Fearless? Who us? England refuse to believe

“[England will] never have a better chance to win the World Cup; that’s a fact.” – Andrew Strauss, trying not to put pressure on his old team, does exactly that

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in London

IF you didn’t know better you might think Andrew Strauss had switched allegiance to the country of his birth ahead of the World Cup opener between England and South Africa at the Oval next Thursday.

Strauss played 100 Tests, 127 one-day internationals and four T20s for England, scoring 11 315 runs in all and captaining them 115 times, and serving as their director of cricket for three-and-a-half years after his retirement.

Thing is, he was born in Johannesburg and moved to England when he was six. So he doesn’t sound quite like a Joburg boykie.

But, on the BBC on Wednesday, Strauss said the kind of things your mates at Chaf-Pozi, the Jolly Roger, or somewhere on the Maboneng strip might say — or want to hear — when they ponder, over a beer, Faf’s okes’ chances of putting one over the poms.

“Expectations are high,” Strauss said. “We’ve never gone into a World Cup before being No. 1 in the world and it’s on our home soil and our record at home is very strong.

“We haven’t had the problem of dealing with the favourites tag before, so it’s a good problem to have in a lot of ways.”

Strauss did brighten up to say he had “great faith in [England captain] Eoin Morgan and the guys; they’ve done incredibly well over the last four years”.

But he also added his spadeful to the growing heap of pressure on his former team: “They’ll never have a better chance to win the World Cup; that’s a fact.

“ … The prospect of them winning a World Cup on home soil is so enticing. It could do such incredible things for the game in this country. Fingers crossed the lads will do the job.” 

That comes in the wake of the nation getting itself into a tizz about whether or not to pick Barbados-born fast bowler Jofra Archer — they did — and agonising over the state of the pitches later in a tournament that will run through what is expected to be a hot, dry summer.

All of which is getting in the way of the truth that England deserve to be No. 1 because they have won seven of their nine completed one-day internationals this year.

Supremely confident India will be a threat as will resurgent Australia, and you can never disregard those flinty, canny New Zealanders.

South Africa will take a healthy does of realism into the tournament, which could make them more dangerous than ever.

But England have won 20 of the 23 completed ODIs they’ve played at home in the past two years. They must be something close to fearless.

Morgan begged to differ: “I wouldn’t say that we feel fearless. Probably two years ago we felt more fearless because we were quite young in our growth as a team.

“We’ve had two more years’ experience on top of that and we are better at coping and adapting to scenarios and recognising different situations throughout a game. I wouldn’t say that’s fearless.”

Morgan spoke on Wednesday at the launch of the kit England will wear in the tournament, which looks not a little like the strip they sported at the 1992 World Cup.

That year they reached the final against a Pakistan team who had come back from the brink of elimination during the league stage.

Imran Khan’s side overcame that obstacle and prevailed in the final because they were what England aren’t: fearless.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask Strauss or Morgan.

SA plan purposefully even as England overthink

“We’re very realistic about the pitches we might have.” – Eoin Morgan’s weird pessimism about the advantage of a home World Cup.

Times Select

TELFORD VICE in London

ANYONE but England would recognise homegrown knowledge of the prevailing conditions at a World Cup as an important advantage.

Apparently they don’t. Instead it’s South Africa who are talking up their collective experience of playing and coaching in the country, where the tournament starts on May 30.

“We’re very realistic about the pitches we might have. They might deteriorate as the World Cup wears on and we are planning for that.”

That’s not a player being guided by caution as they prepare to set eyes on an English pitch for the first time.

It’s Eoin Morgan, England’s white-ball captain, who has led his team to nine wins in their last 11 games — the last four of them at home and the fifth in his native Dublin.

Maybe that’s Morgan’s thinking. He’s only played county cricket since 2003 and for England since 2009, so he couldn’t possibly be expected to have got the hang of the conditions just yet.

Morgan’s side topped 350 twice in four days in their last two one-day internationals, against Pakistan in Southampton and Bristol.

