Exclusive: Russell Domingo Warns Warriors' Relegation Would Be a 'Disaster' for Eastern Cape Cricket

In an exclusive interview with SportsBoom, the former Proteas and Bangladesh coach, Russell Domingo, has reiterated that it would be a disaster for cricket in the Eastern Cape should the Warriors be relegated this season. 

State of cricket in the EC

Cricket in the Eastern Cape, one of South Africa's top talent-producing provinces, is in jeopardy of taking yet another hit this season, given that the Warriors currently sit at the bottom of the promotion-relegation standings in Division One.

Cricket in the Eastern Cape is already in a poor state with dwindling sponsorships and poor governance. With the Warriors on the verge of slipping down to Division Two, cricket in the Eastern Cape would be in an even more dire state given that this would mean the two professional teams from the region would be playing Division Two cricket.

The Warriors would most likely lose their sponsor, Dafabet, and cricket in the region would take a massive hit from the grassroots to the professional level.

Former Warriors coach, Russell Domingo, told SportsBoom.co.za in an exclusive interview that should the Warriors be relegated, that would be a disaster for cricket in the Eastern Cape.

Born and bred in the Eastern Cape, Domingo holds the province close to his heart as it has given him the platform to go to become the first-ever Proteas coach of colour.

Domingo would go on to lead the Proteas to many series victories including the 2016 Test series victory Down Under before he moved on to coach Bangladesh a few years later.

With all his experience, Domingo, who currently coaches the Lions domestically, wants the domestic structure to be reviewed and believes that it is not the right structure for South African cricket.

"I think it's an absolute disaster," Domingo told SportsBoom.co.za, commenting on the possibility of the Warriors being relegated at the end of the current season.

"If the Warriors go into the second division, that'll be a massive disaster in terms of sponsors, in terms of retaining players."

"I'm hoping CSA (Cricket South Africa) realize that you can't not have cricket in that region and that something gets done regarding the domestic structure going forward because it'll be a hammer blow for cricket in that particular region."

"And I've said in meetings, I don't agree with this promotion-relegation sort of system. Coaches are sort of picking teams to just stay up in the first division and not picking teams that can produce plays to play and that's a big problem. So, yeah, it'll be a hammer blow for regional boarders in the second division."

Lack of cricket domestically

Domestic teams play a total of 21 games per season, seven in each of the three formats, excluding the playoff matches in each format.

It has been well documented that the volume of cricket that domestic teams play is way less, especially for a country with an ambition to be one of the top nations in the world.

However, with South African cricket struggling financially, Cricket South Africa has communicated on many occasions that the decision for fewer domestic matches is purely financial.

Domingo wants domestic teams to play more games and has called on Cricket South Africa to start making cricketing decisions instead of financial decisions only.

"Obviously, finances are important, but they've got to make some good critical decisions," said Domingo.

"I think we've got to try and increase the number of teams competing in division one. Who those ten teams are, I don't know because we play far too little cricket."

"I mean, we play seven four-day games. Here's a prime example, we had one game right off, so we're actually ending up playing six games a season."

"So, it's far too little domestic cricket. I mean, we had a one-day game right off, so that means we played six one-day games and six four-day games."

"You're not going to have enough time to develop players, to play at the highest level, and that's a big concern."

The Warriors have one fixture left this season and it is against the in-form Dolphins. Should they lose that encounter, they will most likely lose their Division One status.