“Since the ODI series is being postponed and not cancelled CSA won’t be losing money as much as monies will be deferred to later in the FTP cycle.” – Kugandrie Govender, CSA acting chief executive
TELFORD VICE | Cape Town
ENGLAND’S tour of South Africa veered into acrimony even as it was called off over health fears on Monday. Seven positive tests for Covid-19 announced after the visitors arrived on November 17 cast a pall over the venture, which was put out of its misery with half the scheduled matches unplayed. The decision is a crushing blow to CSA’s hopes of rekindling the game in South Africa in the aftermath of the pandemic, and a genuine threat to the game’s already shaky financial prospects.
Sri Lanka, Australia and Pakistan are due to tour in the coming weeks and months, but they will surely reconsider in the wake of the problems England’s visit exposed. Cricbuzz has learnt that a concerned SLC resolved on Sunday night to discuss on Monday the wisdom of the Sri Lankans playing two Tests in South Africa, at Centurion and the Wanderers starting on December 26.
The board was meeting as news broke that England were leaving South Africa early. They are due in Sri Lanka in January, and the SLC will know that the ECB could object to their team playing there if the Sri Lankans have been in South Africa. If England don’t tour, SLC will lose significant broadcast revenue. Even so, it is understood SLC has decided the tour to South Africa remains on the cards, perhaps because the Gauteng area, where their team will be based, has fewer active coronavirus cases than the Western Cape, where England are. But a second wave of infections is expected to rise in Gauteng in January. SLC is set to make a firm decision next week.
The Australians, who are due in South Africa in February and March for three Tests, have also taken note of the situation in the country. “It’s very concerning and they need to consider the safety of the players, first and foremost,” David Heslop, a biosecurity and risk management expert, told the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). “Even with the best protections in a high prevalence country where there is a lot of COVID around you may simply be unable to pick up everything.”
Monday’s release said CSA and the ECB had “agreed to postpone the remaining matches” and that “the decision was taken jointly by the two boards to ensure the mental and physical health and welfare of players from both teams”.
Kugandrie Govender, CSA’s acting chief executive, was quoted as saying: “The concern over the mental health impact of recent events on all involved is not one that we as CSA or the ECB take lightly and the decision to postpone the tour is the most responsible and reasonable course of action for us.” ECB chief executive Tom Harrison was quoted as saying: “We have always maintained that the welfare of our players and management is paramount. We were concerned about the potential impact that recent developments might have on the wellbeing of the touring party, and so after consultation with CSA we have jointly made the decision to postpone the remaining matches in this series, in best interest of the players’ welfare.” Both were careful to put on record that they “look forward” to the ODIs being played in South Africa in the future.
Unlike the three T20Is at Newlands and in Paarl, which went ahead as planned, the ODI series suffered false starts at Newlands on Friday and in Paarl on Sunday because of positive tests for Covid-19. On Sunday night a proposed match at Newlands on Monday was called off.
Each game scheduled in South Africa that isn’t played is believed to cost CSA more than USD665,000 in lost broadcast revenue. So it could already be USD1.9-million out of pocket with more bad news to come. But Govender told Cricbuzz CSA hadn’t sacrificed income: “Since the ODI series is being postponed and not cancelled CSA won’t be losing money as much as monies will be deferred to later in the FTP cycle. So over the four-year period, it will even out. [The] ECB and CSA are sharing this responsibility.”
Before the pandemic hit the South African Cricketers’ Association projected that CSA could be USD65.9-million in debt by the end of the 2022 rights cycle. Covid-19 can only have an adverse effect on that equation. Testing South Africa’s squad and support staff during England’s tour alone has probably cost close on USD8,000.
Besides the three South Africa players who have contracted the disease, two England players have tested positive, along with two workers at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town, which the parties are sharing. Only one of those cases of the virus was reported before the squads went into a bio-secure environment, which sparked concerns over the bubble’s security levels and whether the rules were being obeyed.
That narrative turned testy on Monday after the emergence of an email, seen by Cricbuzz and dated Thursday, from Newlands’ stadium manager to England’s liaison officer, CSA officials and the police, telling them that “the England cricket team has not adhered to the arrangements as agreed by all in the ESSPC [Event Security and Safety Planning Committee] meetings”. The ground’s normal net facilities are out of bounds because of coronavirus regulations and major construction at Newlands. Instead, players are to use nets set up on the field.
“This serves to inform you that the England cricket team has accessed and used the nets today at their own risk,” the email read. “WPCA [Western Province Cricket Association] and the ESSPC will not be held liable or responsible for the safety and health of the England cricket team.”
A statement from an England spokesperson on Monday contested that version of the facts: “On arrival at Newlands on 3 December, we advised the venue that the three nets provided on the main pitch were not of a standard for conducive practice, as per the memorandum of understanding signed by the respective boards. Batsmen were unable to face seam bowlers on the nets on the main pitch as the surfaces were rendered and unacceptable. We requested with CSA that we would like to use the practice nets and that we would create a security cordon to ensure the players and coaches could enter the facility safely, as done previously on 28 November. This was confirmed by England’s security team, the team operations manager and the team doctor. We were satisfied with this outcome and we were able to practice in the net facility safely. The team also used the main outfield for fielding drills, a seam bowlers bowl through pitch and a number of nets were used for range-hitting against spin bowlers and coaches throws. As far as the England touring party are concerned, the safety and health of our players and coaches was not compromised.”
South Africans will smell the stink of what they perceive as England’s superiority complex in all of this, not least because the visitors have referred their two positive tests to doctors in London for confirmation. They will take the same view of the surprise said to emanate from the England camp when two South Africa players returned to normal activities sooner than expected from the isolation they went into after being identified as close contacts of their teammate who first tested positive.
“Our doctors aren’t good enough for them, our bubble isn’t good enough for them, not even our practice facilities are good enough for them,” the argument will go. “They knew how to get to the colonies. They know their way home. Good riddance.”
It isn’t that simple for CSA, whose key function is to make enough money to run the game in South Africa. So it needs all the attention it can get from teams like England, no matter how finicky or arrogant it is, or seems to be, to put up with them.
That’s part of the price the third world often pays when it collides with the first world. It isn’t fair, but it’s reality.
First published by Cricbuzz.
Bulletproof Truth 