The Warriors have broken their silence following Cricket South Africa's (CSA) unprecedented decision to dock the Eastern Cape team points in the 1-Day Cup standings and give them a hefty fine for not adhering to the governing body's transformation policy.
As a result of the points deduction, the Warriors will have dropped down in the final log positions and will not be involved in the Qualifier match on Wednesday, even though the CSA confirmed their participation on Sunday evening.
The Warriors were also fined a massive R500,000, believed to be the highest ever monetary sanction in the South African game. There has also never been a case of points being deducted for such an infringement.
Under Cricket SA’s transformation regulations related to all Men’s domestic cricket, teams are stipulated to field six players of colour which needs to include a mandatory of three Black African players in each game.
The Warriors fielded six players of colour in a match against the Dolphins last month. Diego Rosier, Sinethemba Qeshile, Senuran Muthusamy, Andile Mokgakane, Jason Raubenheimer and Junaid Dawood all played, but the team only had two Black Africans in Qeshile and Mokgakane.
Because the infringement occurred against the Dolphins, the KwaZulu-Natal side were given the four points for the win after the Warriors had earned five points by winning the actual match with a bonus point.
"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 February 16, 2025 against the Dolphins in Durban," CSA said in a statement.
"The breach pertained specifically to Clause 3.2.2 of the CSA Administrative Conditions, which requires teams to field a minimum of three Black African players in the starting eleven.
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.
"As a direct consequence of this sanction, Warriors will no longer qualify for the 1Day Cup playoff, altering the competition’s final standings."
However, the Warriors say the punishment is harsh and indicated that "Eastern Province Cricket (EPC) has formally disputed the sanctions under the CSA Memorandum of Incorporation".
There have been previous breaches of this of this rule in the past, with most teams getting a chance to state their case for not meeting targets in a certain match. But it seems that CSA wanted to make an example of the Warriors.
"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 said in a 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."
The winner of the Qualifier is set to face Boland in the final on Sunday.
@JohnGoliath82