If only Mandela were here to fix this mess

One player was outraged by South Africa’s order to take a knee in the World Cup but the reaction of three teammates was a major surprise

Former South African president Nelson Mandela, right, with then South African cricket captain Shaun Pollock Picture: AP

Only one man could solve the vexed issue of South Africa’s Black Lives Matter crisis. Sadly, he died eight years ago.

Nelson Mandela, with a firm but somehow silken touch that made him the great man he was, would have been the one voice everyone would have loved to heard from after Cricket South Africa ordered its players to take a knee to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

What Mandela would have made of it is anyone’s guess … so let’s have one. As a man of nuance, patience and empathy he surely would have loathed the fact that South African officials had to make their point with a sledgehammer and pointed finger.

Maybe he would have argued that ordering players to take a knee is like ordering a player to go to church. It defeats the purpose of what should be a voluntary gesture. Maybe a simple urging from Mandela would have been enough for the team to do it without having to follow orders.

Debate is raging in South Africa about the issue but the majority opinion is that taking a knee is a simple, painless gesture that would have united cricket followers.

It has become such a twisted narrative that reliable sources confirmed that three players (Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius and Anrich Nortje) were “relieved” when the CSA directive came through.

While an angry Quinton de Kock went the other way and abandoned ship, it gave them the opportunity to tell their conservative “communities” they weren’t “defying” them but complying with their employers’ instructions.

Klaasen and Nortje stood with hands behind their backs in the photo published by News Corp, Australia, before the Proteas’ World Cup game against Australia on Saturday night.

There have been whispers that South Africa’s decision to order its players to take a knee might not stand up to a legal challenge in court but, according to respected scribe Neil Manthorp, that is the least of its concerns.

“It may be constitutionally impossible to force players to behave in the same way, and there is, indeed, much to be said for freedom of expression and personal choice,’’ Manthorp wrote in South Africa’s Business Day.

“But just as restaurants have the right to refuse entry to unvaccinated patrons, CSA has the right to select players who adhere to its preferred standards of behaviour.’’

Initially, the Proteas decided against taking a knee but that left the black players in the team feeling they were letting down their race. That resulted in the decision to let each man make his own choice, which sounded fine in principal but looked cringe-­worthy and disjointed. Manthorp felt taking a knee was the obvious option.

“If some white cricketers are concerned about a backlash from their friends and family about taking a knee for a few seconds, they might do well to research some of the real sacrifices made by people of colour in the fight against apartheid,’’ he wrote.

Like, of course, Mandela.