Shuaib Manjra – Bulletproof Truth

Covid rejigs South Africa XI

“The two players are currently in quarantine at the team hotel and are under the care of the team’s medical staff,” Shuaib Manjra, CSA chief medical officer

Telford Vice | St George’s Park

COVID-19 has taken a further toll on the second Test between South Africa and Bangladesh in Gqeberha, with Sarel Erwee and Wiaan Mulder contracting the disease. They have been replaced in the home XI for the rest of the match by Khaya Zondo and Glenton Stuurman.

A CSA release on Monday quoted chief medical officer Shuaib Manjra as saying: “This is an unfortunate situation, but not unexpected after the decision was made to have this tour under the managed event environment protocol, rather than the strict bio-safe environment protocol as was previously the case. This is in line with the country’s policy in revoking the Disaster Management Act with reference to the pandemic, as well the huge mental strain that a bubble environment induces.”

Erwee and Mulder reported feeling ill, and tested positive on Monday. “The two players are currently in quarantine at the team hotel and are under the care of the team’s medical staff,” Manjra was quoted as saying.

Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo, who lives in Gqeberha when he is not with the team, is not at St George’s Park because he has come down with coronavirus. South Africa bowling coach Charl Langeveldt and Zunaid Wadee, the team’s security officer, caught Covid during the first Test in Durban and are also not at the current match.

Zondo, who has played six ODIs, makes his debut in the format while Stuurman, who played his first Test in Christchurch in February, earns a second cap. With the match in its fourth innings and Bangladesh at the crease, batter Zondo is unlikely to have much to do. Fast bowler Stuurman, too, might not see much action considering the amount of turn on offer.

The St George’s Park Test is South Africa’s last engagement of the summer, which should help allay fears over the virus spreading through the camp.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Omicron ominous for India tour

The tour remains possible, but it is becoming less than probable.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

DEAR India. Please come. It’s not just about the money, although that’s important. It’s also about history, fairness, and respect. And about establishing whether we’re part of the world or locked out and looking in. Like we were before November 1991, when you let us return from the cold. So please come. Please.

That’s not Cricbuzz talking. It’s South Africa’s government, and every cricketminded South African. A release by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) on Tuesday was followed, on Wednesday, by a CSA statement on the issue, bringing to 952 the number of words spent in this cause. Doubtless there will be many more. They could all be summarised into one: desperation.

Wednesday’s CSA effort was headlined, in capital letters: “Proteas confident in CSA BSE [bio-secure environment] protocols”, and quoted the organisation’s chief medical officer, Shuaib Manjra, men’s captains Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma and board chair Lawson Naidoo, who posted Tuesday’s DIRCO statement — “South Africa welcomes Indian cricket teams” — on his social media pages. The latter’s plural is a nod to the fact that India A are here, and that their series in Bloemfontein is continuing as planned. The implication is that what’s good for Priyank Panchal’s geese is, surely, good for Virat Kohli’s ganders.

At 10.47pm (SA time) on Tuesday night, DIRCO bolstered its release with a notice on its website that read, in part: “The South African government has noted with regret the announcement by several countries to impose temporary travel restrictions on our country. It should be noted that these were unilateral decisions taken without consulting South Africa, and therefore beyond our control. The South African government will continue to do all it can to ensure that these unwarranted travel bans are lifted.”

If you think you read seething between those lines, you’re not wrong. There is outrage in South Africa that it is being punished for alerting the world to the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. A variant, mind, that has since been found in several other countries, and in some cases to have been there before South Africa’s scientists raised the alarm. In this view, that Omicron wasn’t so much detected in South Africa as it was detected by South Africans is a subtle but vital distinction.

But CSA don’t have the luxury of anger. They know from the painful experience of England walking out of their tour last December and Australia’s refusal, in February, to fulfil their commitment to visit in March that venting their frustration doesn’t help. Neither is it of any use to reassure the BCCI that South Africa’s bubbles are as tight as any in the world, and tighter than many. India know, from their experience in England last year, that no bubble is unbreachable.

What matters is the Indian government’s reaction to the rise in Covid cases in South Africa from the zero that was reported on November 18 — down from 22,910 new infections on July 8 — to 4,373 on Tuesday. The fourth wave is underway in the country.

Currently travel between India and South Africa is moderately encumbered. From Wednesday all travellers bound for India will be required to inform the Delhi government of their whereabouts for the previous 14 days and test negative for the virus within 72 hours of their departure. Since Friday those coming from “at risk” countries, which include South Africa, have been tested on arrival and — in the case of Indian nationals — required to quarantine in their homes for seven days.

Technically, then, India’s tour remains possible. But indications are it is becoming less than probable. That the BCCI want the number of Tests reduced from three to two has been reported, albeit without confirmation. Also that India would rather postpone the tour, and that the selection of their squad has been put on hold. You would have to be hopelessly optimistic if you didn’t read reluctance between those lines. And all that against the pressured backdrop of the BCCI’s annual meeting on Saturday, when issues weightier — to India, though not South Africa — will be discussed. Sourav Ganguly’s primary focus must be on that.

Yet it’s difficult not to empathise with South Africa’s situation. Thanks to years of maladministration, cricket in South Africa isn’t in a sound state monetarily. But the US$105-million CSA sold the India tour rights for dwarfs the loss of US$13.5-million they declared in October for the 2020/21 financial year. The international game’s grotesquely skewed economics means all countries depend on tours by India to some extent; South Africa more than most. For the tour even to be deferred would have a significant impact on cricket’s resources and affect the game adversely at all levels for years to come.

