Cobras Sunfoil Series captain and SA A player Omphile Ramela shares some insights on the role that the Player Plus programme is playing in his life, and his ambition to improve the general cricket landscape for all professional cricketers

Tell us a bit about your childhood.

I grew up in Soweto, raised by my mother. I started cricket through the Bakers Mini Cricket Program – I think it’s now known as KFC Mini Cricket. I then got a bursary to attend St Peters in Rivonia and then St Johns College.

How much of a personal responsibility do you feel towards mentoring the younger guys coming through?

I think there’s an enormous responsibility, that’s just the nature of cricket – as you go up, you try and pull everyone with you, and as a leader you try and fast-track everyone’s development.

But the best time to pass on any knowledge is in the heat of battle. Once you’re playing together it’s a lot easier to advise and speed up the learning process. I batted with someone like JP Duminy, and my learning experience was certainly enhanced.

You sit on the SACA Exco. What are some of the more common or recurring issues from the players’ side, and the organisation’s side?

From the players, an on-going issue in every sport is that players would like to get paid fairly, and to be rewarded for performing.

From SACA, a large part of the message has been around anti-corruption. That’s been a very strong message. Another strong message has been Player Plus, and how much the programme has grown over the years is an indication of how seriously the organisation is taking it.

What benefits has the Player Plus (PP) programme brought to your life personally?

The Player Plus programme has allowed me to continue studying my Masters (in Economics). To have that financial backup eases a lot of pressure off you. An initial amount is covered and if you pass your course, they cover all the course fees. That’s a great incentive!

I think with the passage of time, players have started to gravitate towards Player Plus. Players are starting to realise that you need to have some kind of backup to make sure that when you exit the game you have an exit strategy.

You’re doing your MA in economics. Tell us a bit about that.

I’ve always been interested in economic history. I think economics is a good way to try and understand the world.

What interests me is this whole idea of incentives and how it motivates people. Should we incentivise people to work hard, and if so, what are the benefits? It’s  fascinating if you think about it from a sports perspective.

Players should be rewarded more when they perform than when they don’t perform. That’s how you motivate people to raise their standards. In those moments when they’re doing well they have to feel the full benefit of it. So you need an incentive structure.

If a player scores a massive amount of runs then he should receive financial recognition. Then you’re acknowledging that the player has excelled. I think that’s where we can get better in SA sports in general.

By extension, you could incentivize people to develop black African cricketers. An economist would say, why not incentivize it? You could open it up to the general public and somebody really smart might know how to actually do it, and they’d be rewarded with a real monetary incentive.

And there’s a return on investment for rewarding people financially because we know in return we’re going to get more people at the gate and so on.

Are you satisfied with the pace of transformation in SA cricket?

More needs to be done. It’s only now that there’s a political need that people have woken up. If more was done over the last 15 years, we wouldn’t still be looking for numbers.

You need a lot more representation on merit, and access to facilities and coaching. We need to pay a lot more attention to the schools structures because once you get to franchise level you’re just molding the players.

Offer an incentive structure for anyone who produces players. We need to put a high price on those who produce. I don’t think our system is producing fast enough and we need to open an invitation to anyone who can do, there are some very innovative people in South Africa.