In the latter game, on Tuesday, when Morgan made his odd statement, England chased down 359 to win with six wickets and 31 balls still in the bank.

If they’re struggling to come to terms with the surfaces, they have a strange way of showing it.

Not so fast, you say. Morgan isn’t talking about the state of the pitches now — he’s on about how they might change in a World Cup that will run until July 14. Time enough, then, for the pitches to change.

But, like the Englishman he has become, when the sun comes out after the deadly dull cold grey of winter he isn’t happy or even relieved. He just thinks it won’t last, and he’s worried about how he’s going to cope when it goes away. Like it does every year …

Morgan isn’t alone in his weird pessimism. Here’s former Warwickshire and Leicestershire fast bowler, now a commentator, Charles Dagnall also staring at a glass half-empty on the BBC: “England were burned in the Champions Trophy two years ago. They were playing beautiful cricket and then they came up on a used pitch at Cardiff against Pakistan, and they didn’t really know how to play on it.”

England were dismissed for 211 in that game, a semi-final, and Pakistan polished off the target in 37.1 overs to win by eight wickets.

Somehow, the Pakistanis from half a world away had no difficulty figuring out “how to play on” that dastardly used pitch. Maybe they thought less and did more.

But Dagnall was not deterred: “This heavy hitting, attacking mode and freeness of expression is all very well, but when the pitch does change and you play on a used pitch which has less nip and [the ball] maybe just sticks in the pitch a little bit more, then it’s more difficult to do.

“And I think that’s what [Morgan is] wary of come the later stages of the tournament.”

Not difficult, is it, to understand why England have never won a tournament that’s been played in their backyard four times in its 11 editions?

South Africa have yet to reach a final despite being fancied among the favourites more often than not in their seven trips to the World Cup.

They’ve found ways to beat themselves, but overthinking the conditions hasn’t been among them and is unlikely to be this time.

“They’re forecasting a hot spell coming up in the next couple of months, so perhaps the pitches will be a lot dryer,” Ottis Gibson told reporters in Cape Town on Tuesday.

“But England recently has lent itself to high-scoring games. Whether it’s going to be a high-scoring tournament, the weather will play a huge part in that outcome.”

That’s not only commonsense. Gibson knows what he’s on about, having played 87 first-class games for Glamorgan, Leicestershire and Durham.

He lives in England, as does Claude Henderson, South Africa’s spin consultant, who played for Leicestershire from 2004 to 2013.

Batting coach Dale Benkenstein turned out for Durham from April 2005 to May 2013 and coached Hampshire from 2014 to 2016.

Between them, Gibson, Henderson and Benkenstein have a fraction of the England camp’s knowledge of the conditions. But they’re determined to make it count.

“It’s good that we’ve got that history,” Gibson said. “So from a point of view of conditions we can give insight and information.”

All of the members of South Africa’s squad have played in England at some level, a fact South Africa are using.

“Aiden [Markram, freshly back from a stint with Hampshire] led the discussion around the conditions he’s faced just now,” Gibson said.

“Dean Elgar is not in our team but he’s in England [playing for Surrey] so he we can lean on him for insights.

“I’ve been talking to ‘Adi’ Birrell [formerly South Africa assistant coach, now in charge at Hampshire] about what the conditions are like. So we’ve got enough resources to give us intel.”

Bases covered, then, coach. Maybe England will come calling to ask “how to play” on their own pitches.

Gayle’s unacceptable presence aside, CSA tick T20 boxes

CSA’s description of Chris Gayle as a ‘T20 living legend’ chimes with the tone-deaf clumsiness that has fuelled the #MeToo movement.

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in London

THERE has been plenty of reason to doubt Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) ability to deliver the T20 tournament they have promised the country’s cricketminded public this summer.

But even the hardest-hearted cynic would have to admit their plan seems to be coming together.

As recently as lunchtime on Thursday neither the competition’s name, its franchises, its venues nor any of the likely players’ names were known.

By that afternoon the grounds were announced, followed just more than 24 hours later by the event’s title — the Mzansi Super League (MSL).