Thirty years ago, before apartheid had been defeated but with its downfall assured, India dared open its doors to South Africa’s regrettably all-white team. That venture of three ODIs encompassed a range of firsts: never before had South Africa played against India, never had they taken on opponents who were black or brown, and never had they played an ODI.

Now South Africa are asking India to dare put their faith in systems that have passed the test, and to respect their team enough to come and play cricket against them. It’s not that simple, of course. South Africa need, desperately, this tour to happen. India need, understandably, to make the best decision in the interests of their players’ safety and wellbeing. The choice is theirs.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: “No! No! No!”

If it isn’t sandpaper rubbing South Africans the wrong way about Australians it’s a vicious virus.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

TO the long list of reasons why South Africans detest Australians, add a Test series that will not be played as scheduled. Until Monday, it seemed probable that Australia would agree to honour their commitment to play three matches in the country in March and April. On Tuesday came confirmation that the venture was off. Or, to resort to the weasel word that was used, “postponed”.

With that went around USD2-million in broadcast revenue CSA would have earned, along with the assurance created by Sri Lanka’s Covid-free trip in December and January, and a current women’s series featuring Pakistan, that Cricket South Africa had recovered from England’s virus vexed visit in November and December. Also gone is any hope that cricket in the time of the pandemic might give sportminded South Africans pause for thought about the irrational and unwarranted dislike they reserve for Australians.

The series was called off less than 24 hours after Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, told the country that the daily number of new cases of the virus had eased enough to suspend a ban on the sale of alcohol and public access to beaches, and to relax a nationwide nighttime curfew by two hours. South Africa recorded 21,832 new coronavirus infections on January 8. On Monday, thanks to a tightening of lockdown regulations on December 14, only 2,548 additional cases were reported.

But even the fact that the number of infections had crashed by 88.33% in the past 24 days was always going to struggle to cut ice in Australia, where seven tested positive on Monday — exactly 364 times fewer than South Africa’s number of new cases on the same day. On Sunday, when 4,525 contracted Covid in South Africa, Perth went into a five-day lockdown that gave residents just four reasons to leave their homes and led to border restrictions with neighbouring states. And all because a single security guard working at a quarantine hotel in Perth was found to have the disease. Given South Africa’s exponentially bigger problems with containing the virus, there can be little surprise that Australia have chosen not to come.

“Due to the public health situation in South Africa, which includes a second wave and new variant of the virus, and following extensive due diligence with medical experts, it has become clear that traveling from Australia to South Africa at this current time poses an unacceptable level of health and safety risk to our players, support staff and the community,” Nick Hockley, CA’s interim chief executive, was quoted as saying in a release.

That is a fair argument for staying away, and it should be noted that travelling to South Africa would have gone against the Australian government’s advice. And no-one should say the Aussies made their decision flippantly as it complicates their path to earn the right to take on New Zealand in the inaugural World Test Championship final in England in June.

But CSA does have reason to be unhappy about the way the Australians strung it along, making it jump through ever more unreasonable hoops in the hopes of sealing the deal. Justifiably, CSA’s response stopped short of calling the Australians cowardly spoilt brats, but not by much: “CSA wishes to record its immense disappointment at the news. The safety of players is always paramount and over the past few months CSA held many detailed discussions with CA regarding Covid-19 protocols. These discussions included assessing and managing the Covid-19 risks and consulting with a range of leading medical experts including the South African ministerial Covid advisory committee. CSA worked hard to meet the changing demands of our Australian counterparts.”

The CSA release quoted Graeme Smith, the director of cricket, as saying: “This was set to be the longest tour in a bio-secure environment (BSE), comprising a three-match Test series that was scheduled to begin with Australia’s arrival later in the month. So to be informed about the CA decision at the 11th hour is frustrating.”

Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s medical officer, detailed some of the measures that had and would have been taken: “The protocols we had proposed to CA were unprecedented. Firstly we had agreed that our own Proteas team would enter the BSE 14 days prior to the arrival of the Australian team, thus altering their planning during the current tour of Pakistan. Among some of the other key arrangements made were that all four areas (two hotels and two venues) had a protocol to implement a strict BSE with no contact with anybody outside this area. We subsequently agreed to two separate BSEs and had granted Australia full and exclusive use of the Irene Country Lodge [near Centurion], which we shared with Sri Lanka, with a minimum staff present on site. In terms of the arrangements the Proteas were to move to a separate hotel altogether. Furthermore all hotel staff, match officials and even bus drivers were to enter the BSE 14 days prior to Australia’s arrival. In addition CSA had also committed to importing an Australian tracking system at great cost to ensure proper tracking of close contacts in the event of a positive test. The touring team was also going to be granted VIP access through the airports, after government intervention to ensure this privilege.”

Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s acting chief executive, also laid in: “It is indeed sad that after all the engagements and effort made to ensure a secure visit by our Australian counterparts, the tour has been derailed. CSA has incurred significant costs related to the planning stages and the cancellation of the tour represents a serious financial loss. In this challenging period for cricket and its member countries we believe the stance taken by CA is regrettable and will have a serious impact on the sustainability of the less wealthy cricket-playing nations.”

Australia’s demands are why South Africa’s T20 squad for their series in Pakistan, which will follow the second Test in Rawalpindi starting on Thursday, includes only four of the players in the Test squad. The rest had to return home in time to go into quarantine, as per the Aussies’ conditions.

What now for South Africa? Pakistan are due in the country for a white-ball tour in April. Might they be persuaded to arrive early for a Test series? Probably not: the PSL will be played from February 20 to March 22.

