Western Province – Bulletproof Truth

Lions v WP still intense despite Tests, T20, and bungling suits

“If we can find a way to win under the circumstances we face at Western Province it will slowly creep into the admin side. We’ve managed to get a title sponsor now, and that’s on the back of a lot of strong performances from us as players.” – Kyle Verreynne

Telford Vice / Cape Town

THE last time a men’s team based at Newlands won South Africa’s senior first-class competition, the captain who will lead Western Province in the final this week wasn’t old enough to legally drink, vote, or drive a car.

How long ago was it? Far enough in the past that the competition had a title sponsor, a privilege it hasn’t enjoyed for the past six seasons. Eleven of the 22 players in the deciding match, in Bloemfontein, where the Cobras beat the Knights by 10 wickets, have since retired from serious cricket.

It was February 2013, when Kyle Verreynne was 15. Now 26, he will captain WP against the Lions at the Wanderers from Wednesday in a final that has been scheduled for five days. Unusually for this competition the game will be broadcast live on television, albeit to SuperSport’s limited audience. Also unusual is that the match is a final — only once in the past 18 seasons, in 2020/21, have the league standings not decided the champions.

Verreynne plans to break the trophy drought for a team who have won 34 of the various versions of South Africa’s senior first-class title — considering all sides of the racial divide during apartheid — and shared four. The Lions, formerly Transvaal, then Gauteng, have been champions 29 times, most recently in 2019/20, and joint-winners five times.

Inevitably the match will be cast as a clash of cultures as well as cricket; the uptight north versus the laidback south, Joburg’s can-do attitude against Cape Town’s creativity. There’s more fiction than fact to that, not least because the Lions’ squad harbours Zubayr Hamza and Bjorn Fortuin — who are from the Cape — and that Tony de Zorzi and Nandré Burger — Gautengers both — will be in WP’s dressingroom.

But it is true that during South Africa’s apartheid-induced isolation from the international arena, from 1970 to 1991, games between teams representing the white Transvaal and WP structures assumed the trappings of the Tests those players could no longer play. Apartheid barred black and brown cricketers from playing for South Africa for far longer than their white counterparts were shut out, but the Transvaal-WP rivalry was also strong in those quarters during the 1950s and 60s. Although WP subsequently became too strong for all their opponents, Eastern Province ran them close in the 1980s.

Had South Africa’s return to the international fold taken the edge off the fixture, especially as Test cricket is supposed to deliver a higher quality of cricket? Verreynne balked at that assertion during a press conference on Tuesday: “I wouldn’t say there’s a reduction in standard. Maybe the intensity is lower and the pressure is less than in international cricket. But from our team alone there are probably eight guys who could play international cricket and I’m sure it’s the same for them.” Verreynne is one of the dozen players among the 28 in both squads who have earned Test caps.

Dominic Hendricks, Verreynne’s Lions counterpart, didn’t think too much had changed: “During the four-day competition this year it was a hotly contested game in which we came out victors. Last season at the Wanderers it was a very close game that went down to the last session on the last day. It’s always been a highly competitive fixture.” The Lions won by 106 runs in November and by 28 runs in Johannesburg in February and March last year.

Even the rise of T20, Hendricks said, hadn’t dulled his and his players’ desire to claim the first-class title: “A lot of attention has shifted to the SA20 because of the influence the IPL owners have had on our game, and also how T20 cricket has taken over the world in terms of the leagues. Unfortunately it’s come at a cost because we don’t get as many four-day games as we used to. But this is the one competition we want to win, and we’ve spoken about wanting to win since we last won it. So we put a high price on this competition because it is the most difficult one to win. You have to be so consistent over the course of seven or eight games.”

If there are contending cricket philosophies in Johannesburg and Cape Town, they are more easily seen off the field. Under Jono Leaf-Wright, the Lions chief executive since October 2018, Gauteng have become one of the most successful provinces in a business sense. The Wanderers has been a drive-in cinema and the pressbox has been used as a space for lectures, for example.

Cricket there faces similar financial pressures as elsewhere in the country. But it has come up with solutions in a way that hasn’t happened at Newlands — where the disaster of the pitch prepared by a part-time curator for the Test against India last month, which hurtled to a finish in a world record 642 deliveries, is only the most glaring evidence of deep-rooted administrative problems.

“It’s been tough in the past but when Salieg [Nackerdien, WP’s coach] appointed me fulltime at the start of the season one of my biggest messages was that as the players and the management we’ve got to find ways to keep our circle small and make sure we focus on what we can control,” Verreynne said. “It’s easy to look outwards and say there are issues with whatever is going on outside of the players and management, but that’s an excuse. If you rock up to training every day and you focus on getting your work down there isn’t any excuse for not performing.

