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Race row hits SA ahead of Cup

Racial disharmony * After Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour was quoted making disparaging remarks about him -- such as "Jacques Kallis means nothing to me" -- the white player found himself thrust into a damaging race row.

"Who is Jacques Kallis?"
The question has reverberated through South African cricket, even though the all-rounder was a household name long before he was chosen as man of the latest test series against Sri Lanka.

After Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour was quoted making disparaging remarks about him -- such as "Jacques Kallis means nothing to me" -- the white player found himself thrust into a damaging race row, little more than two months before South Africa hosts the World Cup.

The feud, principally between Balfour and national cricket chief Percy Sonn, has thrown the spotlight on racism in South African sport and on the quotas designed to create a level playing field after decades of white rule.

It is hindering the campaign by the "rainbow nation" to host Africa's first soccer World Cup in 2010 and delivers another blow to cricket, a sport still reeling from a match-fixing disgrace involving fallen hero Hansie Cronje, who died in an air crash this year.

The quota dispute has put added strain on ultra-sensitive race relations when police are hunting down white rightwingers suspected of bombing the black township of Soweto in October.

Balfour's comments, circulated by Sonn in minutes from a private meeting, prompted calls for the minister's resignation.

One opposition political party pounced on the comments, accusing Balfour of "hate speech". The Human Rights Commission set up to investigate such offences ruled the comments were undesirable but not racist, and dropped its investigations.

"Obviously it's doing an immense amount of damage," said Geoff Holmes, who has been involved in youth sports development in South Africa for more than a decade.

"I would imagine there's now doubt in [white cricketers'] minds: `Am I in or am I out?,'" Holmes said.

Sonn's minutes, from a meeting in July, quote Balfour as saying black people wanted to see black players on the pitch.

"Who is Jacques Kallis? Jacques Kallis means nothing to me," Balfour is quoted as saying.

But the minutes also had a nasty surprise for black players.

"You say black players don't want to feel like quota players. Tough shit ... they must take the pressure like we had to in the struggle," Balfour is quoted as saying.

Balfour has tried to distance himself from the comments and said no official minutes were taken at the meeting.

"I've said it many, many times, since time immemorial. I will not dignify that kind of thing with a response," he told reporters on the eve of the first victorious Sri Lanka clash.

"I love South African players -- end of story," he added.

Although it has taken on a distinctly personal flavor, the public row between Balfour and Sonn -- a former official at the FBI-style Scorpions police unit -- hinges on whether or not to impose a strict minimum quota of non-white players.

Balfour says quotas are a necessary step towards achieving equality in the sports-mad country, which was welcomed back into international competition after free elections in 1994 ended years in the sporting wilderness of anti-apartheid sanctions.

For years youth cricket has operated a quota system and an elite training program to help gifted black players enter a game traditionally reserved for whites. Now at least half of youth teams at provincial level are non-white.

"More and more people are playing cricket -- it has certainly worked for us," said Holmes, head of high school cricket in Gauteng province. He said black players often missed out at senior level because of their economic disadvantages.

Sonn's United Cricket Board scrapped a planned quota of four non-white players in provincial teams, favoring a voluntary system. But it has set a minimum target of five non-whites in the 14-man squad for the World Cup.
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