South African Cricketers’ Association

CSA up to speed in fitness rethink, but domestic game lags

“Of course players have a responsibility to be fit, but you can’t nail players for fitness if the systems aren’t good enough.” – Andrew Breetzke, South African Cricketers’ Association chief executive.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

ALAN Shearer spent 1,100 hours on the football pitch playing for Southampton, Blackburn, Newcastle and England. Gary Lineker logged more than 625 hours for Leicester, Everton, Barcelona, Tottenham, England, and Nagoya Grampus.

Shearer played 88.27% of his 767 games from start to finish and Lineker 79.73% of his 444. Between them they were on the field for the equivalent of more than 246 days of Test cricket.

Lineker and Shearer were supremely athletic specimens of the human form: lean, strong, fast and apparently preternaturally equipped to manifest themselves like apparitions at the precise moment a goal needed scoring. Shearer netted 391 for club and country, including a record 260 in the English Premier League. Lineker struck 238 times. Some of football’s biggest clubs paid them millions to do just that. They cost a combined USD30,800,000 in transfer fees alone.

But, had they been South African cricketers, even of a calibre similar to what they were as footballers, they likely wouldn’t have played a single match for the national side despite their ability as ace goal poachers. Because, until a few days ago, CSA wouldn’t have budged from their rigid attitude to fitness. And there was no way Shearer or Lineker would have run two kilometres in less than eight minutes and 30 seconds — the test South Africa’s male cricketers had to pass to be eligible for selection.

“I hated pre-season with a passion,” Shearer said on August 7 on a trailer for a new podcast, The Rest is Football. “It actually used to spoil the last week of my holiday. I just couldn’t run, and everyone used to think I was taking the piss and being lazy. I was 30 or 40 yards back from the group. You used to get the fit guys who used to sprint past you and laugh at you, and I used to shout, ‘Get the fucking ball off us, then let’s see how good you are.’”

Lineker, Shearer’s co-podcaster, empathised: “I was exactly the same. I couldn’t run long distance.” Lineker told the story of being tasked to run, in training, two laps of “a couple of miles” with Spurs’ squad: “On the first lap I was already behind everyone else. I hid behind a bush, and when [the rest of the players] went past me I jumped out and joined them. And I was still last.”

Lizelle Lee and Dané van Niekerk know how Shearer and Lineker felt. Lee retired from international cricket in July last year after missing fitness targets. Van Niekerk wasn’t considered for the T20 World Cup, which was played in South Africa in February, because she failed to run two kilometres in nine minutes and 30 seconds — CSA’s requirement for women. Van Niekerk ended her international career in March.

Lee and Van Niekerk were as central to South Africa’s teams as Shearer and Lineker were to theirs. Lee is second only to Mignon du Preez among her country’s all-time run-scorers in ODIs and first in T20Is, where Van Niekerk is second. Shabnim Ismail, Marizanne Kapp and Van Niekerk are, in that order, South Africa’s leading wicket-takers in ODIs as well as T20Is.

The South Africans reached this year’s T20 World Cup final — the first senior team of any gender from their country to make it to a World Cup decider — where they went down to Australia. What difference might the presence of Lee and Van Niekerk have made to their chances of winning?

What damage might be done to the South Africa’s ODI World Cup campaign in India in October and November should the fitness rule be applied to Sisanda Magala, who is his team’s leading bowler in the format this year in terms of wickets and average but has had trouble running his two kilometres fast enough to satisfy the suits?

These questions might have informed CSA’s decision, which reached the press’ ears at the weekend, to change their approach. In future players who fail fitness tests could, at the coach’s behest, still be selected for South Africa — although the document announcing the change said CSA would “strongly recommend” they “should not take the field in an official match”. A similar approach applies in other countries. South Africa’s catching up in this regard chimes with another change enacted during Enoch Nkwe’s tenure as CSA’s director of cricket: giving coaches, rather than selection panels, the responsibility for picking squads and XIs.

The upshot was that “coaches must take ownership of their teams”, Andrew Breetzke, the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, told Cricbuzz. That, Breetzke said, was part of a newfound maturity about the cricket industry’s frailties in South Africa: “Of course players have a responsibility to be fit, but you can’t nail players for fitness if the systems aren’t good enough. Either you’re policy-driven or value-driven. I’d say this is a more value-driven system.”

CSA provides much of their provinces’ funding, including for the provision of fitness experts. But, too often, the cash-strapped provinces spend as little as they can by appointing junior staff — who do not have the skill and experience, nor the players’ respect, to enforce a regime that will produce more physically honed cricketers. So they don’t, and the bad habits are entrenched by the time players reach international level — where some of them suffer a rude awakening. As one administrator said, “Unless you change the culture below it’s always going to be an issue.”

That fitness isn’t an issue in countries where domestic structures are better resourced proves the point. Players arrive at the top tier in fine fettle, and stay that way because being in the best shape possible has long been an entrenched part of their game.

Rob Walter was South Africa’s men’s strength and conditioning specialist from 2009 to 2013 and their white-ball head coach from January. Did he see the question from a fitness or a coaching perspective?

“It’s the oldest cliché in the book, but it’s about following the process,” Walter told a press conference on Monday. “For me it’s a process of getting guys fitter and up to standard. I have an obsession with getting better, so I expect everyone in the team to look to get better. It’s our job, as the support staff, to support them in that endeavour.”

Magala is an interesting example. “Sisanda has been electric for us on the park recently and we want to acknowledge those performances,” Walter said. “But we also want to acknowledge that our endeavour is to get better, fitter and stronger because that gives us a better chance of performing. Our job is to provide the platform for the players to improve.”

The argument is that Magala would be an even better bowler, and less susceptible to injury, if he lost weight. The counter is that none of South Africa’s other, slimmer, seamers are bowling as well as he is. Magala was also successful in the inaugural edition of the SA20 in January and February, when only four bowlers took more wickets than his 14 in a dozen games. How did the SA20 feel about fitness?

“It’s not something the league got involved in,” Graeme Smith, the tournament’s commissioner, told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday. “We come up with the regulations that the teams operate within. Fitness requirements we leave to the teams and their professionals to manage.”

Smith was Nkwe’s predecessor as CSA director of cricket. The old rules predated Smith’s appointment in December 2019 but had not been comprehensively enforced. That raised questions over fairness: some players who might have fallen foul of the conditioning police did not. Others did. Consistency was required. That understandable ambition lost its way, through the involvement of elements at CSA that went beyond Smith’s ambit, into adherence rigorous enough to deny defaulting players places in teams.

Lineker never knew how that felt. Hiding behind a bush when he should have been running with his teammates earned him a summons to manager Terry Venables’ office and a dressing down. But he wasn’t benched. Because he, like Shearer, was hired to score goals. Not run. That’s what midfielders do.

Cricket’s version of that logic has landed in South Africa, albeit too late for Lee and Van Niekerk. But not for Magala, and those who will come after him for as long as the domestic game can’t keep up with international standards.

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Suits go where team needs to tread

“After the trauma we went through it was in all our interests to align and reset. Cricket is all of our livelihoods.” – Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s chief executive, on the improved relationship between players and administrators.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

ENOCH Nkwe’s WhatsApp profile picture is a stylised eight-ball, as used in the game of pool. To be “behind the eight-ball” is to be under pressure. Does Nkwe consider himself behind the eight-ball?

