Former South African cricketer Graeme Pollock says his comments about the issue of transformation in the sport were “totally misconstrued”.
In a statement from a marketing company, Pollock said he “fully supports the endeavours of the transformation process” in South African cricket.
The former Transvaal stalwart received a torrent of criticism on social media for his views, and on Friday, Basil O’Hagan Marketing said in a statement: “Speaking from London, Graeme Pollock wishes to convey his heartiest congratulations to Faf (du Plessis) and his team for their excellent Test victory at Trent Bridge. With the series now level at 1-all, this sets up the series for a fascinating outcome.
“Graeme also extends his sincerest apologies to CSA (Cricket South Africa) Board and the South African cricketing public for the manner in which his comments at recent function in London were totally misconstrued (sic).
“Graeme fully supports the endeavours of the transformation process, as further evidenced in the radio interview he had on 6 July with Jonathan Agnew of BBC’s TMS broadcast.
“He meanwhile passes on his best wishes to the Faf and the Proteas for the rest of the series.”
The 73-year-old former left-handed batsman was quoted by the AFP news agency last week as saying at a function in London that “the major thing is the problem with the politics and interference with the selection of players.
“It’s affecting the performance of the side – they don’t put the 11 best players on the field.
“It’s never going to change. As South Africans, we’ve got to accept that South Africa are going to be middle of the road in their future Test cricket.”
Pollock added that the policy of transformation was also affecting the readiness of white South African players for Test cricket, pointing fingers at new Proteas opener Heino Kuhn.
“You are going to pick a guy like Heino Kuhn, the opening batsman, who got a couple of hundreds in first-class cricket. He’s not good enough to play Test cricket,” said Pollock, despite Kuhn scoring 23 first-class hundreds at an average of 44.28.
The Titans right-hander produced innings of 1 and 9 on debut against England at Lord’s and followed it up with 34 and 8 in the Proteas’ series-levelling 340-run victory at Trent Bridge.
“The guys are playing in a bad standard of first-class cricket in South Africa because of the politics and interference in selection,” added Pollock.