If it isn’t sandpaper rubbing South Africans the wrong way about Australians it’s a vicious virus. Before that, it was Shane Warne resorting to something close to mental cruelty in his clashes with Daryll Cullinan. And Merv Hughes levelling a bat at a spectator at the Wanderers, where fans asked Adam Gilchrist who fathered his children. Pat Symcox had an entire roast chicken thrown at him — among other, less tasty missiles — while he was fielding on the boundary at the SCG. David Warner looked up from the slips at St George’s Park to see fans wearing masks depicting the face of his wife’s former lover. Faf du Plessis was hounded through Adelaide airport, in a rolling confrontation with television crews that turned physically nasty, because of a messy moment involving a mint and a cricket ball.

With Covid, as with so much else, Australians and South Africans might as well be on different planets. Perhaps this is confirmation that they are. It used to be that you could take the Aussies out of Australia, but you couldn’t take Australia out of the Aussies. Now, it seems, neither is possible.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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More Covid in South Africa, but Sri Lanka series seems safe

“We’re sailing a ship while we’re trying to build it.” – Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, on the fight against the virus.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

SOUTH African cricket’s covid crisis deepened on Monday when a first-class match was halted after one of the players involved tested positive. The game featured six members of South Africa’s squad for the imminent Test series against Sri Lanka, and was played at the same ground where the rubber is due to start.

South Africans will wonder whether those pertinent facts will prompt SLC to revisit the decision they took to fulfil their commitment to tour, which was confirmed in the wake of England abandoning their visit with half their six white-ball matches unplayed. But word from Sri Lanka on Monday was that the players were preparing to travel. Their coach, Mickey Arthur, a South African, tweeted on Sunday that he had arrived in the country.

“We are following the situation very closely,” SLC chief executive Ashley de Silva said. “We have sent a doctor to South Africa along with our head coach to monitor the situation. There are certain things that will be implemented and we are being briefed on all the developments. Reports we have got are pretty good. We are confident of the tour going ahead.”

Still, a release suggested CSA were cognisant of the sensitivity of the situation: “With player safety and welfare paramount during the Covid-19 hit cricket season, and taking in consideration the upcoming … Test series between South Africa and Sri Lanka, a decision was carried out to call off the [first-class] match.”

England’s tour ended dramatically because seven people in both camps and among staff at the hotel where the squads were staying were reported to have contracted the disease. The two cases in the England camp were later said to be false positives.

The nightmare continued on Monday, when CSA said the match between the Titans and the Dolphins was halted after a “Dolphins’ player [who] experienced symptoms during day one” returned a positive test. Both squads and their support staff will be tested. Players who are negative for the virus could be forced to isolate for five days if they have been in close contact with someone who has the disease. Close contact is defined as being within two metres of that person for a total of at least 15 minutes over the course of 24 hours.

The cancelled game involved Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Lungi Ngidi, Keshav Maharaj, Sarel Erwee and Keegan Petersen — all of them in the Test squad — and was played at Centurion, where the Test series is scheduled to start on December 26. Markram and Elgar are South Africa’s opening pair. In the absence of Kagiso Rabada, who has a groin injury, Ngidi will lead the attack. Maharaj is the only specialist spinner in the squad. The home side’s ranks would be significantly disrupted if any of those players test positive, although less so in Maharaj’s case because surfaces at Centurion and the Wanderers — where the second Test starts on January 3 — are not usually friendly to spinners.

That Covid was brought to the ground where the series is set to start was cause for concern, but Titans chief executive Jacques Faul said that was a manageable aspect of the challenge: “The cleaning of the venue is, by comparison with everything else that needs to be done, the easy part of dealing with the virus. But an incident like this will make us even more aware.”

Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, cleared Centurion: “SuperSport Park was not responsible for this.” In any event, the ground will be scrubbed from top to bottom, as it would have been even if the virus hadn’t found its way there.

Like Faul said, that’s not difficult to do, in relative terms. Instead, staying ahead of an enemy that seems to know more about us than we know about is far more demanding. As Manjra said, “We’re sailing a ship while we’re trying to build it.”

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Are there holes in CSA’s bubble?

“There may be a breach that’s unbeknown to us and may have caused this positive test.” – Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, after the first ODI was postponed in the wake of a player testing positive for Covid-19.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

CSA’s chief medical officer has admitted that the bio-bubble containing the South Africa and England squads could be faulty. And that that might have led to the single positive test for the coronavirus that forced the postponement of the first ODI at Newlands on Friday.

The match was called off two hours before it was due to start — some 12 hours after a South Africa player was confirmed to have contracted the disease — and rescheduled for Monday.

“This test surprised us because we have confidence in the integrity of the bio-secure environment,” Shuaib Manjra said in a video released by CSA on Friday. “Further tests indicate that this is a more recent infection that occurred within the bio-safe environment. Clearly there seems to be some kind of breach, which we’ve investigated in great detail to try and determine where this happened. We’ve traversed a couple of different spaces and tried to recount some events; speaking to the player, looking at security cameras, looking at other information. We haven’t been able, to date, to identify where that source was. But clearly it is cause for concern.

“I’m fairly convinced that 99% of the time this environment is working. There may be a breach that’s unbeknown to us and may have caused this positive test. So I’m not saying there’s a zero risk. There may be a slight risk which we cannot mitigate. There’s a lot of moving parts in a tour such as this, and we’re trying to control that.

Both squads and their support staff are staying at the same hotel, which has made England worry about the safety of their touring party. “Clearly, there’s a cause for concern and England has expressed a concern,” Manjra said. “England is questioning the confidence that they have in the bio-secure environment, and rightfully so. If there’s been a player who tested positive in the last week, who contracted the virus in the last week, they have cause for concern and we respect that concern.”

