The fallout from the One-Day Cup quota controversy continues.
After the league stage of the tournament, the EP Warriors were docked five log points by CSA for only selecting two black African players among their required six players of colour (instead of three) for their match against the Dolphins in Durban on 16 February, with the Dolphins awarded four log points.
As a result, the Warriors dropped to fourth on the log – outside of the playoffs – with the Dolphins moving up to second.
The Dolphins went on to win the qualifier playoff against the Northern Titans, which they hosted, and the final against table-topping Boland in Paarl.
Eastern Province Cricket president Donovan May said they would be appealing CSA’s decision and things got messier when the Free State Knights threatened to take CSA to court over the adjusted log.
May has now accused the Knights of being “opportunistic and disingenuous” for asking CSA to change the Warriors’ win tally on the log from four wins to three.
If the Knights moved up to fourth on the log, they would get five promotion-relegation points from the One-Day Cup instead of three points for fifth.
The Free Staters are currently last on the promotion-relegation table with four points and the Warriors third last with seven.
“Because there’s a promotion-relegation process going on, everyone is going to look for points,” May told News24.
“No one wants to go down [to Division 2] and, if we go down, that’s the end of us because we’ll lose a major sponsor.
“That’ll put our company at risk, but we need to see if it’ll be overturned and how it’ll be overturned because we still have mediation with CSA.
“I haven’t seen the correspondence, but this matter will be complicated … what the Knights are doing is very unfair.
“I also think it is a bit opportunistic and disingenuous to the detriment of an affiliate, and I’ll fight this thing to the bitter end.
“It’s not in the best interests of cricket.”
Photo: Charle Lombard/Gallo Images