On Monday afternoon we knew that the MSL would involve the Cape Town Blitz, the Durban Heat, the Jozi Stars, the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants, the Paarl Rocks and the Tshwane Spartans.

We also knew the names of the marquee South Africa players — Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir — and that they would be in the colours of Paarl, Tshwane, Durban, Cape Town, Jozi and Nelson Mandela Bay respectively.

And that the major foreign players in Wednesday’s draft in Johannesburg will be Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Rashid Khan.

Not bad for a tournament that’s giving its broadcast rights to the SABC for no fee and, Times Media Digital understands, has tried but failed to secure Chinese electronics giant Huawei as a title sponsor.

Other obstacles remain, not least that all six foreigners named on Monday — along with the bulk of the world’s more notable T20 player fodder — are on the books of franchises in the T10 tournament set to be played in Sharjah from November 23 to December 2.

Then there’s the significant but apparently ignored truth that Gayle is an unrepentant misogynist whose crassly cringeworthy attempt, live on air in January 2016, to ask a television interviewer out on a date has made him unemployable in Australia’s Big Bash League.

So the wrongheaded description of the Jamaican as a “T20 living legend” on CSA’s Twitter feed on Monday chimed with the kind of tone-deaf clumsiness that has fuelled the #MeToo movement.

But CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe’s positivity shone out from a CSA release on Monday.

“We have received applications from over 200 top international players who expressed interest in playing in this inaugural tournament and will have their names in the hat ahead of the player draft process on Wednesday,” Moroe was quoted as saying.

“There were expected challenges in the process, of course, with some players available for a particular period because of other cricket commitment clashes elsewhere, including our Proteas, who also have to fulfill our tour to Australia for a one-day international series [which ends on November 17].”

A lot remains to be done for CSA to make good on their ambition to bring the big top T20 circus to a ground near you, or at least within a day’s driving.

But a lot has been done; more, probably, than was thought possible, nevermind probable.  

Game on, say CSA. Is it?

Any takers for a T20 tournament that has still to be named, in which players have yet to be signed by teams that do not exist to play fixtures that have not been announced at venues that remain unknown under the banners of unidentified sponsors?

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE in London

REMEMBER the 2007 World Twenty20? Probably not: it’s another blob of scrambled egg that has accumulated on South Africa’s face during these long, lean, trophyless years.

But in those frenetic 13 days, between the jolt of Chris Gayle scoring the first century in T20 internationals, the frustration of the home side veering into the weeds before the knockout stage, and the fairytale of India beating Pakistan by five runs in a final that was alive and kicking until halfway through the last over — when Misbah-ul-Haq, of all people, tried to scoop what would have been a six to win it and was caught in the deep — something else noteworthy happened.

Neither the press nor the police were anywhere near this event, but it was no less important for that. It was there, in discussions between Lalit Modi and Gerald Majola, that a defining part of South African cricket’s future was mooted and mulled over.

The Indian Premier League came like a comet to our shores in 2009, but it was in those not quite two weeks not quite two years previously that the idea took form.

At least, it did according to Modi. Majola wasn’t so sure when he was asked last week about the how, where and when of the notion going from fantasy to fruition: “I can’t confirm or deny. I just can’t remember …”

Eleven years on the memory of the IPL being moved, lock, stock and thousands of smoking strokes, across the world with savage efficiency and apparently absolute seamlessness — television viewers would hardly have been the wiser about whether a game was being played in Nagpur or at Newlands — is uppermost as Cricket South Africa (CSA) contemplate walking on water again.

Players who want to be part of a T20 tournament that — as of Friday — had still to be named, in which teams do not yet exist to play fixtures that have not been announced at venues that remain unknown under the banners of unidentified sponsors, have until Tuesday to indicate their interest. At least a broadcaster has been unveiled: the SABC.

The draft has been scheduled for October 17, and players “should be available from 9 November 2018 until 17 December 2018”,  a CSA statement said last week.