“At the start of the season we sat down as a squad and said we’re going to make sure that we focus on the cricket and make sure that the cricket stays the main thing. If we can find a way to win games and win trophies under the circumstances that we face at Western Province then it will not only help us grow but slowly creep into the admin side. We’ve managed to get a title sponsor now, and that’s on the back of a lot of strong performances from us as players.”

Verreynne’s team have indeed shown the suits the way. Hendricks and his men will do their best to make sure they don’t do so again over the next five days. Don’t expect anything less than the most intense of contests.

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Newlands pitch the tip of WP’s iceberg of problems

“It wasn’t great; both the cricket and the wicket.” – Shukri Conrad

Telford Vice / Newlands

TO gain a better understanding of what happened at Newlands on Wednesday and Thursday you need to look below the surface. Not at it. That said, much of the focus on the shortest of all the 2,522 men’s Tests yet played will indeed centre on the pitch — a 22-yard long lottery ticket offering no certainty except the impossibility of judging how high, or not, the next delivery would climb after bouncing.

The match was over five minutes short of an hour after lunch on the second day. So, in not quite four-and-a-half sessions. Or in seven overs longer than it would take an ODI to go the full distance. The game was put out of its misery in 642 deliveries, beating by 14 balls the MCG match between Australia and South Africa in February 1932 as the shortest Test. South Africa lost then, too. But by an innings. Not that they would consider their seven-wicket loss to India any less a hiding. If anything, this was even more of a thrashing. And of more than simply a cricket team.

Newlands, you might have noticed, is the darling ground of the game in this country. Visitors approach it from all parts of the game’s world with the kind of veneration others reserve for their first sight of the Taj Mahal. The mountain! The Oaks! The atmosphere! The lush greenery! The sunshine that seeps on into the evening hours! The sight, smell, sound, taste and feel of the African summer at its most voluptuous! The fairest pitch in all the land! Not.

“I don’t know what people want me to say — whether it was a rubbish wicket or not,” Shukri Conrad said. “But you only need to look at the scores, a one-and-a-half day Test match, and the way they chased a little target of 79.”

South Africa won the toss and were bowled out for 55, the lowest total recorded against India in their 574 Tests and the home side’s lowest in the 390 matches they have played since that game in Melbourne almost 92 years ago. In their reply of 153, India became the first Test team to lose their last six wickets for no runs. Fuelled by Aiden Markram’s 106, South Africa’s second innings — in which no-one else made more than a dozen runs — reached 176. Mohammed Siraj took 6/15 in the first innings and Jasprit Bumrah claimed 6/61 in the second.

“It’s a sad state when you need more luck than skill to survive in a Test match,” Conrad said. “All the ethics and values of Test cricket go out the window. This was just a slugfest, a slogathon. That’s taking nothing away from India; they were superb. But you ain’t going to win too many Test matches scoring 50-odd. You’ve got to own it, and we own it. It wasn’t great; both the cricket and the wicket.

“Often the surfaces you play on make you doubt your technique and how you approach the game. That’s where I felt the game was from the first couple of overs of the match. I was chatting to Rahul Dravid this morning, and … we want to get away from the phrase that there’s a ball with your name on it. But, on this pitch, we felt there was. That makes you play in a certain way, and that’s why we batted the way we did.

“I had so much pleasure in announcing Stubbo [Tristan Stubbs] was debuting, and then I apologised to him after the game for giving him a debut on a pitch like this. It’s not going to get any more difficult than this. When you go to the subcontinent, where it spins, you know what you’re in for. So you prepare accordingly. That’s all us as coaches and players want. This was nowhere near that.

“This has come as a shock to the system, but I’m not going to lay the blame entirely on the doorstep of our playing XI, or the make-up of our team or our tactics. It’s been a combination of a red-hot India who were desperate to come back [after losing the first Test by an innings in Centurion], and the conditions.

“We lose a lot of batsmanship because of T20 cricket. Batters like to feel bat on ball nowadays. I was chatting to Rahul Dravid this morning, and … we want to get away from the phrase that there’s a ball with your name on it. But, on this pitch, we felt there was. That makes you play in a certain way, and that’s why we batted the way we did.”

The pitch was the first Test surface prepared by curator Braam Mong. Some will say it should be last. Was Conrad among them? “I know Braam. He’s a good guy. Sometimes good guys do bad things. Or get things wrong. This doesn’t turn Braam into a rubbish groundsman, just like 55 all out doesn’t turn us into a rubbish cricket team — a few days ago we thrashed them.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of learnings for Braam. I’ll go across there at some stage and wish him well going forward, and see what his thoughts are. It’s easy to rubbish certain things, but you’ve got to feel for groundsmen. Just like cricketers and coaches, who have to take it on the chin, my message to Braam would be to take it on the chin and move forward.”

