S Africa cricket team too white says Hart man

By Chris Daniels

South Africa should pull out of international cricket until they have more black and coloured players, says John Minto.

Mr Minto, one of the leading opponents of sporting contact with the apartheid-era South Africa, yesterday said moves to include more black players in the current team were tokenism.

The South African team now touring New Zealand have been criticised by the United Cricket Board of South Africa for fielding all-white sides in the past two matches.

This was against policy that black or coloured players should be selected for all South African teams.

The board said the white teams in the past two matches had caused consternation.

Mr Minto, who achieved fame in the 1980s when he led the group Halt All Racist Tours, said the problem of racist sports institutions was still there.

"I think if South African cricket had any integrity, they would withdraw their team from international competition till their team represented the whole South African community."

Simply forcing teams to field black players was tokenism and it was not until the South African Government started doing more for the black communities that any difference would be made.

Former All Black lock Andy Haden, a keen supporter of sporting contact with the apartheid-era South Africa, said the order to the cricket team was a bizarre turnaround.

Selecting any sports team should always be based on who was the best, no matter what their background. "Otherwise it's not a real test, is it?"

The issues of race and sport in South Africa and New Zealand would be around for some time to come, said Mr Haden. "I think it will always be there in some form," he said. "They'll bury it in a shallow grave, then it will pop its head up every now and again."

Pictured: John Minto