“I never looked at it that way,” Nkwe told Cricbuzz. “It’s just that eight was my number as a player; I liked the icon. But I like that idea.” As CSA’s director of cricket Nkwe is indeed under pressure. The buck for so much that happens in the game in South Africa stops with him, although he knows the public doesn’t see things that way: “Some people think I’m director of Proteas.”

That would be the men’s national team, who were hammered by an innings in the Boxing Day Test and in two days at the Gabba last month, which followed a meltdown at the T20 World Cup in Australia, lost ODI and T20 series in India, and twice being beaten in three days in England.

However unfairly, whatever any other team or individual in South African cricket might accomplish, how the men’s side fares is a barometer for the state of the game. When they lose, especially in the abject way they have gone in recent months, Nkwe isn’t alone in suddenly seeing the eight-ball up close and personal.

The skewed focus isn’t only about sentiment, misogyny and misplaced patriotism. The broadcast rights fees attracted by South Africa’s men’s team represent 53% of the revenue CSA earned in 2022, according to the organisation’s annual report. Maybe the money, as it does in other major cricket-playing countries, follows all that sentiment, misogyny and misplaced patriotism.

What’s not in doubt is that CSA need money. The inaugural edition of the SA20, which starts next Tuesday, is expected to clear around USD16.2-million in profit. CSA are 50% shareholders in the tournament, so their slice of the windfall would go a long way to erasing the USD11.65-million loss they declared in November. But that won’t take the game out of the red, especially with earnings having dwindled in other areas.

CSA were paid the equivalent of USD2.95-million in sponsorship revenue in the 2021-22 financial year, USD1.53-million less than the previous year. The downward trend started in December 2019, when title sponsors Standard Bank announced they would end their relationship with CSA — which had lasted 21 years and was reportedly worth USD27.3-million over four years at the time — in April 2020 because of, the bank said then, “a culmination of long-standing problems which have damaged Standard Bank’s reputation”. CSA have yet to replace them.

Under Chris Nenzani and Thabang Moroe, CSA’s president and chief executive, cricket in South Africa lurched from one governance crisis to the next. They, along with the board then in office, are no longer around and the game is exponentially better off without them. A new board, chaired by Lawson Naidoo, has been in office since June 2020. Pholetsi Moseki, who served as acting chief executive from December 2020, was appointed to the position permanently in March. In June, Nkwe succeeded Graeme Smith, who became the SA20 commissioner in July.

The flood of negativity about cricket’s administration in South Africa that had dominated the media for years has slowed to a trickle, the crazier confines of social media aside. Whether CSA have repaired the trust they broke is difficult to know, and the pandemic, which dealt South Africa’s already struggling economy and crumbling infrastructure serious blows, has hampered attempts to secure new corporate partnerships. But could it be that, after so much chaos, something like cohesion has been established?

Like other cricketminded South Africans, Dean Elgar will hope that is the case. Unlike most of his compatriots, his opinion is informed. “For the first time in a couple of years it’s at its most stable,” he said during the first press conference of South Africa’s Australian tour. “We’ve had a lot of changes with regards to administrators in CSA. As players, those things can’t hinder us from performing. We’ve almost gotten used to those kinds of bad headlines. But for now it’s stabilising quite nicely.

“We’ve got a new CEO, we’ve had a new board come in and make good cricketing decisions, and we have a new director of cricket who’s really focusing hard on our Proteas brand. Those are things we can’t focus on. It’s totally out of our control as players. We need to do what we can do to try and get results on the board. That’s our currency as players.”

Nkwe believes a board engagement with the players before they left for England in July “was a turning point” in narrowing the rift: “That was needed to try and bring CSA and the players closer together, and create a platform where everybody can have a voice; in particular so the board can listen to the players’ frustrations to see how we build a better relationship.”

Nkwe serves as a bridge between the players and other elements of the game, and he likes what he has been seeing: “I’m excited about the new, better relationship between the players, CSA, SACA [the South African Cricketers’ Association], all of us. We all care about the game; we all want cricket to succeed in South Africa. Yes, we might have had different perspectives. But that engagement went a long way, for the players and the board. How do we re-align, how do we support you, how do the players try to understand what’s been happening?”

Speaking to Cricbuzz, Moseki concurred and also gave SACA credit: “It’s definitely better but there’s still a lot of work to be done. Players and administrators will always have their issues but all parties are trying to improve relations. After the trauma we went through it was in all our interests to align and reset. Cricket is all of our livelihoods.”

Even so, the distrust sown by the recklessness of their previous administration remains a hurdle to be cleared. “Standard Bank’s sponsorship ended during that meltdown, and for two years after that it was difficult to get people to even want to speak to CSA,” Moseki said. “That has really changed, especially after the new board was appointed and the changes to the memorandum of incorporation and the new governance structures. Since June last year we’ve been speaking to far more people. A lot of them have been keen to engage with us, even our current sponsors. The mood has definitely changed but it’s still a work in progress. It’s far more positive than it was 18 months ago, when I don’t think anyone wanted to speak to us.”

Andrew Breetzke, SACA’s chief executive, offered a similarly hopeful view: “The relationship between CSA and SACA and the players has improved significantly in the past 18 months, coming from total breakdown. But it’s imperative that we keep open lines of communication and synergy on issues that affect players careers.”

That doesn’t always happen. There is unhappiness at slow and inadequate dissemination of crucial information to players and the press alike. For instance, CSA bungled the explanation for Ryan Rickelton’s omission from the Test squad in Australia. Rickelton has chosen to keep playing for his province despite carrying an ankle injury that requires surgery. CSA say — or should have said — that they can’t pick a player who might break down on tour.

The public invariably take the players’ side. Given what they know about CSA, that’s hardly surprising. If the suits don’t do their jobs, the players are left to twist in the wind. But the converse applies. Keep losing Tests in two or three days and bombing out of tournaments and potential sponsors will be reluctant to seal the deal. Nobody wants their logo on damaged goods.

“We want to give the team as much support as possible, but they’ve got to understand certain challenges,” Nkwe said. “If teams, coaches and players don’t really understand the outside world that you’re operating in, you’re going to struggle. Have 10% of understanding but have 90% of knowing that the organisation is behind you with a high level of support and alignment.”

How far were CSA from putting signatures on the dotted lines of contracts to fill empty spaces on playing shirts? “We’re hoping to sign someone before the end of this season so we can start the next financial year [in May] with a sponsor,” Moseki said. “The South African economy has changed drastically over the last two or three years, and the biggest challenge we’re facing is that the values have drastically dropped. Research says they will start going up again but there’s a big difference in what we were getting from Standard Bank compared to the offers we are getting locally now.

“We don’t want to dilute the value of our product. So we decided to broaden the parties we speak to, not just to South African companies. We see ourselves as a global presence: the Proteas play outside the country for half the year, so we felt it was good to also look at companies that operate in major cricket-playing countries.”

Did that mean South Africans should ready themselves for, say, the Cycle Pure Agarbatti Proteas? “We won’t be going that route anymore,” Moseki said, and made his point using the example of South Africa’s rugby union team: “The Springboks are the Springboks. They’re not the [mobile phone service providers] MTN Springboks. Whoever we sign will have their names on the front of the playing shirt, but we won’t name the team after them.”