Might the message for Conrad be that he needs to take a greater say in the preparation of the surfaces South Africa play on at home? “I don’t want to be doctoring pitches. We’ve got young batters who need to learn their trade and find their way in international cricket. Playing on pitches like this doesn’t do that for them. I never have and never will prescribe to groundsmen, because they’ve also got jobs to do.”

Mong was a visible, hands-on presence throughout the match, and was hard at work for hours after Thursday’s early finish preparing the pitch for Newlands’ first game in the second edition of the SA20 on January 16. But, unlike most people in his profession, especially at iconic venues, he isn’t permanently attached to the ground. He owns a turf management company that has clients throughout Cape Town. Tending to Newlands is among his many duties.

This is not to cast aspersions on Mong or his ability. Instead, it tells us something about Newlands and the Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) that is supposed to run the ground in a manner befitting its status, real and imagined. Look around the place, especially where the television cameras don’t shine, and you will see peeling paint, weeds the size of small trees growing in cracks in the concrete, and waste bins fallen from their wall mounts. Food and drink options for spectators are limited, as are the chances of finding a clean seat to sit on. Seen through a screen, Newlands radiates beauty. Up close and in parts, it is shabby.

That’s hardly surprising given the factionalism that has fractured the WPCA along racial, religious and cultural lines. Couple that with the kind of exceptionalism that led West Indies cricket to believe the good times of the 1980s and 90s would never end, and it’s not difficult to see why the WPCA is failing as the custodian of the game in the province.

The board is being kept afloat by a bailout from CSA that will amount to more than a million dollars, which won’t go far in taking the edge off the monthly bill of USD134,000 the WPCA pay to service the debt created by major redevelopments at Newlands. The WPCA’s chief executive, Michael Canterbury, has been booked off since September with an undisclosed illness. In his place, as a consiglieri of sorts, CSA have parachuted in Corrie van Zyl, whose skill and integrity as an administrator was confirmed in October 2019 when he was suspended. The CSA of those awful days, when Van Zyl was acting director of cricket, was presided over by Chris Nenzani and run by Thabang Moroe; bad apples both. The deservedly respected Van Zyl arrived at Newlands a few short weeks ago with a brief to make sure the Test and the SA20 matches went off as smoothly as possible.

Nothing was smooth about the Test pitch. Was it the manifestation of Newlands’ and the WPCA’s many problems; a symptom of the systemic sepsis? Conrad, who was born in über-local Lansdowne and is as Cape Town as Capetonians get, who guided teams from here to senior national titles across the formats when he coached them from 2005/06 to 2009/10, a man of cricket from top to toe, is the perfect person of whom to ask that question.

“I think I’m best placed to talk about the cricket surface, but I’m certainly not best placed to chat about whatever else is going on here,” Conrad said. “I worked here many years ago, and I moved on. I’m not in a position to discuss the goings on between the walls here.”

Shukri Conrad does not often shoulder-arms to questions. He will have to forgive us for thinking the real answer to that one lurks below the surface.

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Titans triumph in tight title race

“This was the most competitive long-format series in the history of our domestic structure.” – Pholetsi Moseki, CSA acting chief executive

Telford Vice | Cape Town

HOW big is 7.42 points in a soup of hundreds? Big enough to decide the champions of South Africa’s 2021/22 first-class competition. The Titans topped the standings by that margin when the last round of fixtures ended on Monday.

But, as late as Sunday evening, they were in third place. The leaders were the Warriors, who were a sliver of 0.44 points ahead of the Lions, with the Titans a further 2.14 adrift. As CSA acting chief executive Pholetsi Moseki was quoted as saying in a release on Tuesday: “This was the most competitive long-format series in the history of our domestic structure, with the teams fighting till the very last day of the series for the title.”

What happened between Sunday evening and Monday afternoon? Essentially, the Titans beat the Lions in Centurion and the Knights and Warriors drew in Bloemfontein. But there was more to it than that.

The Titans took the Lions’ six remaining wickets for 143 runs and then knocked off their nominal target of 62 to win by seven wickets. Central to that drama was Simon Harmer, who bowled more than a third of the overs the Lions faced in the match and took 6/84 in the second innings to finish the game with 9/168. The off-spinner’s sizzling summer haul of 44 wickets at 19.29 made him the competition’s leading bowler.

Mitchell van Buuren’s 103 not out had steadied the Lions’ first innings of 270. The Titans replied with 482, an advantage of 212, with Theunis de Bruyn scoring 143 and seamer Codi Yusuf taking 5/91. Van Buuren was also the Lions’ lynchpin in the second innings, in which he made 107.

In the other key fixture, in Bloem, — and based on Sunday evening’s scenario — victory for the Warriors would have seen them secure the title regardless of results elsewhere. Draws in Centurion and Bloemfontein would also have made the Warriors champions. Had the Lions won and the Warriors not, the Lions would have finished on top. If the Titans and Lions drew and the Knights won, the Lions also would have triumphed.

