Need black stars in Proteas team

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I AM appalled by CSA president Chris Nenzani's statement that we should not push the black cricketers into the national squad ("Blacks will not be pushed", February 20). I am beginning to question his appointment as president.

If he is a token appointment, he had better say so that we can know. After 18 tests with no black cricketer in the national team our selection policy needs to be scrutinised and I need a very good reason for their exclusion. CSA needs to answer these following questions to the people of South Africa:

• What happened to our quota system?

• Do we still use it as a guideline?

• What is the composition of the selection panel?

• Who selects the panel?

• Who has authority over the selection panel?

Yes, everybody knows that black cricketers are a minority in cricket and I strongly believe there are players who deserve to play in our national squad. Look at Thami Tsolekile – he was told that he was not good enough to play for a national squad and he should get experience from elsewhere first.

He is the No1 wicketkeeper in the country and nobody is taking notice of that. They rubbed salt in his wounds by appointing an inexperienced youngster into the one-day squad.

Nobody knows why Lonwabo Tsotsobe was dropped from the test squad when he is still a top bowler in the world. Omitting him from the test squad because he is still recovering from the injury is not an excuse, we are not blind.

Lonwabo is fully recovered. I saw him bowling during the one dayers and we still need a left- arm seamer in the squad.

We have youngsters who are playing at the franchise level and nobody is taking notice of them. I am talking about Temba Bavuma and Aaron Phangiso from the Highveld Lions, Aya Gqamane from the Warriors and Khaye Zondo from the Dolphins.

These are the names of the black cricketers who have been promising during the domestic season. They need somebody who is going to mentor and monitor their progress on the field and outside the field of play.

I asked one of the top administrators why we lose good players on a regular basis and he told me the major problem these players are facing is income. When they are in the system like the academy or amateur level, nobody supports them financially to sustain themselves and their families.

They rather exchange their crickets bats for a job as a machine operator or a security guard. We need to devise a workable mechanism so that we can keep these boys in the system for a long time because a lot of money has been invested in cricket development.