Rugby, which also suffers from administrative problems, doesn’t struggle to attract sponsors — not least because the Springboks have won the World Cup three times. The Proteas, infamously fragile under pressure, have yet to reach a final.

That could change this year. Should South Africa win the Sydney Test, which starts on Wednesday, as well as both matches against West Indies at home in February and March, Elgar’s team could stay in the running for a place in the WTC final at the Oval in June. On current form, that seems unlikely: they have lost four consecutive Tests. If they don’t make the final, the relevance of teams like South Africa in a Test arena increasingly bent to the will and wealth of India, England and Australia will diminish all but unnoticed. If the South Africans do make it to the Oval in June, they will be more difficult to ignore.

South Africa’s suits have done their bit to make that happen. It’s up to the players to bring their end of the bargain. They need to see past the eight-ball.

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Push comes to shove for South Africa

“I wanted to see us give the Aussies a tough time and taking pride in our wickets. The way it unfolded is disappointing.” – Dean Elgar

Telford Vice / Cape Town

TAKE a breath. Step back. Go for a walk. Think about something else. Because it’s been this bad before. Worse, in fact, although at the moment it won’t feel that way. For now, as Dean Elgar said in Melbourne on Thursday, “You have to keep reminding the guys that they’re not crap cricketers.”

He’s right, and he might want to tell all cricketminded South Africans the same thing. But the truth to be countenanced is that Elgar and his team haven’t been good enough — neither in the last two Tests of their series in England in August and September nor in their first two in Australia in the past 13 days.

South Africa have lost all four of those matches, usually because their batting has been brittle. They have gone down in as many or more consecutive Tests 10 times in the past, most recently from February to October in 2019 when they lost two at home to Sri Lanka and three in India. Since readmission it’s also happened in 2001/02 and in 2005/06, when South Africa lost five Tests on the bounce. Both times their opponents were Australia, who have also inflicted — or been part of — two of the South Africans’ other lengthy losing streaks.

That’s why this hurts more than 2019. Being beaten at home by the Lankans was a shock, but it could reasonably be explained as what happens when determined opponents are given conditions that cushion their weaknesses — the matches were staged on the comparatively slower surfaces of Kingsmead and St George’s Park — and are thus able to punch above their weight. When the Lankans returned in December 2020 they were blown away by an innings and 10 wickets on the pacy pitches of Centurion and the Wanderers. Losing in India in 2019 was no surprise: South Africa have won only five of 19 Tests and one of seven series there.

Besides, South Africa always feel being beaten by Australia, home or away, more than they do defeats by any other side. Even England can’t do to them, emotionally, what the Aussies can. Like competitive siblings, South Africans measure themselves against Australians.

It’s a tendency caught up in cultural connections and contrasts, and in the fact that many South Africans of means have escaped their nation’s many problems by moving to Australia. Seen through some South Africans’ eyes, Australia is a functioning, successful version of what their failing country might have been. To others, it’s where rich racists go to continue being racist. Particularly to Western Australia, where there is a ready market for South Africans’ mining expertise. The first Afrikaans church in Perth was founded in 2004. There are now three congregations of the same persuasion in Perth and surrounds and another in Brisbane.

Some of those congregants will have cheered South Africa to victory in Australia in three consecutive rubbers from 2008/09. The last time they would have had to put up with a series defeat was in January 2006. That will only add to the weight of this result, as will the meekness of South Africa’s capitulation.

“I made peace with it last night,” Elgar said after the Australians had taken 62.5 overs to reel in the nine wickets they needed to dismiss South Africa for 204 and win by an innings and 182 runs before what would have been tea on the fourth day at the MCG. “Whether it was today or tomorrow it was always going to be a tough pill to swallow.

“The negatives outweigh the positives. It was a weak performance in conditions that were in favour of good Test cricket. We’re disappointed about how things ended up. I wanted to see us give the Aussies a tough time and taking pride in our wickets. The way it unfolded is disappointing.”

Elgar puts plenty of store in the virtues of courage and character. How much did he see from a team who have been bowled out for fewer than 200 in seven of their last eight innings while conceding more than 400 and 500 in two of those matches?

“I don’t think there has been a lot of it. There’s been more with the ball. Even though the Aussies batted us into the ground [in declaring at 575/8] I saw a lot of character come out in our bowlers, not as much in our batting.”

South Africa have five days to regroup and reset before the third Test starts at the SCG on Wednesday. What would normally be a dead rubber has been lent relevance by the visitors needing to win it as well as both of their Tests at home against West Indies in February and March to stay in the running for a place in the WTC final at the Oval in June.

What message will Elgar deploy to scrape his players off the canvas? “It’s going to be about positive affirmation. You can hit as many balls as you want, it’s not going to change you. The game is 80% in the mind and 20% skill.”

He could also point out that, with South Africa scheduled to play just 28 Tests in the next four-year cycle, this is the best chance some of them will get to feature in the global showpiece. But anything Elgar might say to his charges is undermined by, in the current set-up, South Africa’s players featuring in only seven domestic first-class matches a season. Australia’s six state teams play a double round of Sheffield Shield matches and the top two in the table contest a final. How do you compete when you’re on the wrong end of that kind of imbalance? But Elgar had reason to hope change was on the way: “I know it is in the plans that potentially we have more first-class cricket back home.”

Elgar declined to elaborate, but Andrew Breetzke, the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, told Cricbuzz: “At the SACA annual meeting [on November 30] players passed a resolution for SACA to undertake a review of domestic cricket. Players have concerns related to various aspects of domestic cricket — playing opportunities, facilities, etcetera. This will commence in January. A key issue that has already been raised is that players are not playing enough first-class cricket.”

Asked to interpret what Elgar had said, CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki offered: “I think he meant having a relook at our first-class structure, including increasing the number of games that the teams are playing. It is something we’re working on for the upcoming season.”

Australia’s XI in the MCG Test have played, collectively, 32 domestic first-class matches this year. South Africa’s have been involved in 21 — more than third less than their opponents. The Aussie side also have more Test caps between them for 2022; 114 versus South Africa’s 82. That’s a difference of more than 25%.

It’s in Test cricket, rather than in the dwindling domestic game with its deteriorating standards, that Elgar feels South Africa’s players will get the best education. Even if that entails enduring heavy defeats. “Our players need to be exposed to this level,” he said. “We are learning in the most ruthless and brutal way. There’s more learning to be taken out of this than beating a team of similar strength. I’d love our guys to be exposed to more of this so they can be fast-tracked in the international arena. But I’m not an admin guy, I’m a cricket player. I can only ask for what is right for cricket in South Africa. The rest is up to the guys who make the decisions.”

In 2012, the year he made his Test debut at the WACA, Elgar played eight first-class matches. That included the Perth Test and four games for South Africa A. He played 17 first-class games in 2013. Four were for South Africa A, another four for his franchise, the Knights, and three for Somerset. In his six years as a first-class player before he cracked the nod in the Test side, Elgar played 15, 14, 12 — twice — eight and seven games in whites.