They will be divided into six squads of 16 centrally contracted players each — a minimum of three of them and a maximum of four foreigners or Kolpakers — to contest 32 games.

Who those players might be we won’t know for a while. But we can get an idea of who they will not be by looking at the squad lists for the second edition of the T10 Cricket League, which will played in Sharjah from November 23 to December 2.

Gayle is on the T10’s books, as are Brendon McCullum, Carlos Brathwaite, Shane Watson, Sunil Narine, Jason Roy, Darren Sammy, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Alex Hales, Kusal Perera, Rilee Rossouw, Colin Ingram and Morné Morkel. Daniel Vettori, Wasim Akram, Tom Moody and Stephen Fleming are among the coaches. 

Those are, with few exceptions, the biggest names in the world’s barnstorming T20 circus, and without most of them no tournament can hope to take its place in the ever lengthening list of events in the format that has become the game’s most relevant at a public level.

Asked if he was interested in throwing his hat into the ring, one of the international arena’s marquee players said: “I don’t know much about it at all and maybe that’s a good thing. The South African players should all be available, so that will make for good viewing. If they can snaffle some good overseas players that would be great. But I’m pretty at sea on this topic.”

If, days before he would need to commit to CSA’s tournament, one of cricket’s most marketable stars admits to having next to no knowledge about it, what chance of success can the event have?

For his information, the Sunday Times understands the national government might help foot the bill and that Vodacom could come on board as a sponsor.

He might also consider that, unlike parastatals like SAA, which survives on bailout after bailout, the SABC has shown the gumption to find a way to help get itself out of debt.

And that the addition of South Africa’s international players transformed last season’s franchise T20 tournament into something watchable.

So there’s hope. Not a lot, but — as we learnt in 2009 — anything is possible.

What other teams get right at tournaments

Sunday Times

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TELFORD VICE in London

SARFRAZ Ahmed looks like a teddy bear, smiles like an angel and speaks not a lot more English than most of the reporters who have tried to get a quote out of him at the Champions Trophy speak Urdu.

Thirty-three players have scored more runs than him in the tournament, among them Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock and David Miller.

None of that can get in the way of the obvious — the man knows how to captain a cricket team.

Not just any XI. Pakistan are less a team than they are a collection of conflicting egos bound together by an undefined anger and thrust forward by the stink of injustice.

They lose matches to other teams, but only one opponent can beat them: Pakistan.

And there they were, playing in the final against India at The Oval on Sunday.

They must be doing something right.

“After the first loss, we are very down,” Sarfraz said after his team had put England out of the tournament in the semi-final at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Wednesday.

“But credit goes to the team management. They boost up really well for us. And credit goes to the players as well. They motivated very well.

“And after that match, everything — we bowling well, fielding well, and now today also batting clicking as well.

“So that’s why credit goes to the bowlers and team management.”

If more of the reporters present had more Urdu, they would have had a more expansive answer.

Not that that they should have needed it.

Pakistan reached the final because being thrashed by 124 runs by India — “the first loss” — at Edgbaston in Birmingham two weeks ago failed to douse their self-belief.

They refused to be derailed like lesser teams would have been by so comprehensive a klap, and instead reeled off convincing victories against South Africa and Sri Lanka to reach the knockout stage.

That didn’t surprise Virat Kohli.

“You will see more clinical performances in tournaments like these because you don’t want to give even a 1% chance to the opposition,” India’s captain said after his team beat Bangladesh by nine wickets in their semi at Edgbaston on Thursday.

“Once you see an opportunity you have to seize that particular moment and grab it with both hands, and today we just felt like the wicket is so good.

“So there was no need for us to play a stupid shot and let the opposition in unnecessarily.”

No-one knows a moment that’s there for the seizing as well as Kohli. The instant Bhuv Kumar had Kagiso Rabada caught behind at The Oval last Sunday, he inserted himself into the slip cordon — and Morne Morkel immediately proved Kohli’s genius by steering a catch into his hands.

The last time the South Africans saw Kohli outside of the Indian Premier League, during their test series in India in November 2015, he was a brat who waded into juvenile arguments on any subject going.

