All 24 players participating in the 3TC, the full support staff, CSA officials including Graeme Smith, the director of cricket, and members of the SuperSport commentary team took a knee as South Africa staged its first live cricket match in four months.
The gesture, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, came after a fractious fortnight in South African cricket, which has centered around anti-racism.
On the eve of the match, Smith, Faf du Plessis and Dwaine Pretorius confirmed they would take a knee and joined three other white South African cricketers – Anrich Nortje, Rassie van der Dussen and Marizanne Kapp – in supporting Lungi Ngidi‘s call for players to join the rest of the world in making a stand against racial discrimination.
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With no spectators allowed at the ground, television coverage showed the players standing in a half-circle facing the vacant presidential suite at SuperSport Park to sing South Africa’s national anthem Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. The players then took their positions on the field, with Temba Bavuma’s Kites bowling first, to Reeza Hendricks’ Kingfishers. As the umpires called time, with the words “we are ready”, the Kites players, the batsmen Janneman Malan and Reeza Hendricks, and the umpires took a knee on the field. The rest of the teams and everyone else involved stood around the outside of the boundary and took a knee as well. Everyone raised their right fist in the air.
Cameras panned to Smith, who was flanked by former Springbok World Cup-winning captain Francois Pienaar and former South Africa quick Makhaya Ntini, who has made headlines this week in local news as he recalled instances of racial discrimination during his time as an international. In an interview on television on Friday morning, Ntini revealed how he used to run from the ground to the team hotel to escape the “loneliness” of sitting on the team bus, where he said the rest of the squad would move to the back if he was in front and vice-versa. Ntini did not detail in which period of his career this had transpired.
Shortly afterwards, on air, Ntini and Smith were involved in a discussion about the gesture. Smith told Ntini he could “feel the emotion coming from you,” in the build-up. Ntini replied, “That’s why we stand together.”
Smith then reiterated that “a very important message is being put out today”, and Ntini called it “one of our greatest moments”, while also echoing the call for unity. “Everyone can see that, as South Africans, we all stand up and plow the same furrow together. We stand together,” Ntini said. “The more we do this the more change will happen. Here’s Lungi. He was the first one to voice it, and everyone [who has since supported BLM] stood by him.”
Ngidi’s stance on BLM prompted reactions from both sides with four former players – Rudi Steyn, Pay Symcox, Brian McMillan and Boeta Dippenaar – criticising Ngidi for not showing equal solidarity for the fight against farm murders. The quartet drew the ire of 32 former players including Ashwell Prince, Hashim Amla and Herschelle Gibbs and five current coaches including Geoffrey Toyana and Wandile Gwazu who were in charge of the Eagles and Kites respectively at the 3TC. The group collectively issued a statement in support of Ngidi and called for CSA and cricketers to support the BLM movement. On air, Smith said, “There’s no need for Ngidi to be attacked at all. I think he’s handled himself extremely well.”
After the letter from the players of colour, CSA issued a second statement supporting the BLM movement but it was not until Friday that more plans around how it would show that support were revealed when Smith, du Plessis and Pretorius said they would take a knee.
On the day, the players and commentary teams wore armbands with Black Lives Matter printed on them. Andile Phehlukwayo, who was playing for the Eagles, also wore a t-shirt with Black Lives Matter on it under his team kit. After the allrounder dismissed Heinrich Klaasen in the final innings of the match, he celebrated by lifting his team shirt, revealing his Black Lives Matter t-shirt and holding his right first in the air.