Seven, the least, is also the most provincial matches South African players have in a season to prepare themselves to take on the finest teams in the game. Something’s got to give. Maybe it has.

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Where have all the Tests gone?

“The ICC are not acting as custodians of the game. There are power brokers there who are more powerful than the ICC.” – Andrew Breetzke, SACA chief executive, on cricket’s coming crisis.

Telford Vice / Lord’s

IF you’ve watched what’s happened at Lord’s these past three days you would be forgiven for thinking Test cricket is in rude health. South Africa played with confidence and conviction beyond expectation, and reaped the rewards by inflicting England’s only innings defeat at home in almost seven years.

The home side’s fans will hope a team went into the match having reeled off four emphatic victories batting second this summer have not been derailed merely by having to take guard first against a quality pace attack.

Three days into the series, the narrative is already rich with plot and subplot. Onto Old Trafford and the Oval for the next gripping chapters, and many more after that. Except, for the South Africans, that will not be the case.

According to the FTP released by the ICC this week, England will play 43 Tests from 2023 to 2027. South Africa? Not quite two-thirds as many: 28. The South Africans will contest 15 series, but only two of them will consist of three Tests. The rest will be two-match affairs. Just three of England’s 15 rubbers will be restricted to two Tests. Of the other dozen, four will be of five matches each.

“I just know we’re playing 28 Tests in five years, which … I guess we could be playing more,” Dean Elgar said at a press conference on Friday after his team’s rousing victory. “It’s a sad thing but so be it. I can’t say too much about that because I might get into trouble.” During a later question that was laced with the premise that South Africa should play more Tests, he interjected with, “A lot more.”

Elgar’s team arrived in England on top of the World Test Championship standings, and have now extended their lead and increased their chances of being invited back to Lord’s in June next year to play in the final. They are in danger of being the best in a business they are being systematically shut out of — partly at the behest of their own board, who are in creasing need of funds to keep the cricket industry afloat.

CSA need to clear their January calendars to accommodate their new T20 franchise tournament, which is due to start next year. But January is also prime time for international cricket in the country. Something will have to give, and its the national team’s fixture list. Already CSA have withdrawn them from an ODI series in Australia, forfeiting World Cup Super League points in the process and risking their direct qualification for the 2023 World Cup.

On commentary during lunch on Sunday, Graeme Smith — the new league’s commissioner — defended the venture and the decision to pull out of the Australian tour: “For four weeks of an entire year the priority will be the league. If we hadn’t done this South African cricket could have probably lost eight to 10 players to the UAE league [which is set to run simultaneously]. So there has to be an element of investment into our game to keep our players.”

Years of maladministration, a dwindling wider economy and the effects of the pandemic on global markets had created a perfect storm that had driven cricket in South Africa to the edge of a financial abyss. If another revenue source isn’t secured, the game could be hit by irreparable damage.

“The pressure on nations like New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa to stay financially sustainable to keep up with England, India and the world game is hugely important,” Smith said. “World cricket can’t afford South Africa or any one of the top nations to start fading away [in terms of] the standard of the game and the investment into the game.”

Andrew Breetzke, the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), shared Smith’s concerns and called on the ICC to address what he saw as a looming calamity. “With fewer Tests being played and more two-match series Test cricket is being diluted,” Breetzke told reporters during an impromptu lunchtime visit to the Lord’s pressbox.

“FICA [the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations] and SACA have been saying for the last five years that the ICC should be taking ownership of this by looking out for how we balance bilateral and international cricket with domestic T20 events. If they don’t do that we’re going to see Test cricket diminished among the non-Big Three [comprised of India, England and Australia]. We’re exactly there, and that’s disappointing.”

Why were the ICC not tackling the issue? “It’s not in their interests. The ICC are not acting as the custodians of the game. There are power brokers there who are more powerful than the ICC. That’s our reality.”

The ICC’s central weakness is that they are a member-led organisation. If some of those members are exponentially more wealthy than the rest they become bigger than the game itself — which could suffer in numerous ways. For instance, the BCCI is good for cricket in that it makes the largest single chunk of its money. But that’s also bad for the game because it means all the other countries have to dance to the juggernaut’s tune, sometimes at their own expense.

For instance, in March, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen, Anrich Nortjé, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram chose to play in the IPL rather than in a Test series against Bangladesh. “Our guys not playing Test matches to go to the IPL is a reality check of the pressure South African cricket is under,” Breetzke said.

“If you’re not playing India enough your broadcast revenue is down,” Breetzke said. “Sponsor revenue is down because the team are not playing enough but also because of the last five years at CSA [administratively]. No-one wants to get involved in our cricket. That’s the sad reality. So there’s a lot of work to be done by CSA — which, to give them credit, they’re doing — to enhance CSA’s reputation so that they can attract sponsors. That’s more critical than ever.”

What were the chances of those efforts succeeding? “The market has changed post-Covid,” Breetzke said. “You’re not getting big sponsorships anywhere. [South African] rugby have the same challenge and rugby are highly successful [having won three World Cups]. So now we’re seeing more shorter, smaller, specific sponsorship deals. That’s where CSA have got to up their game and be a lot more on the ball.

“If you want to get somewhere to where there’s a positive approach to what the game should be, then big countries like Australia and England have to say the status quo isn’t in the interests of the game. But it’s not as if Australia and England don’t have challenges, especially Australia. As long as everyone else is under pressure, you just chase the money. What’s in the best interests of the game is definitely not only what’s in the best interests of India.”

So, through gritted teeth, Breetzke voiced SACA’s support for CSA’s T20 league: “It’s critical for the survival of CSA. We’ve got three sources of revenue in CSA — broadcast revenue, sponsorship, and ICC revenue. Two of those are reducing. We need to find a fourth source of revenue, and that is a T20 tournament.”

But South Africa’s presence as a Test team will shrink as a consequence. So there was meaning beyond Elgar’s words when he said: “You need to play every Test like it’s your last game.”

Because, he didn’t say, it might be your last game.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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South Africa’s suddenly serious series

“I’m comfortable where I sit with the players who aren’t here.” – Dean Elgar on South Africa’s IPL absentees.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

DEAN Elgar joked in December that South Africa’s players didn’t know who their administrators were, a comment on cricket’s chronic instability in the country. Now he might have to admit to something similar about the attack he will take into the Test series against Bangladesh.

The defection to the IPL of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortjé, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen takes 82 Test caps out of the mix. It also removes some of the game’s finest quicks from the equation. For instance, no-one has taken more Test wickets this year than the 23 claimed by Rabada, Jansen and Pat Cummins. Add the omission of Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram, who are also IPL-bound, and the excised experience grows to 128 caps.

Suddenly, Duanne Olivier and Lutho Sipamla are South Africa’s senior fast bowlers. Also in the squad are Lizaad Williams, Glenton Stuurman and Daryn Dupavillon, as well as Ryan Rickelton and Khaya Zondo. Olivier, Sipamla and Stuurman have played 17 Tests between them. Dupavillon, Williams, Rickelton and Zondo are uncapped.

Elgar is in the same sorry situation as the head chef at a top class restaurant who arrives in the kitchen to discover their best knives have been stolen and their sous and pastry chefs have eloped. Except that he has known for weeks that this might happen, and had his fears confirmed before the squad was announced on March 17.

