Rest of the post was good, gonna respond to this because while the 4 players thing might not be enshrined in CSA law, going under that number is clearly controversial enough for someone to interfere in team selection for a World Cup semi final.
And regardless of talent, merit etc I think it would take a brave man to pick an all-white South African XI. It's a moot point just now because of Hashim Amla (and probably one or two others, I'm betraying my ignorance of South African cricket here by not immediately being able to reel off 2 or 3 other names) but do you honestly see a situation where a coach could pick the 11 best players in the country if all 11 happened to be white?
I can't help but think that if it were any coloured player other than Philander, Duminy or Amla (i.e. the guys who are unquestionably deserving of their places in the XI), that we'd never have had this situation. If it were Lonwabo Tsotsobe coming back from injury, with the same stats as Philander in the World Cup, then Abbott holds his place IMO. I think Philander's track record led to the officials going "well, Philander > Abbott overall and we think that the captain and coach are making an error anyway, so is it really
that harmful to overrule them and meet the guideline at the same time?" The answer obviously being yes, but I think this incident came about from a combination of factors, including Philander's stature as a first-choice South African pace bowler when fit, rather than an overwhelming urge from someone in the hierarchy to make a statement by forcing a fourth player of colour into the semi-final team, come hell or highwater.
I mean, at the time, plenty of people thought it was a 50/50 call on whether to pick Abbott or Philander IIRC. I certainly did.
If the 11 best players in the country happen to be white, it's symbolic of a deeper structural problem where all the grassroots stuff CSA is trying to do is failing dismally, and would have been failing dismally for a long time. Now I don't know 100% who counts and doesn't count as a player of colour, but I think to end up with an XI of purely 'white' players, you'd have to do a lot of selectorial ****ery and probably break a few kneecaps too. If, by some magical coincidence, every single player worthy of national team selection is white, then Cricket South Africa (and South Africa more generally), have a ****load of more important things to worry about than missing a guideline.
There are that many coloured players embedded in the national team at present, and that many performing in the domestic structure, that I can't fathom a situation where the best 11 players are all white.