Happily, he has since grown up and into a fine leader who has lost his fear of allowing others to hold a different opinion.

Eoin Morgan, born irresistibly Irish and now elegantly English, has never had Safraz’ and Kohli’s problems.

Indeed, to listen to him after England’s defeat on Wednesday was to hear a captain who had won more than he had lost despite the result.

“One of the huge contributing factors towards topping our table and playing very good cricket in the group stages is that we’ve stayed true to what we believe in and what’s worked for us the last couple of years, and I think that’s the continued formula for the future,” Morgan said.

“I think it will have to evolve in whatever manner the game does over the next two years in the lead-in to the [2019] World Cup, but certainly I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

Every team in this kind of company can bat, bowl and field with the best of them; that is never in question.

What determines the winners from the losers is more difficult to parse, but there is much for other teams to learn from Pakistan’s unshakeable faith in the gospel according to themselves, India’s magnificent confidence in their ability to do the right thing at the right time every time, and England’s embrace of an overtly aggressive style of play that they know will serve them well in the years ahead, even though they let things slip this time.

These are difficult concepts to understand for sides who can’t fathom who they are, much less how they need to change.

But’s that’s not impossible because champions are not born; they’re made. So are losers. Spotting the differences — and implementing them — is the challenge.

Stokes fit, but that’s the least of SA’s problems

Times Media

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TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

IT isn’t often that training sessions rival matches for attention, but England’s practice in Southampton on Friday – ahead of the second one-day international against South Africa at The Rose Bowl on Saturday – was one of those times.

The focus was on Ben Stokes, the fiery allrounder who bowled only two overs at Headingley on Wednesday because of a knee problem. Stokes had surgery on the same knee last year to repair torn cartilage.

Much hand-wringing and what-iffing has ensued, as would seem to be the English way,  since Stokes limped off.

The news that he had been cleared to take full part in Friday’s session made bigger headlines than some countries’ elections, and the subsequent confirmation that he is available for selection play on Saturday probably bumped Donald Trump off a few front pages.

Not that Stokes’ fitness seems of immediate import, what with England surging to a handsome 72-run win on Wednesday.

Another victory for them on Saturday would decide the issue and put unwanted pressure on the visitors ahead of next month’s Champions Trophy in England.

South Africa’s No. 1 ranking, and the fact that they arrived in England having lost only two of their previous 16 ODIs, will shrink into the shadow cast by a series loss.

No injuries have been reported from their dressingroom, but Wednesday’s woes went further than skin deep.

South Africa’s bowling lacked snap, their fielding failed to crackle, and their batting popped in all the wrong ways.

They played mushy cricket, and England had them for breakfast.

Two half-centuries – by Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis  – but no centuries and only one century stand is not going to win many matches, and successful attacks need more than one bowler – Chris Morris – firing on all cylinders.

All of which added up to the feeling that South Africa lost the match more than England won it, Eoin Morgan’s 107 and Moeen Ali’s unbeaten 77 notwithstanding.

“That’s the best way we could have started; it was a complete performance,” Morgan said.

“Moeen has one of the hardest jobs batting at seven and he was very calm and composed before taking the game to them.”

Depth, in batting as well as bowling, has long been a key strength for South Africa – they have earned a reputation for never being beaten until the scorers confirm the result.

But that trademark nuggetyness was conspicuous by its absence on Wednesday.

It will need to be rediscovered if the series is to be levelled on Saturday.

And another thing – can someone hang a stopwatch around AB de Villiers’ neck?

South Africa need their captain.

They also need their most destructive batsman.

They don’t need him banned for not herding his bowlers through their overs quickly enough, as will happen if De Villiers falls foul of the minimum over-rate again.

That umpires and referees should have more important matters to excite them than this pettiness is another argument for another day.

Right now, De Villiers’ shoddy time-keeping is the problem that needs solving.

SA outbatted, outbowled, outfielded

Times Media

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TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

IT needed something special from South Africa’s batsmen after their bowlers blew their chances to win the first one-day international against England at Headingley in Leeds on Wednesday.

