Langeveldt is a victim of tactless system

Charl Langeveldt's understandably distressed, if emotional withdrawal from South Africa's Test tour of India was a serious accident waiting to happen in the republic's sports system.

No one can blame either the 33-year-old for what is a deeply personal decision that took some courage to make, but fingers need to be pointed at those largely responsible for his reaction of how he viewed his selection for the tour.

They are certain administrators in Cricket South Africa's circles as well as meddling politicians of the government's sports committee. Add to this group is a section of their media. None of them have any idea of the enormous pressure they place on players such as Langeveldt at the way they sensationalise their reports over such delicate matters as selection policy, targets and colour.

They are only interested in exploiting the story for flashy headlines; not the aftermath anguish they cause.

Stories coming out of Bangladesh during the latter stages of the Proteas tour were written in such a way that they were designed to embarrass not only the team management and selectors, but the two players as well, over the question of targets.

In this you cannot blame the selectors either for their action. They have transformation guidelines to honour and in the selection of Langeveldt they were following orders from Cricket South Africa's general council passed on February 29, which says that there should be six transformation players in a squad of fourteen.

The background to this is that the barrel-chested Langeveldt, a good swing and seam bowler, was chosen as a transformation player and Andre Nel was dropped from the squad.