South Africa’s former great player Pollock has told a news agency that the South African team will end up becoming an average test team if it continues with the policy of racial transformation in its team selection process.
The transformation is meant to counter the legacy of the apartheid, when only white players were allowed to play officially for South Africa.
Pollock accepts players of his era could have done more to help their non-white counterparts, but is concerned the balance has now swung too far in the opposite direction after South Africa “got it right when Graeme Smith was captain” (from 2003 to his retirement in 2014).
South Africa face England in the second Test at Trent Bridge 1-0 down in a four-match series after a crushing 211-run defeat inside four days at Lord’s last week.
Pollock believes political reasons are undermining South Africa’s long-term competitiveness as a Test nation.
“The major thing is the problem with the politics and interference with the selection of players,” Pollock told a news agency at a meeting of cricket enthusiasts in London.
“It’s affecting the performance of the side — they don’t put the 11 best players on the field.
“It’s never going to change. As South Africans, we’ve got to accept that South Africa are going to be middle of the road in their future Test cricket.”
The target at the domestic level is a stricter six players of colour per side per match, of which three must be black African.
Pollock said it was at the domestic level where the effects were most noticeable.
“The guys are playing in a bad standard of first-class cricket in South Africa because of the politics and interference in selection,” the 73-year-old left-hander added.
“Within the team it has never been a challenge, we understand what to do and what to expect and what is best for our country — we’ve been getting on with it,” du Plessis, who didn’t play at Lord’s following the birth of his first child, told reporters at Trent Bridge, the venue for Friday’s second Test.
