South Africa domestic team Warriors have been punished for breaching CSA's quota rules for including players of colours in their side, and will subsequently not advance to the knockout stages of the country's One-Day Cup.
The match in question was between Warriors and Dolphins on February 16, which Warriors won by 126 runs. Opener Jordan Hermann scored 148* off 145 balls, with contributions from Matthew Breetzke and Beyers Swanepoel. In response, a Dolphins side which featured Sarel Erwee and JJ Smuts were bowled out for 217.
The match was part of a successful league-stage campaign for Warriors, who finished in third position of the table last week. However, they have since been moved down to fourth position, and will not feature in the play-offs.
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Warriors field less than the minimum requirement of black African players
In the match against Dolphins last month, Warriors fielded only two black African players in their XI rather than the three required, with no previous explanation of exemption.
Cricket South Africa require a minimum of six players of colour in domestic sides, with three of those being black African players. This is slightly different to requirements for the national side, who have a target of six players of colour including two black African players calculated as an average over the course of the season.
Warriors have subsequently been penalised five points, the number they were awarded for a win in the fixture including a bonus point, ruling them out of contention for the qualifier match. Dolphins were awarded four points for the fixture and have moved into second place, and will host the play-off match against Titans this week instead.
CSA confirmed the sanction on Monday (March 10), releasing a statement which read: "A monetary fine has also been included, with 50 percent payable before the end of the current financial year. The remaining 50 percent will be suspended for five years and will only be activated if a similar breach occurs within that period."
There is an extra complication for Warriors who now sit at the bottom of consolidated Division One standings which take into account performances across formats. They now risk being relegated to the second division of the structure. While other sides have also failed to meet the requirements of the CSA transformation policy this season, teams in those instances reportedly contacted CSA and received permission for not fielding the required number of players.
Speaking to Independent Media, Dolphins chief executive, Heinrich Strydom said: "The game that we played against Warriors, the first game, they did not adhere to the transformation requirements. CSA went through a process and then basically confirmed that the Warriors will lose their points from the game and we get points from that game. We didn't even bring it to their attention, it was CSA who picked it up."
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