“A lot of events have happened since my last interview around this very topic,” Elgar told a press conference on Monday, with reference to the impassioned plea he made on March 4 for his players to choose country over cash. “I’m comfortable where I sit with the players who aren’t here. I’ve had some really good, in detail chats with those players just to find out where they are mentally. I’m very comfortable with the answers that they’ve given me.

“Be that as it may, they’re not here with us and we have to make do with our next best that we have in the country, who I’m still very confident in. Yes, we’ve lost a few Test caps along the way not having the IPL players with us, but it’s a great opportunity for those guys to stand up and put those other players under pressure. I’m confident they can do that.”

Elgar’s tone was significantly more subdued compared to the passion he showed almost four weeks ago, when he said “we’ll see where [the players’] loyalty lies” and implored them not to “forget that Test and one-day cricket got them into the IPL, not the other way around”.

Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s acting chief executive, expressed surprise at the time that Elgar had told the press the players had been saddled with the choice of going to the IPL or staying on for the Test series. Had Elgar been told to rein himself in?

“I’m pretty confined with regards to what I can and can’t say,” Elgar said on Monday. “The players were put in a bit of a situation with regards to making themselves available. I’m sure they wouldn’t have made a rash decision if it didn’t mean a hell of a lot to them. I’ve had conversations with the players and I know where they stand with regards to the Test side and playing Test cricket. I think they were put in a situation that was unavoidable, bearing in mind that quite a few of the guys have never had IPL experience before. I don’t think they wanted to hurt their opportunity going forward in the competition.”

It was a strange comment considering, of the six absentees, only Van der Dussen has not been to the IPL before; albeit Markram has played only six games in the tournament and Jansen just two. But there is something to be said for players’ not creating doubt over their availability in the minds of IPL franchise owners. The amount of money they could earn in a single edition of cricket’s moneyed monster could change their lives in a way that dutifully turning out for the national team, year in and year out, cannot match.

That alone decides the debate about the choice they made, but damaging misinformation about how they came to be lumped with that decision has muddied the discussion at public level. It is true that, with regard to being given permission to feature in the IPL rather than for South Africa if dates clash, the IPL is the only franchise tournament specified in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between CSA and the South African Cricketers’ Association. It is not true that the MOU guarantees players clearance to go to the IPL ahead of being picked for South Africa. CSA retain the right to refuse to issue any player an NOC, or no objection certificate, for any tournament including the IPL. But CSA can hardly afford to do so in the case of cricket’s biggest payday. That could prompt retirements from the international game — the savvy thing to do, financially speaking. So compromises are made.

On the plus side for Elgar, South Africa will welcome back Keegan Petersen, the leading runscorer in the home series against India in December and January who missed the tour to New Zealand in January and February after contracting Covid. Petersen’s grit will be important in a team who consider recovering some of the prestige lost in the home side’s shock loss to the Bangladeshis in the one-day series as part of their mission. That’s the case even though Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne and Keshav Maharaj are the only members of the ODI squad who will be in the Test dressing room.

“I think what happened in the ODI series has hurt quite a lot of players,” Elgar said. “I wasn’t involved but I’m pretty hurt about the result. I’d like to think that’s fuelled us. Our hunger is going to be right up there.”

But Elgar recognised that the visitors, who lost all 19 of the completed matches they played against South Africa in South Africa before this tour, were a significantly improved team: “We know this Bangladesh side is not the one of old. They’re a new team with a westernised coaching staff who have changed their mindset with regards to how to play cricket in South Africa.” Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach from August 2013 to August 2017, heads a Bangladesh coaching cohort that includes compatriot Allan Donald and Australians Jamie Siddons and Shane McDermott.

Given the slant of the one-day series, in which the home side conceded they were outplayed in all departments despite the fact that the matches were staged in Centurion and at the Wanderers — venues where conditions are overtly South African, and so distinctly un-Asian — did Elgar look forward to the Tests unspooling more slowly at Kingsmead and St George’s Park?

He seemed irked by the suggestion: “Not really. I still think our best Test cricket is played on the Highveld. I’ve got no say over scheduling and venues. Hopefully in the future that can change, but I’d still be extremely happy to play against these guys on the Highveld. I don’t think we’ve got any fear about that. We play our best brand of cricket in that area.

“But even though we’re playing in conditions that are lower and slower, we can adapt. I’ll play them anywhere. I’ve played against mighty cricket nations on really tough surfaces on the Highveld, and we’ve had a lot of success out of that. I’m not too fazed about us playing on slower or quicker wickets. I just think we need to nail down our basics again. That doesn’t change from venue to venue.”

It doesn’t, but South Africa’s failure to launch at two of their fortresses and Bangladesh’s stellar performance must prompt a rethink. The visitors’ Test squad includes seven of their ODI heroes, notably Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed and Mehidy Hasan. And it should sharpen the home side’s focus that the series will be played at the same grounds where Sri Lanka won 2-0 in February 2019 — the only Test series victory by an Asian side in South Africa.

Will Kingsmead, where the rubber starts on Thursday, again prove itself as reasonable a facsimile of a subcontinental pitch as can be found on the sharp tip of Africa? “We want more grass on the pitch, and I think the preparation has been pretty good until now,” Elgar said. “I’m not too familiar with what they’ve done, but it seems like grass has grown a little bit here at Kingsmead. I think it helps if you put water on the pitch because that tends to make grass grow.”

Yes, that was another of Elgar’s jokes. No, he wasn’t laughing. There is too much at stake for that.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Money talks, players listen

“If a player goes to the IPL [instead of being in the national team] it doesn’t mean they think less of the country or they are less patriotic.” – Pholetsi Moseki, CSA chief executive

Telford Vice | Cape Town

IF you were able to be close enough to the Bangladesh squad as they prepare for their ODI series against South Africa that starts in Centurion on Friday, you might hear something surprising: Afrikaans.

That would be the natural mode of communication between Allan Donald, the visitors’ fast bowling coach, and Albie Morkel, their power hitting coach. Head coach Russell Domingo’s first language is English, but as a son of Gqeberha he wouldn’t struggle to understand what Donald and Morkel are gaaning aan — going on — about.

The South African connection to the Bangladeshis is in fact stronger than that: they spent time in the nets with Gary Kirsten this week. Asked what his work with the players entailed, Kirsten said he was “helping them prepare and plan for South African conditions and what they can expect”.

The relationship between Domingo and Kirsten goes back to the latter’s playing career, when the former spent time with South Africa’s squad as part of a development coaching initiative. The pair hit it off well enough for Domingo, who became the Warriors coach in 2005, to hire Kirsten as a consultant for the franchise — the first step on his way to becoming a World Cup-winning coach with India in 2011. When Kirsten was appointed South Africa’s coach in June 2011 he named Domingo as his assistant. Domingo succeeded Kirsten in May 2013, and remained in the job until August 2017. Bangladesh unveiled Domingo as their coach in August 2019.

The Bangladesh backroom is a veritable United Nations of cricket. Team director Khaled Mahmud is home grown, but alongside the three South Africans are Sri Lanka great Rangana Herath, as the spin bowling coach, a couple of Australians — batting coach Jamie Siddons and fielding coach Shane McDermott — and strength and conditioning expert Nick Lee, an Englishman. The Tigers have previously employed Julian Calefato, a South African-Italian physio, and Srini Chandrasekaran, an Indian analyst. They have since been replaced by Bayzidul Islam and Nasir Ahmed, Bangladeshis both.

