Dippenaar, who retired from internationals in January and is now playing for English county Leicestershire, was elected president of the South African Cricketers’ Association last month.

The 30-year-old batsman has appealed to administrators to govern the sport with a focus on cricket, not politics.

“They need to make sure we as sportsmen are judged on our skill,” Dippenaar said. “We are on dangerous ground as soon as we start saying ‘x’ amount of players have to be white and ‘x’ amount of players have to be of colour.

“We don’t mind if the whole team is black if that’s the best team. Throughout the whole transformation process a lot of patriotism has been lost.”

Cricket South Africa is now committed to a racial transformation policy “aimed at ensuring the imbalances of the past are redressed as soon as possible”.

But Dippenaar said the policy may discourage aspiring youngsters.

“Unfortunately if people had an aspiration to play for South Africa they will now think twice about doing so,” he said.

“I have always said the game should be surrounded by people with cricketing interests at heart and not people with political interests at heart. There’s a distinct difference.” Pietersen, born and raised in South Africa, left the country at 18 to pursue a career in England, citing the racial quota system as one of his reasons.

The Hampshire player, who has since become one of the top-ranked batsmen in the world, was one of the first to make the move and an exodus has followed.

Dippenaar was one of six South Africans playing for Leicestershire at Edgbaston on Thursday, with European legislation allowing such opportunities to him and his fellow countrymen.

The debate about quotas and how many non-whites should be playing for South Africa continually surfaces.

A dispute between the selectors and Norman Arendse, the president of Cricket South Africa, held up the naming of the squad to tour Bangladesh earlier this year.

“No country can afford to lose a player of Pietersen’s calibre,” said Dippenaar, who played 38 Tests and 101 one-day internationals.

“That puts a question mark about whether we are doing the right things. We should never have allowed a player of his calibre to fall through our net.

“Can you imagine Jacques Kallis and Kevin Pietersen in the same South Africa team? It would have made a formidable batting lineup.”