But something special never came, and another loss in Southhampton on Saturday will decide the series and ask uncomfortable questions about South Africa’s readiness for next month’s Champions Trophy.

AB de Villiers won the toss and chose to field, and his attack repaid that apparent confidence by conceding 339/6 – the highest total posted in the 39 ODIs played at Headingley.

South Africa’s reply floundered and foundered to 267 in 45 overs, which made England winners by 72 runs.

Only Chris Morris, aside from part-time JP Duminy, looked the part in an attack that bowled too full, bled runs and had to rely on loose strokes to take wickets.

Morris claimed 2/61 and owned the only maiden of the innings. Duminy went wicketless in his six overs, but the 34 runs he gave up made him South Africa’s tidiest bowler.

None of Morris’ and Duminy’s colleagues could keep the pressure on for long enough to bowl maidens, much less force errors.

And when they did put the batsmen on the spot, too often their hard work was squandered by shoddy work in the field.

Opener Alex Hales took advantage of all that while the ball was new with a 61 that rattled off 60 balls with eight fours and a six.

Hales and Joe Root steadied England in a second-wicket stand of 98 that followed Wayne Parnell having Jason Roy caught behind in the second over.

But the stars for the home side were Eoin Morgan and Moeen Ali, who put on 117: a record for England’s sixth wicket in ODIs against South Africa.

The partnership started after the home side had slumped to 198/5 in the fifth over and endured into the 48th.

Morgan went to his ton in the 45th, which leaked 22 runs and saw him smash Imran Tahir for three sixes.

Morris removed Morgan for a 93-ball 107, but Moeen was still there at the end with an undefeated 77 – 50 of them in fours and sixes – off 51 balls.

No bowler besides Morris sent down their full quota, but even he could have done without a last over that cost him 13 runs.

South Africa’s batsmen, then, would have to pull the game out of the fire as their bowlers had done so many times before.

But the only time redemption seemed part of the equation was during a second-wicket stand of 112 between Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis.

It was bookended by Quinton de Kock skying Chris Woakes to short fine leg in the seventh over and Amla being trapped in front after misreading an inswinger from Mark Wood in the 25th.

Amla made a classy 73 off 76 balls, only his second half-century in 11 completed innings for South Africa regardless of format.

Seven balls later Du Plessis, who clipped his 67 off 61 deliveries, was undone and caught behind by a decent away swinger from Liam Plunkett.

What of De Villiers, that proven matchwinner?

He scored a promising 45, then holed out at deep midwicket to Moeen.

Promising 45s do not win matches like this.

Usual suspects named for CSA T20

Times Media

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TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

CHRIS Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Kevin Pietersen will be the headline acts of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) inaugural #T20 Global Destination League next summer.

In a release on Thursday CSA named what it called eight “marquee” players – one for each of the proposed franchises.

The others are Dwayne Bravo, Lasith Malinga, Eoin Morgan, Kieron Pollard and Jason Roy.

If those names sound familiar beyond their individual merit it could be because these players have become part of the furniture in ever more similar T20 events around the world.

Between them Gayle, McCullum and Pietersen have played 574 matches in the format for 41 teams other than their national sides.

T20 was devised as cricket’s way of staying relevant in a changing world, but the revolving door of usual suspects has contributed to the staleness that could rob the format of its original edge.

It can seem to cricket consumers that all that changes from one T20 tournament to the next are the venues and the names of the teams.

CSA’s challenge is to buck that trend and offer its audience something better than just another boundary bonanza propped up by the same old faces.

For CSA the tournament is an opportunity to bolster revenue, blood more players at a prominent level, and dissuade them from opting to further their careers in other countries rather than at home.

Who among the eight named on Thursday goes where will be determined by who among the franchise owners has paid how much for that honour: the highest bidder will have the first choice, and so on and so forth down the line.

“The high level of interest from players and sponsors to participate in our league is proof of the great attraction of South Africa as a global destination,” the release quoted CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat as saying.