All this internationalism will hit hard with cricketminded South Africans, who are braced for the absence of familiar and trusted faces in the Test series that will follow the ODIs. Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen are all in the white-ball squad and would have been shoe-ins for the Tests. But they are also attached to IPL franchises, along with Anrich Nortjé, who is out of the ODIs with a hip injury.

Asked by Dean Elgar in a heartfelt press conference on March 4 to put country ahead of cash and stay on for the Tests, which will be played from March 31 to April 11, instead of joining their IPL sides, who will be in action from March 26, indications are that those players will choose instead to go to India. While CSA’s agreement to release their players for the IPL is unchanged, the expanded and lengthened tournament has encroached beyond its original window. As cricket’s most lucrative endeavour, the IPL has the financial muscle to call the shots regardless of any other commitments the players might have.

“The many leagues around the world have complicated the bilateral programmes of a lot of countries,” Pholetsi Moseki, who will be CSA’s chief executive from April 1, told a press conference on Wednesday. “Currently, according to our memorandum of understanding with the South African Cricketers’ Association, the IPL is the only league globally that we can’t refuse players going to. As CSA, we support that. The amount of money players make at the IPL is good for their post-cricket careers and livelihoods. It’s a delicate balance. The players take playing for the country very seriously. So if a player goes to the IPL [instead of turning out for the national team] it doesn’t mean they think less of the country or they are less patriotic.”

South Africa’s supporters will struggle to accept that. Why, they will ask, are CSA failing to hang onto some of the national team’s best players while Afrikaans is being spoken in Bangladesh’s dressing room? There is no neat answer to the question. This is about earning potential as much as it’s about South Africa producing more playing and coaching talent than it can reasonably absorb at the highest level. It’s also about ambitious teams like Bangladesh feeling the need to look for expertise further afield in order to keep abreast of world trends.

Cricketers are, after all, professionals. Which teams they play for and coach matters about as much as which language they speak. What matters most is what talks the loudest: money.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Moseki appointment new dawn for CSA

“I won’t be chased by lawyers before my term ends, as has been the case with a few of my predecessors.” – Pholetsi Moseki, CSA chief executive

Telford Vice | Cape Town

WHAT will be 1,646 days of uncertainty, anxiety and suspicion that has damaged South African cricket in ways known and unknown are set to start ending on April 1, and that’s no joke. Instead, it’s a punchline: CSA’s announcement on Wednesday that Pholetsi Moseki will, from the beginning of next month, be the organisation’s chief executive for the next five years is an important signal that the game has reopened for business.

“The journey ahead is going to be challenging and tough, but I work with a bunch of dedicated people,” Moseki told a press conference. “This is a calling for them, not a job. I do hope that in five years’ time there’ll be a farewell party for me that’s attended by everyone. I won’t be chased by lawyers before my term ends, as has been the case with a few of my predecessors.”

That was a nod to South African cricket’s serial bouts of bad leadership. The most recent and worst of them started on September 28, 2017 — 1,646 days before April 1 this year — when Thabang Moroe took over as chief executive in an acting capacity in the wake of Haroon Lorgat’s sudden departure.

Moroe was appointed permanently in July 2018. By the time he was suspended in December 2019 — he was fired in August 2020 — cricket in South Africa had been dragged to the brink of ruin. Sponsors had walked away in disgust, the suits’ relationship with the players had dwindled to sniping between opposing lawyers, and critical journalists had been targetted for retributive action. Most importantly, the public had lost belief in CSA’s ability to run the game.

Moseki knew reconstructing those bridges would be his top priority: “Breaking trust is very easy but building it takes a very long time. There have been numerous challenges that resulted in a lot of our stakeholders losing faith and trust in the organisation. We know it won’t be easy. Me being confirmed as the chief executive doesn’t necessarily mean there’ll be trust in the system. It’s going to be something we need to work on. We want to walk that path so that people can see we’re not just talking it.”

The pilgrimage to propriety and prosperity was also uppermost for CSA chair Lawson Naidoo, who said: “It’s often said that it’s the journey that teaches us a lot about the destination we’re headed for. In the case of CSA we’re on the journey of fixing cricket from the ground up, and of making progress in bringing about renewal and growth in the sport. The path to the destination has been clearly signposted now, as we move forward to ensure that cricket becomes an inclusive game of winners that can make all South Africans proud.

“A key component of this is ensuring that the foundation is built strongly and permeates the entire organisation, that we have the right leadership in place — who have the passion, courage and vision to implement the change that is necessary.”

The most urgent matter on the new chief executive’s diary is surely to sign major sponsors. That is unlikely to happen until CSA resolves the slew of key positions that are currently filled in an acting capacity. The most important of them has now been settled. What will being in the role formally do for Moseki?

“The major change would be the level of certainty,” he said. “Being an acting incumbent can be challenging. So having that level of certainty is important. But everything else remains the same because the challenges are the same, and I am aware of that.

“The company couldn’t advertise executive vacancies until the chief executive’s position was filled. CSA has been operating with two-thirds of its executive committee either having been suspended or dismissed over the last 18 months or so. But we hope to go to the market in a day or two to open that process.”

As things stand, CSA do not have a permanent chief financial officer, chief commercial officer, head of pathways, or head of media and communications, and the human resources manager’s position is vacant. Naidoo said an “open, competitive process” would be followed to remedy the situation.

CSA’s lifeblood connection with the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), which ended up in the courts under Moroe, is a pressing matter because the current memorandum of understanding between the organisations expires at the end of April. Moseki said negotiations towards a new agreement had started in November: “The engagements have been going very well. Some sections have already been agreed on, and we hope to finalise it within the next few months.”

Helping the board find a new director of cricket is likely to be on Moseki’s agenda soon. It is an increasingly open secret that Graeme Smith will not seek a renewal of his contract when it expires at the end of this month.

Moseki, a chartered accountant with a corporate background, came to CSA in June 2019 as chief financial officer. He became acting chief executive — the third since Moroe was suspended — in December last year, which is why his old job is now filled by an acting incumbent.

The position was first advertised in August, but CSA told parliament in February that attempt had failed to secure a suitable candidate and that another was underway. Naidoo said the board had settled on Moseki after a “comprehensive, robust process”. Why the board kept looking past him is now moot, but it is pertinent that, except for dramatic but necessary coverage of the Social Justice and Nation Building project, he has managed to keep cricket off the front pages. For his next trick, he needs to earn CSA prominent and positive space in the business section.

But he may want to keep a lawyer or two in his contact book. Of the four administrators who have served in his position permanently, only one — Ali Bacher, the managing director from 1991 to 2000 of what was then the United Cricket Board — left amicably. Bacher’s successor, Gerald Majola, was fired for his role in the 2009 IPL undeclared bonuses scandal, and Lorgat was pushed out by the faction loyal to Moroe, whose tenure came to its own sticky end. Along the way, four others have acted in the role — one of them, Jacques Faul, twice.

