The Dafabet Warriors fell foul of Cricket SA's domestic transformation selection policy on Monday, which has taken them out of contention for Wednesday's eliminator against the Titans in the national One-Day Cup competition.
After defeating the Lions in their final fixture at St George's Park on Sunday, by 33 runs on the DLS method, it was thought the Warriors had done enough to qualify for the playoff in Centurion.
Boland had ended top of the log and advanced straight through to this weekend's final, while the Titans finished in second place, ahead of the Warriors.
However, those dreams were dashed when CSA released the official statistics of the competition on Monday morning, which showed that the Warriors had been demoted to fourth place, with the Dolphins elevated to second spot.
A note issued with the final points table outlined the situation.
“The Warriors were penalised all five points for their match against Dolphins on 16 February for a breach of clause 3.2.2 of the administrative conditions for not complying with the on-field target requirement of a minimum of three black African players in the starting 11.
“The Dolphins were awarded four points for the match.”
Later on Monday afternoon, CSA issued an official statement confirming the decision.
“Following a comprehensive review and investigation, the CSA Board has determined that the Warriors failed to meet the stipulated transformation requirements during their match on 16 February 2025 against the Dolphins in Durban.
“The sanctions imposed include loss of match points. Thus, Warriors will forfeit all match points for the match in question and Dolphins will be awarded four match points from the fixture. However, no bonus points will be allocated.
“A monetary fine has also been included, with 50% payable before the end of the current financial year. The remaining 50% will be suspended for five years and will only be activated if a similar breach occurs within that period.”
In the February 16 encounter, the Dolphins were outclassed by the Warriors after the latter made 343/2 in their 50 overs to win by 126 runs.
However, despite having six players of colour in the team, they fielded only two black Africans in all-rounder Andile Mokgakane and wicketkeeper-batsman Sinethemba Qeshile.
The upshot is that the Dolphins will host the Titans in the eliminator in Durban on Wednesday, with the winners meeting Boland in the final in Paarl on Sunday.
EP Cricket said late on Monday evening they had lodged a dispute with CSA against the decision.
“To our knowledge, no penalties of this scale have been imposed before, and the Warriors have never previously breached CSA’s Transformation Targets,” EP Cricket president Donovan May said in the statement.
“To our knowledge, other teams have failed to meet these requirements on multiple occasions without facing similar sanctions.
“Eastern Province Cricket (EPC) has formally disputed the sanctions under the CSA Memorandum of Incorporation.
“EPC is awaiting CSA’s decision on whether the dispute will be resolved through mediation, a round table meeting, or arbitration.”
There was no reason given by CSA as to why the issue took almost four weeks to resolve.
In an interview with Independent Media, Dolphins CEO Heinrich Strydom emphasised that it had not been them who had put in a complaint.
“No, we didn't even bring it to their attention. It was CSA who picked it up,” he was quoted as saying.
“I mean, obviously, we would have loved it to be done earlier because nobody quite knew what was happening. It took quite a long time, almost a month.
“CSA phoned us the next morning to say that they're aware of it and they are looking into the matter.”
Despite a request for comment, there was no feedback from the Warriors management at the time of going to press.
The final points standings as released by Cricket SA on Monday were: 1 Boland 25, 2 Dolphins 23, 3 Titans 21, 4 Warriors 16, 5 Knights 16, 6 Lions 10, 7 NW Dragons 9, 8 Western Province 5.
The Warriors finished above Knights by virtue of having more wins — four against three.
The Herald
• This story was updated at 4.45pm on March 10 to include Cricket SA's statement.
• This story was updated at 8.15pm on March 10, to include EP Cricket's comment.
Warriors booted out of One-Day Cup eliminator after missing transformation target
Image: Richard Huggard/Gallo Images
The Dafabet Warriors fell foul of Cricket SA's domestic transformation selection policy on Monday, which has taken them out of contention for Wednesday's eliminator against the Titans in the national One-Day Cup competition.
After defeating the Lions in their final fixture at St George's Park on Sunday, by 33 runs on the DLS method, it was thought the Warriors had done enough to qualify for the playoff in Centurion.
Boland had ended top of the log and advanced straight through to this weekend's final, while the Titans finished in second place, ahead of the Warriors.
However, those dreams were dashed when CSA released the official statistics of the competition on Monday morning, which showed that the Warriors had been demoted to fourth place, with the Dolphins elevated to second spot.
A note issued with the final points table outlined the situation.
“The Warriors were penalised all five points for their match against Dolphins on 16 February for a breach of clause 3.2.2 of the administrative conditions for not complying with the on-field target requirement of a minimum of three black African players in the starting 11.
“The Dolphins were awarded four points for the match.”
Later on Monday afternoon, CSA issued an official statement confirming the decision.
“Following a comprehensive review and investigation, the CSA Board has determined that the Warriors failed to meet the stipulated transformation requirements during their match on 16 February 2025 against the Dolphins in Durban.
“The sanctions imposed include loss of match points. Thus, Warriors will forfeit all match points for the match in question and Dolphins will be awarded four match points from the fixture. However, no bonus points will be allocated.
“A monetary fine has also been included, with 50% payable before the end of the current financial year. The remaining 50% will be suspended for five years and will only be activated if a similar breach occurs within that period.”
In the February 16 encounter, the Dolphins were outclassed by the Warriors after the latter made 343/2 in their 50 overs to win by 126 runs.
However, despite having six players of colour in the team, they fielded only two black Africans in all-rounder Andile Mokgakane and wicketkeeper-batsman Sinethemba Qeshile.
The upshot is that the Dolphins will host the Titans in the eliminator in Durban on Wednesday, with the winners meeting Boland in the final in Paarl on Sunday.
EP Cricket said late on Monday evening they had lodged a dispute with CSA against the decision.
“To our knowledge, no penalties of this scale have been imposed before, and the Warriors have never previously breached CSA’s Transformation Targets,” EP Cricket president Donovan May said in the statement.
“To our knowledge, other teams have failed to meet these requirements on multiple occasions without facing similar sanctions.
“Eastern Province Cricket (EPC) has formally disputed the sanctions under the CSA Memorandum of Incorporation.
“EPC is awaiting CSA’s decision on whether the dispute will be resolved through mediation, a round table meeting, or arbitration.”
There was no reason given by CSA as to why the issue took almost four weeks to resolve.
In an interview with Independent Media, Dolphins CEO Heinrich Strydom emphasised that it had not been them who had put in a complaint.
“No, we didn't even bring it to their attention. It was CSA who picked it up,” he was quoted as saying.
“I mean, obviously, we would have loved it to be done earlier because nobody quite knew what was happening. It took quite a long time, almost a month.
“CSA phoned us the next morning to say that they're aware of it and they are looking into the matter.”
Despite a request for comment, there was no feedback from the Warriors management at the time of going to press.
The final points standings as released by Cricket SA on Monday were: 1 Boland 25, 2 Dolphins 23, 3 Titans 21, 4 Warriors 16, 5 Knights 16, 6 Lions 10, 7 NW Dragons 9, 8 Western Province 5.
The Warriors finished above Knights by virtue of having more wins — four against three.
The Herald
• This story was updated at 4.45pm on March 10 to include Cricket SA's statement.
• This story was updated at 8.15pm on March 10, to include EP Cricket's comment.
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