Quota system won’t work

I AM not sure if the minister of sport was giving us a belated April Fools’ Day message or even a Casper the ghost after a provincial ministerial get-together.

We have been through the transformation cycle, and can see the partial success at school, varsity and at various league levels.

These issues cannot be fast-tracked into the professional arena and that is where the stumbling block is.

We saw the debacle when the powers that be tried to introduce quotas into the teams. In the case of cricket, positions are specialist and merely to fill a side with colour options will fail.

In the case of rugby the training and dedication to eating correctly has proved to be a stumbling block!

The minister says he intends to introduce the quota immediately, but the back-up is not in the wings.

In professional sport too much money is at stake to put inferior players onto the field.

If he goes ahead, it will be a signal for more of our sportsmen to pack their bags and ply their trade on the overseas market!

Athletics, swimming and netball are another issue as they cater to a different type of sportsperson.

I hope that the administrators can take the minister by the hand and show him that this is not a political game.

If he wants to take the carpet from under the table and watch our top-ofthe-table cricketers and rugby players slowly descend to the level of the teams having to qualify for top competition, then open a fresh bottle and add a few puffs of the green weed.

R A Hill, Greenacres, Port Elizabeth