The more dedicated cricket fans out there are still smarting from Tuesday’s defeat at the hands of the Kiwis. Sadly they were then thumped by newly-crowned world champions Australia, meaning we were treated to nauseating pictures of Shane Warne’s surgically brightened smile from ear to ear yesterday.

Those who woke up at 3AM on Tuesday to watch the semi-final would have woken to good and bad news – the Proteas would bat first, happy days, but in-form Kyle Abbott had been replaced by Vernon Philander. Why oh why, many of us asked, and now reports on TimesLive suggesting ulterior motives for the selection:

A selector said the panel “had to okay four players of colour” for last Tuesday’s semifinal, in which Philander was thrust in from the cold after an injury lay-off to play alongside Hashim Amla, Imran Tahir and JP Duminy.

“AB didn’t want to play in the semi because of this; it is a clear case of interference by the board – they ordered Philander’s selection,” said a well-placed source who declined to be named.

“It was a purely political decision. The players are fuming about it but they won’t say so.”

One can’t be angry at Vernon Philander of course, and both his ODI and Test record show the pedigree he possesses. Abbott, however, led South Africa’s bowling averages, strike rate and economy rate so would have felt very hard done by.

So what does the ever-entertaining Fikile Mbalula have to say about transformation in South African sport then? TimesLive once more:

[He] warned at the weekend that CSA [Cricket South Africa] and the SA Rugby Union faced expulsion from official South African sport if they failed to deliver on agreed transformation targets.

“We will …withdraw national colours; we will ensure that we deregister those that are intransigent,” he warned.

Mbalula was then quoted on IOL as saying the following:

We know who is spreading these speculations and we will not dignify them by mentioning their names.”

He continued: “These are acts of desperate colonial apartheid apologists, a very tiny group of a dying breed of political dinosaurs. We shall not be deterred by their mischief.

Cricket South Africa has denied all allegations, with CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat releasing this statement:

There was and is no political interference in our selections. We have a selection panel that includes the coach and independent members, and this panel selected all the teams at the World Cup in the same way that they did before the World Cup.

However you look at this latest fiasco the fact remains we lost. I hope you drowned your sorrows adequately this weekend, I found a healthy dose of tequila and brandy tended to make one forget.

[sources:timeslive&iol]