An ECB release quoted managing director Ashley Giles as saying: “Our number one priority is the health and safety of the England team and management group, and the correct decision was made following discussions between the two boards and respective medical teams.”

Cricbuzz has learnt that England were on their way to the ground when they were told of a suspected case of Covid-19 in the bio-bubble. Their bus turned around and they went back to the hotel, where confirmation that the game was off reached them shortly before CSA issued a statement to say so. England were given the day off but were confined to their rooms while communal areas of the hotel were deep cleaned.

Manjra rejected the notion that the South Africans had broken the bio-secure protocols: “I can categorically state that there’s no player who is able to leave the hotel environment, simply by virtue of the fact that there’s security around and the security will not allow a player a player to leave. Unless that player is leaving in an assigned vehicle, which is an official vehicle with an official driver.

“There’s command centre here led by the colonel from the Claremont police force, and they strictly enforce the bio-bubble. They wouldn’t allow anybody to leave. In fact, some of our players had left as a group to go across to the [Vineyard] Oval [across the road from the hotel] to train, and that became a matter of concern because [the police] had seen it. We had to address that concern with the colonel and the command centre. Basically, it is impossible to leave this bio-secure environment by any player or official.”

The ODI series will go ahead for now, starting with Sunday’s match in Paarl. The postponed game is scheduled for Newlands on Monday, and the third at the same venue on Wednesday.

“We’ve met with the English medical teams and we’ve planned out a way,” Manjra said. “We will retest all of our players and [the] hotel staff [on Saturday]. We’ll await the results and determine a course of action. On Tuesday, before the final ODI on Wednesday, we will test the team again.”

The latest positive test is the third among the South Africans since England arrived in the country. Two more of the home side’s players were forced to isolate because they had been in close contact with the first man to get the virus. None of England’s players or support staff have tested positive.

Additional reporting by Rob Johnston.

First published by Cricbuzz.

Cricket neither can nor should escape the real world

“The players were devastated on receiving the news that they had tested positive for Covid.” – Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

WHAT would happen if more players tested positive for Covid-19 going into the first men’s T20 between South Africa and England at Newlands on Friday? “There probably won’t be a game,” Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, told an online presser on Thursday.

It was a stark thing to say. But these are stark times. Both teams are staying at the same Cape Town hotel. None of the England players have contracted the disease while they have been in the country, but two South Africans — one before the squad went into their bubble and one afterwards — have been diagnosed. Two others who were in contact with one of the infected players have been isolated.

“If you’ve got lots of positives you’ve got a quarantine context,” Manjra said. “We cannot bring in a player from the outside without testing them at least twice before we bring them into this space. If a large group of people test positive we wouldn’t have adequate opportunity to bridge people into the bio-bubble. But we’ve got a squad of 24. Hopefully we can put a team together.” *

The South Africans’ fourth round of tests were conducted on Thursday morning. They hope to have the results by this evening. The hours will not pass quickly.

“We tested on Tuesday, and it was stressful,” Manjra said. “You can imagine what the consequences would have been should we have had a positive test. Thankfully all the results came back negative. But you can imagine the stress you go through waiting to find out. Yesterday and Tuesday players were asking every five minutes when their results were coming back.”

Those affected cannot be named, unless they do so themselves. But that seems unlikely, given how they had reacted to their fate.

“The players were devastated on receiving the news that they had tested positive for Covid,” Manjra said. “One player, who tested positive out of the bubble, had to be kept out. He’s taken quite a bit of strain in the sense that he’s been isolated in a hotel all alone and not participating in training. There’s going to be a lag period in him coming to the quad and getting back to fitness because of injury concerns. If you’ve been in a hotel room for 10 days we can’t simply throw you onto the park. We’ve got to give at least another seven days to return to match fitness in order to consider him for any of the games. It takes a mental toll on him and all the others.

“The dynamic is very different for the player who tested positive within the bubble. We could place the player in what we call a red zone, so there’s no contact. But because he was already part of the bubble there was some degree of limited contact with other players. That had an impact, because then we had to separate players into contacts and non-contacts, and the contacts into smaller groups. In the event that somebody tested positive we could isolate a small group of people rather than the entire contact or non-contact group. That had a role to play in the dynamic of the team in terms of training, dining and socialising.”

Friday’s match, should it happen, will be South Africa’s first since March. Five players in the squad were in action in the IPL and others have played for their domestic franchises. But care has been taken to get them to this point.

“We were concerned when we had a long lockdown,” Manjra said. “We had to have a six-week lag period for players to get back to fitness. In the English Premier League the injury rates went up by 200% post-Covid. That was a cause of concern for us. If you don’t pass your fitness test you’re not considered for selection, simple as that. We set rigid criteria, and all the players passed their fitness test.”

The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) has provided psychological support for the players, who also have access to help provided by CSA.

“SACA realised the consequences of being in the bubble for a long time,” Manjra said. “The guys who’ve been at the IPL have been in a bubble for 11 weeks. Faf [du Plessis] went directly from the IPL to Pakistan, so he’s been in a bubble for 12 weeks. That takes a huge mental toll. ‘KG’ [Kagiso Rabada] has called it a luxury prison. It’s not a bad environment, but being locked down takes its toll on you.”

Taking the test itself was another matter: “Players don’t like it. We had a guy here doing the test on Monday and the players complained, so we had to try and get somebody else. Some of them are over enthusiastic, and not only get into your nose but into your sinuses and into your brain as well. It’s an uncomfortable test, but it’s very short.”

Covid-19 is among several significant factors the South Africans are juggling that might not seem connected to what they will try to do on the field. But how better to take the nation’s minds off the effects of the pandemic, if only for a while, than with a good performance? Why not use the platform to speak good against the evil of racism? And as long as the team is out there playing decent cricket, the failings of CSA’s suits won’t irk as much.