So if, five years from now, Moseki is still CSA’s chief executive, if obstacles aren’t being put in the game’s way in a plot to get rid of him, if cricket knows where its next paycheque is coming from, if the players are content, if the game stays mostly on the back pages, and if the cricketminded public don’t boo him when they see him, there will indeed be cause for celebration. Bring on that party.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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The Quinton de Kock crisis: how did we get here?

“I would like to see the players have a uniform approach to taking the knee. But I’m not going to instruct a player to take a knee.” – Andrew Breetzke, SACA chief executive

Telford Vice | Cape Town

QUINTON de Kock’s refusal to play in South Africa’s T20 World Cup game against West Indies in Dubai on Tuesday in defiance of a CSA instruction has put the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) in crisis mode. As the players’ trade union, SACA represent De Kock. But they also speak for all the other players, who duly took a knee on the outfield in accordance with a CSA directive that was decided on at a board meeting on Monday night and communicated to the squad five hours before the start of Tuesday’s match. For reasons he has yet to articulate, De Kock pulled out of the match rather than kneel.

Coincidentally on Wednesday, SACA chief executive Andrew Breetzke testified at the Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings into allegations of racism in the game in the country during the past 30 years. He was asked about the De Kock affair, and said: “The disappointment of where we stand now is that this issue probably should have been dealt with a while ago, and not by the board at an ICC event where it’s front-of-house and is a crisis, which we have to manage.

“Some players have not taken the knee since June. It should have been dealt with then and we wouldn’t have a crisis now. From a SACA perspective I would like to see the players have a uniform approach to taking the knee. But I’m not going to instruct a player to take a knee, on the same basis. I’m hoping we can have a good solution to this and the work that’s currently being done, that I’m involved in.”

The issue has been brewing since November last year, when the players said in a statement they were “exploring the significance of taking the knee and a raised fist” in explaining why they would not kneel in an imminent home T20I series against England. In December, a CSA release quoted then interim board chair Zak Yacoob as having “expressed concern about the implications of this statement”.

Since their tour to the Caribbean in June, South Africa’s players have given themselves the options of taking a knee, raising a fist while standing, or standing to attention. That has fuelled the impression of rifts along racial lines in the side: all of the black and brown players have knelt while all of the players who have remained standing have been white. Rassie van der Dussen and Kyle Verreynne have been the kneeling exceptions among the white players.

That is a regression from Centurion on July 18 last year, when all involved in the 3TC game knelt. Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, Anrich Nortjé, Aiden Markram and Van der Dussen were among those players and are part of the T20 World Cup squad. Only Van der Dussen has continued to take a knee.

It seems push finally came to shove for CSA on Monday. Asked by public intellectual Eusebius McKaiser during a podcast aired on website TimesLIVE on Wednesday what value the gesture had if recalcitrant players were compelled to perform it, CSA board chair Lawson Naidoo said: “Voluntarism would have been the ideal situation. That’s why we allowed the players the time and the space to try and come to that conclusion themselves. They were unable to do so, and therefore it was necessary for the board to make this intervention.

“It is not an ideal situation. But it was a tough decision that needed to be taken and one that the board unanimously agreed to. The symbolism is much stronger if it’s done voluntarily, but we’re in a situation where visual images carry a lot of weight globally and on social media and the like. The visual images we saw on Saturday [when South Africa played Australia in Abu Dhabi, where the three options were still in effect] reverberated around South Africa as well and came in for significant criticism because they portrayed a team that was not united as one.”

That prompted the board to act, albeit without the squad’s buy-in. “We didn’t consult with the team,” Naidoo said. “There were reports that the team had continued discussing this matter and were unable to arrive at a consensus position that they could all agree to. The issue was raised by some directors on the board. What I did then, having just arrived back from the UAE [where he attended Saturday’s match], was to consult urgently with all of the directors.

“I spoke to each of the directors of the board at some length [on Monday night] to discuss the issue of what they felt was an appropriate response. It was unanimously agreed that, given that the team were unable to resolve the issue internally, this was the moment for the board to intervene and to issue the directive that was ultimately agreed upon and which was communicated to the senior management early [on Tuesday] morning.”

Whatever the wisdom of the board’s move, and its timing, it will be left to people like Breetzke to douse the resultant fire. Employers make all sorts of demands of employees that, if challenged in court, could be declared unlawful. We’re a long way from that point, but we’re also past the stage where the saga could be discussed amicably between the suits and the players.

That, Breetzke implied, was a pity: “This Proteas team has probably had more culture and diversity engagement than any other Proteas team. Specifically under the leadership of Temba Bavuma and Dean Elgar, they have had the hard conversations. I’m aware of that; I’ve had that engagement with them around diversity in the team and the players’ understanding of BLM [Black Lives Matter] and taking the knee, and the players’ understanding of what it means to be in a team with diverse cultures and races.”

Bavuma is in the same boat as Breetzke. It was left to him to explain De Kock’s decision at a press conference after Tuesday’s match. That his team had beaten the Windies handsomely to stay ahead of the curve in the tournament was all but ignored in the deluge of questions on matters that had been taken out of his hands.

“I feel sorry for Temba Bavuma, because he has done incredibly good work in managing that team culture around diversity,” Breetzke said. “His press conference was excellent in terms of dealing with the issue. I would be critical of CSA because this isn’t a new thing. It’s been around a while. I don’t think it should have come up at the World Cup.”

All the while predominantly white teams from other countries have shown no objection to adopting the globally recognised gesture of support for the fight against racism. That a side from a place that has spent centuries beleaguered by colour-coded oppression, which continues to play out in every aspect of their society, should have to be forced by an order from above to be seen to join that fight in the most superficial way is an indictment of their lack of honesty and willingness to confront the black, brown and white elephant in the room.

It was all too much for De Kock, who put his knees where his mouth is. Or will be once — or even if — he enlightens us about his decision. He can afford that choice. As a special player who has been able to realise his potential because he was born the right colour in a country that still puts whiteness on so many pedestals, his path to cricket’s biggest stages has not been blocked. He could thus follow AB de Villiers and run away to join the travelling T20 circus. But at what cost to his country, his team and his own psyche?

It’s not the first time South Africans have been undone by their misplaced sense of exceptionalism and it won’t be the last. But it could be the first time one of their own would seem to consider himself more special than all the rest.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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CSA board raises bat on 100 days

“For the first time in three years the board is doing the right work, asking the right questions, and trying to find the right solutions.” – Andrew Breetzke, SACA chief executive

Telford Vice | Cape Town

CRICKET in South Africa was saved from itself on June 22 this year, when a majority independent board took control of CSA for the first time. That ended almost 30 years of corrupting cronyism enabled by powerful administrators being left to police themselves. Hopes were raised that the new suits would at least try to do right by a game that had become chronically dysfunctional under the flawed former governance model.

A release to celebrate the moment said: “The board agreed to focus their first 100 days in office on bringing stability to the organisation and embarking on an engagement programme to gain input from stakeholders as it seeks to align everyone towards a shared vision for the future.” Thursday is the 100th of those days. Has the board delivered on their promise?

“The answer is complex,” was how Andrew Breetzke, the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) — thus the voice of the players — began his reply. Too complex for other major stakeholders to tackle, it seems.

