On Friday, January 19th, the Men’s Under 19 Cricket World Cup kicked off in South Africa, captivating millions of viewers worldwide. Unfortunately, a decision made by Cricket South Africa, the nation’s governing body of international cricket, has detracted from the event.
A week prior to the games, Cricket South Africa released a statement removing the U19 South African Cricket captain, David Teeger. Their rationale? Teeger had made inflammatory pro-Israel comments regarding the Israel-Gaza conflict. Personally, I believe Teeger was removed from captaincy due his identification as a Zionist Jew. Cricket South Africa claims the axing of Teeger as captain is in the “best interests” of everyone involved.
Teeger’s comments, made at the South Africa Jewish Achiever Awards in October, were about how the existence of Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces make it safe for Jews, such as himself, to live and thrive in the diaspora. Ironically, Cricket South Africa used gaslighting language as part of their statement about stripping Teeger of the captaincy, stating “this [removing Teeger from his role] is in the best interest of all the players, the SA U19 team, and David himself.” If Cricket South Africa is genuinely worried that the mere presence of a Zionist Jewish South African Cricket captain may incite others to violence, would the best course of action not be to work to protect everyone from potential violence rather than taking something away from a 19 year old?
This comes after Teeger had already been investigated by Cricket South Africa after making his divisive comments due to a complaint from the Pro-Hamas South African Palestine Solidarity Movement. During the investigation, Teeger was banned from playing in U19 team matches until being cleared from any wrongdoing, as his comments were ruled to not violate the CSA code of conduct regarding political statements.,,
Captaincy of a sports team is a merit-based position based on one’s teamwork, leadership, and communication skills, along with being well-liked by both peers and coaches. South Africa’s removal of a team captain immediately before a major international event hosted within the country is abhorrent. It is effectively taking away a position earned through merit from someone due to disagreement over political views. It shows to viewers around the world that South Africa is not okay with a pro-Israel Jew representing itself on at an athletic competition. None of this is particularly surprising, as the government recently lodged a baseless genocide lawsuit against Israel in the International Court of Justice.
Although not as extreme, an act like this reminds Jews of the sporting bans of Nazi Germany, in which by 1933 all Jews were banned from sporting clubs and professional teams, and at the 1936 Berlin Olympics two American Jews were replaced in their competition one day before their event. At the very least, it’s an important first step taken by South African officials trying to limit exposure of Jewish South Africans in public life, likely setting up future limitations on the 50,000 Jews living in South Africa. For a country that up until the 1990s had legalized institutional racism and segregation in the form of apartheid, discriminating based on ethnicity should be completely antithetical for public South African entities such as Cricket South Africa. The lack of a strong response to situations like this is what allows racism and bigotry to fester and flourish and if not curbed, will eventually lead to widespread exclusion and discrimination against Jewish South Africans in many areas of public life.