“Preparing without distractions is an ideal situation, but in the real world you always have distractions,” Manjra said. “Was our preparation ideal? There’s been a couple of hiccups. But one of the things that allowed our team to build resilience is the kind of work we’re doing in the background with the squad. Building resilience is not about removing distractions. It’s how you deal with those distractions, which will always be there.”

Welcome to the real world. Now, get on with it.

* All players in both squads tested negative on Thursday.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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White or not, McKenzie back on board at CSA

“It’s an exciting coaching group I’m going to be part of – looking after the under-19s all the way through to the Proteas.” – Neil McKenzie, CSA’s new batting guru

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

WILL the real CSA please stand up? Last week they gave South Africa’s government a commitment that they would appoint only black and brown consultants unless none were available. This week they appointed two whites in prominent positions.

Dillon du Preez was named as assistant coach of South Africa’s women’s team on Tuesday. On Thursday, Neil McKenzie was unveiled as the “high performance batting lead”. The devil, of course, is in the details: neither has signed on as a consultant. They are permanent staff.

But that will do little to placate those who have charged the cricket establishment with systemic racism going back decades. Not least Nathi Mthethwa, the minister of sport, who has complained that the upper echelons of the game are too white. Do CSA intend to get around the promise they made to him, at a meeting last Monday, about the colour of their consultants by simply not describing their appointees as consultants?

In the super-heated atmosphere cricket has stumbled into, that Du Preez and McKenzie are solidly qualified for their new roles and, particularly in McKenzie’s case, have the track records to prove their competence matters less than the fact that they are neither black nor brown. And thus it also matters whether their jobs could have been given to those of similar stature and abilities who are black or brown. Geoff Toyana, for instance. Or Ashwell Prince.

Two blacks and four brown people were also appointed on Thursday. Eddie Khoza, whose excellence as an administrator has helped him rise above the febrile polarisation in the game, continues as CSA’s “acting head of cricket pathways”. Malibongwe Maketa returns from the exile he seemed to be cast into after last year’s disastrous World Cup, where he was Ottis Gibson’s assistant, as “South Africa A and national academy lead”. Shukri Conrad, a veteran of the coaching circuit, is the “South Africa under-19 men’s lead”. The respected and experienced Vincent Barnes, a former South Africa bowling and assistant coach, is the “high performance manager and bowling lead”. Dinesha Devnarain, who played 51 white-ball internationals, carries on as the South Africa under-19 women’s team and women’s national academy head coach. CSA’s chief medical officer will still be Shuaib Manjra, who doesn’t seem to have put a foot wrong.

But it’s McKenzie’s name that sticks out. He was named South Africa’s batting coach in February 2016 and replaced by Dale Benkenstein in October 2017, when Gibson succeeded Russell Domingo. It’s difficult to judge coaches, especially those who work in the technical disciplines. But it’s a fact that South Africa’s batters averaged 37.54, regardless of format, under McKenzie. Since he has left they have averaged 28.96.

South Africans’ most recent memory of him will be in a World Cup match at the Oval on June 2 last year, when he helped engineer Bangladesh’s victory over his compatriots. The 330/6 McKenzie’s charges scored was then their record ODI total and they topped 300 twice more during the tournament.

“I’ve come back a little more rounded as a coach,” McKenzie said in an audio file released by CSA on Thursday of his stint of more than two years in Bangladesh’s dugout. “It was a good experience but it’s really nice to be back with South Africa and trying to make a really good contribution.”

What were the parameters of his role? “It’s an exciting coaching group I’m going to be part of — looking after the under-19s all the way through to the Proteas,” McKenzie said. “I’ll be generally looking after the batting. It’s a young batting unit when you look across all the formats and spheres in the men’s and women’s [teams].”

In effect, then, McKenzie will serve as South Africa’s batting coach. Or consultant. Or “lead”, whatever that means. That would also seem to indicate there is no vacancy for a dedicated batting coach or consultant for the national team.

McKenzie was a good bet to return to South Africa’s dressingroom since he said on August 21 that he had resigned as Bangladesh’s batting coach. The current politics of cricket in South Africa threatened to throw a spanner in the works, but CSA have found a way to secure his services.

Graeme Smith, CSA’s director of cricket, will doubtless come under fire for what some will refuse to see as nothing other than another instance of him handing out jobs for pals: he played in 50 of McKenzie’s 124 matches for South Africa and captained him 38 times. Smith has faced the same claim over his appointment of Mark Boucher as head coach and Jacques Kallis, who served as the batting consultant last season. Smith played 258 international matches with Boucher and 261 with Kallis.

Perhaps Smith saw the accusation coming. In a video file of more than six minutes he extolled the virtues of Maketa, Conrad and Khoza, and even a position that has yet to be filled — that of convenor of selectors — but did not mention McKenzie.

“The convenor of selectors is a key person in CSA,” Smith said. “It’s a job that comes with a lot of pressure from all fronts. We went about advertising the job. Our HR department collects all the applications and we move from there into interview processes. With the cricket committee and the board members [involved] we decide on the best candidate going forward.

“The role definition is slightly changed. We’ve shifted it to not only being a national team convenor, but to controlling the whole pipeline, which speaks to our high performance strategy. We feel it’s important to create the avenues of communication — the way we play, select, think, operate, the type of people we want involved in that environment is key. We’ve aligned the convenor of selectors right through the pipeline. He’ll be overseeing everything. The convenor now is a much more extensive job.

