They may, or may not, have been locked out but they alone would be responsible for the operation and maintenance of those black/brown cricket club traditions and subsequent fading spectator interest.
well I don't know really..it seems more integrated and complex than that. black people were locked out period..from everything. they may have played dirt soccer, village soccer etc. but they could not play for clubs and they certainly could not represent south africa. they could not represent south africa in anything at all
long struggle, end of apartheid and blacks in theory can represent the country. so since 1995 they have looked to soccer. lots of opportunity there globally for the best of them..but there is a living even for the minor players
what has happened in the 17-18 years years since 1994?
black cricket has died but not black soccer..yet both were in the same boat by 1994?
one has lived, expanded exponentially... the other has died obviously because the path to participation, expansion, development is blocked due to the way the sport is run. there is no need for Black cricket any more. the country is supposed to belong to the people, the majority of whom are black. why is there need for black cricket?
there is none! the ANC allowed the SACU to continue their monopoly and that seems to me to be the problem. SACU should have been killed and the black cricket administration/organization given control of the cricket. if they wanted cricket to go better that is what they should have done.
the ANC allowed the ancien' regime to continue and that never works out for the better.
in the new dispensation SACU had to be disbanded, cricket reconstituted along modern non racial inclusive lines with the task of opening up the game to all of the society.
that did not happen. so while cricket is theoretically open to all there are serious roadblocks apparently, and old SACU appears to be quite uninterested in expanding the cricket into 'non-traditional' areas