JOHANNESBURG, Dec 4: Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive Gerald Majola has denied saying that the quota system in South African cricket will be phased out by 2011.

“The goal is to get merit-based selection at all levels of cricket. We have decided to continue with the target transformation policy for the next three years, with a review at the end of each year. At the end of the three years we hope we can then move to merit-based selection across the board,” Majola was quoted in Australian newspaper The Age as saying on Wednesday.

However, in a statement on Thursday, Majola said: “There has been speculation recently that CSA plans to remove its targeted transformation programme...in three years’ time. This is not the case at this stage of the transformation process.”

The quota system was introduced in 1998 to make South African cricket teams more reflective of the country’s demographics.

Targets set by CSA for the coming season for the national team are a minimum of four black players on the field and a minimum of seven black players in a squad of 15.

“It must be stressed that these are targets, and if they are not met then CSA [will] attempt to rectify the capacity building programmes to ensure that the process is making progress,” Majola said in the statement.

“Once the imbalances have been satisfactorily rectified, then CSA would consider whether or not to withdraw targeted transformation.

“Nobody at this stage can forecast when this will take place, as the massive disparities in facilities alone still remain a legacy of the past,” added Majola.

The South African squad leave for a three-Test tour of Australia on Saturday.—Reuters