“One thing I noticed when I got involved with CSA in December is that there were decent people involved but there wasn’t really that cross-communication. What was happening at under-19 level was separate to what was happening at the national academy, was separate to what was happening with the A team and then the national side. The thinking was not going right through the pipeline. The convenor of selectors working on the whole system and owning the whole system, and being part of all the processes, is key.

“That strategy is now in place, and we will sit down as a group and debate and work on our way forward, and try and align as closely to the national teams as we can in terms of culture, performance and what’s needed to hopefully push us to a level where our national teams are the best in the world. That they’re winning World Cups, that we’re bringing talent through, [that] we’re transforming at a level that is acceptable to everybody. Those are the goals with these appointments; that we can become really efficient and that cricket can push forward and create the strength that is required of us.”

Listening to Smith, you could fool yourself that CSA is a functional organisation bound for great things. But then you remember why someone as highly regarded, deservedly, as Khoza is marooned in an acting capacity. His permanent position is senior cricket manager, which is being filled temporarily by David Mokopanele, in real life CSA’s mass participation manager. Khoza has been bumped up because Corrie van Zyl, previously the head of cricket pathways, has returned as an executive consultant in the wake of winning his case after being suspended in October, along with former chief operating officer Naasei Appiah and former sponsorship and sales head Clive Eksteen. Former chief executive Thabang Moroe was central to the drama. Appiah, Eksteen and Moroe have all since been fired. And all are taking legal action.

Can there be any surprise that many South Africans want to get as far way from cricket as they can? Even South Africans like Jonty Rhodes, who has been confirmed as Sweden’s new head coach. Yes, Sweden.

“The sad thing for me is that even though the top 30 players in the country want to work together for the game, the administration is in such chaos that unfortunately it does have an impact on things [on the field],” Rhodes was quoted as saying on Wednesday in a PTI report from Dubai, where he is Kings XI Punjab’s fielding coach for the IPL starting on September 19.

“Someone like me who is not part of the system, we are reading about issues in South African cricket week in and week out and they have not been resolved. The same mistakes are being made and there is not much accountability. It saddens me … it does impact on-field performance. Even though we have some great players, we have been lacking consistency in performance because of inconsistency off the field.”

That’s the real CSA. Right there. It will have to work harder than ever to stand up.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Players back at work, but probably too late for Windies tour

“The players will train in small monitored groups with identified coaches from their nearest franchise teams.” – CSA

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

SOUTH Africa’s top professional men’s players are going back to work, but not yet as a squad. Instead the government has cleared them to practice at their closest franchise venue.

A Cricket South Africa (CSA) release on Monday said the “high performance training squad officially returned to training on Monday following approval from the minister of sport, arts and culture, … Nathi Mthethwa, on Friday”.

March 15 marked the last time cricket was played in South Africa at a significant level. The season would have ended in April ordinarily, but was curtailed because of the coronavirus pandemic. As of Monday evening the country had reported more than 138,000 cases of the disease, 2,456 of which had proved fatal.

South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka this month has been postponed but they are still — officially, at any rate — due to arrive in the Caribbean in just more than two weeks’ time. That seems ever more unlikely, what with South Africans having been various stages of lockdown since March 27 and CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith saying six weeks of preparation would be required before the team could take the field in a match.

“The players will train in small monitored groups with identified coaches from their nearest franchise teams,” Monday’s release said. “These sessions will be in accordance with the guidelines set out by the CSA COVID-19 steering Committee and approved by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), an arm of the [health department].”

CSA’s chief medical officer, Shuaib Manjra, was quoted as saying: “We engaged with the NICD, who were comfortable with our protocols and responses to their queries for further details in some respects. Our prevention programme, besides the regular testing of players and support staff, is predicated on personal hygiene measures and creating a sanitised ecosystem. COVID-19 compliance managers at each venue have assumed responsibility to ensure all the elements of the protocol are implemented.”

The meticulous wording of CSA’s release follows the debacle that unfolded after June 17, when they said they would return to play on June 27 by launching a new format, 3TC, which would involve three teams of eight players each contesting a single match of 36 overs. Smith said then that “everything has been okayed” with government for the venture, which it was hoped would raise USD173,000 for charity. But the game had to be postponed after it emerged that CSA did not have express permission from the authorities, not least because it was due to be played at Centurion — a Covid-19 hotspot*.

The tone and content of Monday’s release was an indication that lessons have been learnt.

South Africa’s high performance training squad: Quinton de Kock, Dean Elgar, Lungi Ngidi, Aiden Markram, Junior Dala, Theunis de Bruyn, Rassie van der Dussen, Shaun von Berg, Dwaine Pretorius, Heinrich Klaasen, Temba Bavuma, Reeza Hendricks, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Wiaan Mulder, Bjorn Fortuin, Andile Phehlukwayo, David Miller, Marques Ackerman, Sarel Erwee, Khaya Zondo, Daryn Dupavillon, Keshav Maharaj, Senuran Muthusamy, Keagan Petersen, Imran Tahir, Lutho Sipamla, Edward Moore, Anrich Nortjé, Sisanda Magala, Glenton Stuurman, Jon-Jon Smuts, Rudi Second, Pite van Biljon, Raynaard van Tonder, Gerald Coetzee, Pieter Malan, Zubayr Hamza, Janneman Malan, Faf du Plessis, Tony de Zorzi, Beuran Hendricks, Nandré Burger, George Linde, Kyle Verreynne.

