Woe are the Warriors, but why?

Robin Peterson's joke at a press conference at the Wanderers on February 8 landed well: "I've got to get back to the Warriors for 50-over cricket with nobody watching." The roomful of reporters laughed heartily.

No-one's laughing now. How Peterson must wish there had been absolutely no eyes on the Warriors' opening game in the first division of the One-Day Cup (ODC) against the Dolphins at Kingsmead eight days later.

Peterson was with Rashid Khan and Trent Boult at that February 8 presser. By then, fireworks had lit the night sky, and medals and the trophy had been handed over. Mumbai Indians Cape Town had won the SA20, beating Sunrisers Eastern Cape by 76 runs in the final.

Cape Town are Peterson's team. They are the only other side who have won the three-year-old tournament: SEC were champions in the first two seasons.

To buck that trend, Peterson had to out-think, out-plan and out-manoeuvre Stephen Fleming, Trevor Penney, Jonathan Trott, Lance Klusener and Adrian Birrell, the head coaches of the other franchises. Peterson also had to reroute a Cape Town outfit who had finished rock bottom in their previous two campaigns.

This happened in front of, mostly, full houses, home and away. That explained Peterson's punchline - nobody, or almost nobody, watches the ODC or any of CSA's domestic competitions.

Peterson is also the Warriors' head coach, which made him responsible for the XI who took the field at Kingsmead on February 16. The visitors' ranks included six players of colour, satisfying that part of what CSA call their minimum transformation "target requirement". But there is another rule: three of those players must be black. Only two were that day.

The Warriors had gone to Durban with two other black players in their squad, fast bowler Siya Plaatjie and medium pacer Alfred Mothoa. When Peterson saw the pitch prepared for the match he decided he needed an extra slow bowler, so he picked off-spinner Jason Raubenheimer to partner the left-arm orthodox Senuran Muthusamy and leg spinner Junaid Dawood. Raubenheimer, Muthusamy and Dawood are brown.

In the 21.2 overs they bowled between them, the spinners took 4/121 for an economy rate of 5.71. They were upstaged by seamer Andile Mokgakane, who claimed four top and middle order wickets for 23 from the 23rd to the 29th overs. Mokgakane is black.

That all but sealed the Warriors' thumping 126-run win. The victory had been set up by their total of 343/2, which was powered by Jordan Hermann's undefeated 148 off 145, Matthew Breetzke's 62 and Beyers Swanepoel's 73. Hermann, Breetzke and Swanepoel are white.

Twenty-one days later, CSA told the Warriors they had been docked all five points they earned in that match and been fined USD27,300; half to be paid by the end of February next year, the rest suspended for five years should they re-offend in that time.

That knocked the Warriors out of the running for the ODC playoffs. The Dolphins - the team Peterson's side beat handsomely - were gifted four points from that match because of the