Government helped broker cricket’s brighter dawn by pressuring the previous board — an ill-equipped clutch of, mostly, small-minded people with big ideas centered on themselves — to resign. And by allowing CSA to ignore the objections of its reform efforts that came from the even more rapacious fat cats in the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, which has authority over federations. What did sports minister Nathi Mthethwa think of the board’s first 100 days? Comment was requested, more than once, from his office. No response was received.

What of the fans? Ask two cricketminded South Africans for their views and you will likely get three divergent opinions. Instead Cricbuzz asked the Gwijo Squad, the all-singing, all-dancing supporters’ group who have brought traditional Xhosa and struggle songs to the country’s cricket grounds and rugby stadiums in rousing fashion since Siya Kolisi — South Africa’s only black rugby captain — led the Springboks for the first time in June 2018.

The Squad’s chair, Chulumanco Macingwane, said he had consulted within the organisation, “and it was agreed that it’s probably not our place to be opining in any way about the administration of any sports federation. Though individuals may have their own views on the CSA board’s performance, we can’t present those as representatives of the collective.” Fair enough. Fans are interested in the game itself, not in the dreary doings of administrators. So back to the players.

“The board has succeeded in bringing about some stability in the game, I give them that,” Breetzke said. “The board committees are all now functional; they hadn’t been for 12 months [previously], which was very worrying.

“For the first time in three years I can say that the board have done good work in getting the organisation moving forward and doing the right work, asking the right questions, and trying to find the right solutions.

“They have engaged with us fully on these issues, and it’s wonderful to sit in a meeting and give your input and have debates and discussions. There’s a positive vibe that is very important, and I have to give the board credit that that has happened.”

Considering SACA had a septic relationship with the old order — they had to drag CSA to court for the players to be paid some of what they were owed from the 2018 Mzansi Super League, for instance — Breetzke’s words rang with the promise of progress.

But there is a ghost in the freshly oiled machine. It haunts cricket with truth as well as untruth and has produced, along with invaluable insights into the experiences of those hurt and wronged by cricket’s troubled past, evidence that the game’s capture by nefarious figures has not been undone. The ghost has a name: the Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) project.

A source with close knowledge of the SJN said: “There could have been a different process that could have been very useful for our game — around transformation and why it isn’t working. But how much of the testimony was actually part of carrying on the game’s internal faction fight and people taking positions, and how much was about dealing with real issues of hardcore racism and transformation that we need to deal with in cricket? I’d say less than 50%.” The fact they source didn’t feel comfortable putting their name to such constructive criticism is an alarm to all who hope the SJN directs cricket onto a more honest footing with all who are part of it.

The hearings, which started on July 5, have dominated cricket’s headlines, drowning out the success of the national men’s team in Ireland and Sri Lanka, and the women’s side in the Caribbean. Who’s to say that shouldn’t happen? Eradicating racism has to be more important than winning matches. But it has to be done with integrity, and not in accordance with a spiteful agenda that undermines those who come to the SJN with legitimate grievances. The convicted fixers who have tried to hijack the hearings with their self-serving conspiracy theories are cases in point.

The board inherited the SJN from their predecessors, and would be forgiven for feeling ambushed by what has transpired. That chairperson Lawson Naidoo said, on July 5, that CSA would not comment while the hearings were ongoing in order to “protect the independence, autonomy and integrity of this process” has not stopped recklessly premature demands for the board to take decisive action against some of those implicated. Many of these calls seem to have been triggered by pre-existing prejudice, which will detract from reasons to take them seriously.

Some have already switched off. “There’s so much noise around so many issues at the SJN that a lot of people are distancing themselves from the game,” a source said. “It’s not that they’re no longer supporters, but they’re not engaging with cricket.”

The SJN hearings are set to resume on October 18, this time with testimony from those accused of wrongdoing. Five days later South Africa will play their first game in the men’s T20 World Cup. Against Australia, no less. This doesn’t get easier, and it shouldn’t: there’s too much at stake to look away now.

A hundred days from Thursday is January 8 next year. By then, we’ll know who won the T20 World Cup and, Covid-19 permitting, we’ll be able to ponder what happened in South Africa’s home Test series against India. But we won’t have rid cricket of racism, nor of cynical bandwagon jumpers. Sadly, that will take many more days.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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SACA to sponsors: sorry about the suits

“We apologise for the actions of our administrators who have undermined and betrayed your commitment to the sport.” – a SACA statement signed by Dané van Niekerk, Temba Bavuma and Dean Elgar.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

CRICKET’S reputation in South Africa plumbed new depths of fear and loathing on Monday when the players apologised to the sponsors for the performance of the administrators, whom they accused of having “undermined” and “betrayed” the game’s financial backers. That came a day after government promised to take action in the face of CSA breaking its word by refusing to ratify a revised constitution that would allow for a majority independent board.

Nathi Mthethwa, South Africa’s sports minister, is poised to withdraw CSA’s funding and its privilege of calling its teams national representatives, which he is empowered to do by law. In a release on Sunday government said it had been “left … with no further option” in the wake of CSA’s highest authority, at a meeting on Saturday, reneging on its April 10 agreement to adopt a new memorandum of incorporation that guarantees more independent directors than those burdened — and possibly compromised — by vested interests.

In a release on Monday the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) said: “As players we wish to speak directly to the many sponsors of our beloved game … [and] … recognise and acknowledge that your involvement in the game supports our careers and provides funding for the development of the game throughout South Africa. We apologise for the actions of our administrators who have undermined and betrayed your commitment to the sport.” SACA damned the decision taken on Saturday as having been made in “bad faith” and said it was “disrespectful not only to [Mthethwa’s] office, but to all cricketers and the public”. The statement was signed by SACA president Khaya Zondo and all of the national captains: Dané van Niekerk, Temba Bavuma and Dean Elgar.

Should Mthethwa exercise his authority CSA could complain about interference to the ICC, which could suspend the country’s teams from international competition. Either way South Africa seem set to be banished from cricket’s most important arena.

“Government intervention in the sport will have dire consequences, the full extent of which we do not yet know,” SACA’s release said. “These outcomes will in turn impact touring, broadcast rights and sponsorship deals. Ultimately the financial viability of the game will suffer and cricket at all levels will be severely prejudiced.”

CSA has been procrastinating about improving its upper structures since 2012. Currently most of the seats on its board are reserved for administrators who also sit on its highest authority, the members council, which is made up of the presidents of its 14 provincial affiliates and associates. That means the suits are free to police themselves, which has led to serious lapses of governance. In 2012 an investigation into bonuses paid to CSA in recognition of its successful staging of the 2009 Indian Premier League lost their way through the books. The discovery of that catastrophe prompted the Nicholson investigation, which recommended a majority independent board. CSA agreed to follow that advice but has since found ways to weasel out of their commitment.

“The members council has now acted contrary to the wishes of the minister, the Nicholson recommendations, King IV governance principles, and international best practice — how can this be in the best interests of our game?” SACA’s release railed. It implored the public to “continue to support cricket. It is the most wonderful game, and we are immensely proud to represent you on the field.”

SACA’s stance is perhaps the strongest taken since September 2017, when CSA appointed Thabang Moroe as chief executive in an acting capacity — the crack of the starting pistol for South African cricket’s race to the bottom.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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