Cricket South Africa has regained the right to bid for and host major tournaments, after meeting the government's transformation criteria. Sports minister Thembelani Nxesi confirmed the lifting of the sanction at the annual Eminent Persons Group (EPG) report handover on Tuesday morning. The EPG report is a yearly assessment by an independent committee on various sports' commitment to and execution of transformation.
After a season in which CSA established transformation targets for the national team - which stipulated that a minimum average of six players of colour including two black Africans should take the field over the course of the season - and exceeded those targets, it was widely expected that the ban, which was imposed last year, would be lifted. Cricket is among two other sports, rugby and netball, which has now satisfied the sports ministry, while athletics remains under sanction.
In real terms, the news will only have an immediate effect on rugby, whose administrators are bidding to host the 2023 World Cup. CSA does not have any international events on its calendar for the next six years and CEO Haroon Lorgat told ESPNcricinfo earlier this week that he does not foresee that changing.
There was some talk of the ICC organising a World T20 in 2018 and South Africa being considered the front-runner to host it, but there has been no further developments on this. Nonetheless, CSA has been recognised for what the ministry called "improved barometer scores" and could put itself up to host tournaments in the future.