*CSA said on Wednesday they had secured government approval to play the 3TC match on July 18.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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South Africa woos India, sends love to Sourav

“It would be great to see a cricket man like Sourav Ganguly get into the role of president of the ICC.” – Graeme Smith goes to bat for the BCCI boss.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

SOUTH Africa are hopeful that India will tour near the end of August to mark the resumption of cricket in the country in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The plan is for the teams to contest three T20Is behind closed doors, possibly in a sanitised accommodation, training and playing biobubble. Perhaps not coincidentally, it seems Sourav Ganguly can count on South Africa’s backing should he consider a bid for the ICC leadership.

“We had a teleconference with India [on Wednesday)] and we’re encouraged by their willingness to honour the agreement to play the three T20s in August, and if that’s postponed maybe a bit later,” Jacques Faul, Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) acting chief executive, told an online press conference on Thursday. “That’s very encouraging. We had a very good discussion with them.”

The conversation started in pre-lockdown February, when Faul and CSA’s director of cricket, Graeme Smith, travelled to India to meet with BCCI officials including Ganguly, the president. Smith and Ganguly played against each other for South Africa and India in eight Tests and five ODIs from September 2002 to April 2008. At 47 Ganguly is only eight years older than Smith. He played his last match for India in November 2008, less than six years before Smith retired. It seems a healthy respect exists between them.

Certainly, Smith didn’t shy away from going to bat for Ganguly with all the unsubtle effectiveness he would use to ruin bowlers’ figures during his playing career: “Leadership in our sport is going to be key, and having someone at a level who understands the modern game, understands the challenges that are going to be faced, emphasises more the people who get put into key positions. I think the president of the ICC becomes a key position. It would be great to see a cricket man like Sourav Ganguly get into the role of president of the ICC. That will be good for the game and good for the modern game. He understands it, he’s played it as the highest level, he’s respected, and his leadership will be key to us going forward. That would be a great appointment.”

The ICC is no longer headed by a president, but Shashank Manohar has confirmed he will not seek re-election as chair at the organisation’s annual conference in July. Smith left no doubt about his view on who should be Manohar’s successor: “Post Covid and the things that are going to come our way, to have strong leadership [will be important]. Someone like Sourav Ganguly is best positioned for that. I know him well. I’ve played against him and I’ve worked with him as an administrator and in television. He’s got the credibility and the leadership skills, and is someone who could really take the game forward. More than anything, that’s needed right now at an ICC level. We know the elections are coming up and there’s a few names in the hat but my own opinion is that it’s time someone closer to the modern game with leadership credentials got into a key position.”

Faul followed that lead: “We’ve always worked closely with India, and I think India must play a leadership role when it comes to the FTP and a responsible one. Our engagement with Sourav has been very positive. I haven’t played a lot of cricket against Sourav, so I don’t know him as well as Graeme. This is Graeme’s style — he comes out and he speaks openly, which is great. Even in administration, he comes out and farms the bowling. We’ve checked with the leadership [of CSA], if we would support an Indian candidate [for ICC] president, and at this stage we would. We don’t see any problems with supporting an Indian candidate, but we’ve got to look at who’s nominated.”

Later in the press conference, in answer to a question posed in Afrikaans, Faul elaborated: “There aren’t any candidates yet and there aren’t any nominees, but India play a big leadership role anyway. I don’t think any one country should control cricket; the countries that are strong can help other countries. There’s going to be speculation about who a suitable leader would be. It’s not as if there’s only one person who could do it. But it’s good to hear someone like Graeme Smith is of the opinion that someone like Sourav Ganguly could play this leadership role.

“We have to agree with Graeme that someone like Sourav would be a strong candidate. We can’t commit ourselves to that. We don’t even know if Sourav is available to do it. That’s Graeme’s opinion, and we respect it and agree that he could play a big role in world cricket. But we’ve seen what Graeme has done for us in several aspects. He has the respect of role players, including the media, players, officials and administrators. Considering the big contribution Graeme has made, I agree with him that someone like Sourav, if he is interested in a leadership position like this, could make an impact.”

Friday marks the end of the South Africa’s eighth week in lockdown, and although the level of the restrictions look set to eased no end to the measures is in sight. Whether regulations will have eased enough to enable India to tour in August cannot be known. But CSA have to plan as if that will happen as a precursor to staging half a season from January, starting with the Mzansi Super League. “We’re looking at a return to play, a return to train, and a return to work,” Faul said. “The scenarios we use are three months, six months and nine months. We’re too scared to go beyond that for planning purposes. There’s still a low level of predictability.

“We’re in the process of seeking an audience with the minister of arts, sport and culture to get permission, if needed, to play behind closed doors. This will relate to the possibility of the India incoming tour. We’re trying to be very innovative.”

CSA have to pull out all the stops to generate revenue, what with the South African Cricketers’ Association expecting them to lose USD55.9-million by the end of the 2022 rights cycle — a scenario sketched before the pandemic, and that can only worsen given current conditions. A tour by India would put a dent in the losses but it won’t be easy to pull off.

“The commitment is still there to get the three T20s done,” Smith said. “The goal is to keep in constant communication to see where both countries are sitting from a virus and a government regulation [perspective]. There is an element of guesswork. No-one understands what things are going to be like come the end of August. We believe we’re a socially safe and socially distant sport, and we believe we can get it done behind closed doors. We hope the world is in a better place come August.”

India’s entire touring party would, on arrival, have to spend 14 days in isolation on and another 14 days in strict seclusion before they depart. CSA’s chief medical officer, Shuaib Manjra, said it was likely they would remain in a “biobubble”, a “… sanitised cricket biosphere with strict entry standards and limited movement out …” for the duration of their visit.

But little was certain, as Manjra explained: “We probably will see peak infection in August and September, and we will probably see different peaks in different parts of the country. Nothing can be cast in stone. We’ll take our directive from government.

