only improve the business intelligence of the cricket sector.
We therefore also welcome the Minister’s remarks as critical to our strategic focus and direction.
Notably, CSA in consecutive years achieved the “Premier League” status as referred to in part 3 of the report that deals with the Games Board scenario.
The broad category of access is still an area of interest for us and specifically in the assessment mechanism of the entry point for organized sport, where the schools and the community clubs must play a significant role.
CSA acknowledges the incredible role that educators and committed individuals at club level remain the fulcrum for participation growth and sport-specific skills development. Our primary schools (5 720) and senior schools (1 023) reflect an increase in participation and it is clear from the 2018 EPG report that CSA commits significant funding to get the ball rolling at this level.
CSA applies a central place approach to improve access through its Hubs and Regional Performance Centres (RPC’s) in the townships and rural areas. The applied funding for primary schools at R25m and high schools at R20m is a significant contribution by CSA to realize its vision to make cricket a national sport of winners, supported by the majority.
Dr. Jacques Faul, Interim Chief Executive Officer at CSA, commented: “The participation of senior schools from townships amounts to 515 schools of the 1023 participating high schools. The participation of girls in senior schools’ cricket is growing. This phenomenon has much to do with the professionalization of our national senior team. This growth will accelerate in the foreseeable future. CSA encourages clubs to adopt a school and to establish junior leagues for sustainability purpose of its pathway structures.
“The positives coming out of the 2018 EPG Report must be protected in these unfortunate times of the COVID-19 realities. Working very closely with our sponsors and other cricket stakeholders, we have to become corona-smart in the funding models for improved access and growth in participation. For this purpose, CSA is happy to inform the cricket stakeholders that our organization commissioned research and development for the further modification and plug-in of Meso cricket for the age cohort, 12-15 years.
“Similarly, we are pleased to state that new dedicated positions of both a Director of Cricket and a Chief Medical Officer were created to deal with the challenges listed throughout the comprehensive EPG Transformation Status report 2018. Indeed, these initiatives should make it possible for CSA to achieve all its future targets. Significantly, if our combined efforts succeed then this project of increasing participation at both the development and senior schools levels will also improve,” concluded Dr. Faul.
The demographic representivity at senior men national for 2018 included 193 selections of black players across all formats, inclusive of all matches played. This was a noticeable increase in the selection of black players in comparison to prior years. A win ratio of 63% was attained and the average black players per match was 54%.
Similarly, the female senior national team attained a win ratio of 64% with averaged 50% black player representivity per match.
For the purposes of the 2018 EPG Report, CSA reflects a BBBEE spend to the tune of 95%. This figure indicates a high linkage to empowered suppliers that demonstrate CSA’s commitment to economic redress through inclusion for all.
