Cricketing great and respected junior coach Ben Malamba says favouritism in schools cricket must be addressed by Cricket South Africa (CSA).
Speaking at CSA’s social justice and nation building hearings yesterday, Malamba – who has dedicated his life to the game and currently resides in KZN – says: “When it comes to trials [for provincial teams at school level, as] I’m gonna push to try and get my kids [from my school] into the team. You’re going to do the same – to try and get your kids into the side.
“Even from olden days, there are kids who could have been picked. “One is pushing for a school, not pushing for a better cricketer to get into a team. It’s pushing for a school, ‘my school has so many kids [in the team]’.
“A lot of kids have gone through the cracks in the system because one is looking at a school’s interest instead of cricket’s interest.
“And if you’re not among those known schools, you’re out.”
Malamba believes the only way to rectify the mistake is to have cricketing people pick the teams.
He says: “Other selectors you find never even played mini cricket, they are there with clipboards ticking. Ticking what?
“They never played cricket, but you’re a selector.
“A lot of good players, black and white, have gone through the cracks because of biasness at an very early stage – the school stage.”