“Even if there is a biobubble, is there going to be international travel? I can’t see large-scale international travel coming back for the next three months, so that would be a limiting factor. Unless you get a charter flight, get them to land at a safe airport and take them straight into the biobubble.”

Manjra also had his scientific eye on the wider realities facing the game: “We’ve got to consider that our players have all had a two-month lay-off. They haven’t played cricket, they haven’t been able to train at maximum capacity. Consequently the risk of injury is significantly increased if they come back to cricket too early.

“What is the impact of intense physical activity on individual players infected by Covid-19 when they return to play?

“What happens should a player develop Covid-19? I have no doubt that many of our players will develop the infection. The challenge for us is when are they safe to return to play, and what are the risks when they return? The more intriguing and challenging question is what is the risk for asymptomatic positives, [people] who have no symptoms but are Covid-19 positive? The risk to them would be significant and we need to determine how we’re going to identify and manage them.”

Smith’s focus was necessarily different, but no less stark: “All cards are on the table and we’re exploring all options. Sport has had to think like business, not just an events company. We’ve got to look at many aspects of our game and how we make it work. Neutral venues, coming together with other nations, looking at what the best opportunities to get our cricket done. Our goal is to get cricket up and running as quickly as possible.”

Also as safely as possible, of course. For all concerned. And the next time Smith is able to go to India he might find he has been granted the freedom of Kolkata.

First published by Cricbuzz.

Training continues for South Africa’s home alone players

The stars have home gyms, but how do the rest of us exercise during lockdown?

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

SOUTH Africa’s players and their compatriots aren’t often in the same boat, but the stars are as up the creek without a paddle as everyone else during the 21 days of stringent lockdown that the country has been plunged into by the coronavirus outbreak.

Only workers considered essential are still at their jobs. No-one may leave their homes unless they are seeking medical treatment, collecting social grants, or buying food. Even that has its perils, what with police having fired potentially lethal rubber bullets at people queuing too closely to each other at supermarket doors.

Exercising outside is prohibited. Outdoor nets are windblown and desolate. Indoor nets are sterile and silent. In gyms, of which we have many up and down the land, nothing moves. No sweat is shed, no iron is pumped, no lycra strains.

The virus has been kind to cricket here in that it has struck at the end of the season. South Africa aren’t due on the field until June, when they are scheduled to play six white-ball games in Sri Lanka. But, if that venture goes ahead, the players won’t be able to give of their best if all they’ve done for several weeks is sit on the couch, watch television and eat and drink. So they have been charged with maintaining their fitness at home alone.

“Training and communication has to be done remotely, and that’s a challenge,” the national men’s team’s strength and conditioning coach, Tumi Masekela, said in an audio file released by Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Thursday. “We can’t, as we do in normal training, continuously assess players and adjust programmes accordingly. Now everything’s over the telephone. We’re making specialised programmes for them to maintain the fitness they’ve built so they’re ready to get back into competition when dates are set for our next competition.”

Although the players will feel as cooped up as other South Africans who could be arrested for daring to take a run or walk their dogs before the restrictions are lifted on April 16 — if they are not extended — they do have advantages. “They are fitness-crazy, so they need you to channel them in the right direction to get the right results, and to prevent injury and enhance performance,” Masekela said. “Most of them have proper gyms at home, so they’re easier to work with. The one big thing is their running volume. I want to build up a good aerobic base. That’s a lot of running or cycling or swimming.”

That’s important regardless of whether the pandemic is brought to heel sooner or later, Masekela said: “A cure could be synthesised in the next week or the lockdown could flatten the curve [of the rate of infection] quite quickly, and we could find ourselves back into our schedules quite quickly. The players need to be able to participate immediately once everything is lifted. If the virus does take a long time to settle down we don’t want our players to lose any of the fitness base they’ve built. It’s crucial to continue with their training programmes. These guys have worked a lot over years to get to where they are and they wouldn’t want to lose that. It’s also good for the players to maintain a healthy lifestyle. If, God forbid, they do contract Covid-19, you have a better chance to fight the virus if your immune system is functioning optimally.”

In another audio file, CSA’s chief medical officer, Shuaib Manjra, explained the measures taken to stop the virus gaining a foothold within South Africa’s squad after they returned on March 18 from their tour of India — which they left without playing the last two of three planned ODIs. “Upon arrival, as a precautionary measure, the Proteas were placed into self-quarantine for a period of 14 days, as per the recommendations,” Manjra said. “During this period we continued to monitor the players for signs and symptoms of the disease. Thankfully all the players were symptom-free and those who opted to perform the test returned negative results. We thus consider all of the players out of the quarantine period. However they remain under government directives during the lockdown period.”

Professional cricketers are among the most privileged people anywhere, including in South Africa. Last week, in a video he shared on his Instagram account to offer moral support and promote the thorough and regular washing of hands, AB de Villiers spoke from a room at his home that seemed liberally kitted out with gym equipment. This week he spoke from what looked like his own backyard putting green. Given those comforts, it’s no doubt easier to avoid the cabin fever that is setting in among most of De Villiers’ fellow citizens a week into being put under what amounts to house arrest. That’s for those lucky enough to have homes to shelter in in the most unequal society in the world.

But, helpfully, Masekela offered us civilians advice for how to get through this with our minds, as well as our bodies, in decent shape: “Exercise is an essential part of everyday life. It should be prioritised, especially during these 21 days because your normal movement is minimised. So you need to make sure you keep moving and do some form of exercise every day. Prioritise 20 minutes in your day for exercise. When your train you release endorphins, your natural happy pill. That’s something we can all do with during this lockdown period.”

First published by Cricbuzz.