Rain prevented any play in Bloem on Sunday, so the visitors went into all or nothing mode and declared on their overnight score, which left them 61 runs behind. They had reduced the Knights to 82/8 in their second innings — a lead of 143 — when hands were shaken on the draw. Medium pacer Mthiwekhaya Nabe took 4/26 to finish the match with 7/71.

Patrick Botha’s 123 had served the Knights well in their first innings of 227, in which left-arm fast bowler Tiaan van Vuuren claimed 4/46. The Warriors slipped to 67/3 inside 20 overs before Rudi Second and Diego Rosier scored half-centuries in an unbroken stand of 99 that took them to what turned out to be their declaration total.

As for the also rans in the first division, Western Province beat North West by an innings and 132 runs at Newlands, and Boland and the Dolphins drew in Paarl.

Medium pacer Delano Potgieter had WP captain Tony de Zorzi caught behind in the fourth over of the Cape Town match with a solitary run on the board. But 128 by De Zorzi’s opening partner, Jonathan Bird, and 153 by Daniel Smith helped the home side total 576 despite Potgieter taking 6/87. George Linde claimed 5/69 and Kyle Simmonds, also a left-arm spinner, 4/24 as North West slumped to 202 all out. They followed on 374 behind and were dismissed for 242. No. 4 Senuran Muthusamy was last out for 101.

In the winelands, Keegan Petersen made 123 and Andile Phehlukwayo 107, and fast bowler Achille Cloete and leg spinner Shaun von Berg shared six wickets, in the Dolphins’ first innings of 422. Pieter Malan’s undefeated 219 — which confirmed him as the season’s leading batter with 601 runs at 120.20 in seven innings — allowed Boland to declare at 422/8. Fast bowler Eathan Bosch and off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen took three wickets each.

Northern Cape finished on top of the second division by winning three of their six matches and losing one. The leaders in the promotion-relegation standings after the 2022/23 season will move up to the top tier at the expense of the bottom team in the first division. Currently, the Knights are that team.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Olivier goes onward and upward

Kolpak comeback has taken 28 wickets at 11.10 in four games.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

DUANNE Olivier bowled the Lions to their fourth consecutive first-class victory at the Wanderers on Sunday — and kept himself in contention for a place in South Africa’s squad for the Test series against India that is due to start next month, pandemic permitting.

Olivier claimed match figures of 8/66 in his team’s 10-wicket win over the Knights, which made the Lions the only side to win all of their matches this season. The Warriors needed less than two days to beat struggling Western Province by an innings and 114 runs at St George’s Park. North West and the Dolphins, and Boland and the Titans endured rain-plagued draws in Potchefstroom and Paarl. All four games were in division one, with none played in the second division.

Olivier took 5/53 and 3/13 in the Knights’ totals of 124 and 103, in which 13 of the 20 scores did not escape single figures. But with rain a constant threat bold captaincy was needed for the home side to make the most of that advantage, and Malusi Siboto — no slouch with the ball himself with his hauls of 3/28 and 4/17 — delivered the key decision by declaring with a lead of only 69 on the back of opener Joshua Richards’ 100 not out, Kagiso Rapulana’s 58, and their stand of 125. Having lost their last nine wickets for 57 runs in the first innings, the Knights saw eight tumble for 69 to leave the Lions a nominal target of 35. They knocked it off in 29 deliveries.

Having returned to the South African fold in the wake of the Kolpak era, Olivier is the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 28 at an average of 11.10. He played the most recent of his 10 Tests against Sri Lanka at St George’s Park in February 2019, and would seem set to add to that tally — especially as Lungi Ngidi last played a competitive match in July for reasons of selection, personal choice and his contraction of Covid-19.

The Warriors beat WP emphatically despite their decent but hardly dominant first innings of 366, which was built on captain, opener and wicketkeeper Matthew Breetzke’s 100 — his second century in three innings. The visitors must have thought they had tilted the balance in their favour when they took the last four Warriors wickets for 25 runs, but they suffered collapses of 9/49 and 8/123 and were rattled out for 79 and 173 in 28.3 and 43.4 overs. No WP batter reached 20 in the first innings and seven didn’t make it to 10. No. 8 Basheer Walters’ 47-ball 52 in the second dig was easily their best effort. Curiously, none of the Warriors’ bowlers took more than three wickets in either innings, but slow left-armer Tsepo Ndwandwa was the standout performer with 3/7 in 7.3 overs in WP’s first innings.

Marques Ackerman’s 123 — his first double-figure score in five innings in the competition this season — and half-centuries by Keegan Petersen, Bryce Parsons and Ruan de Swardt took the Dolphins to a declaration of 400/9 despite medium pacer Delano Potgieter’s 5/85. Opener Lesego Senokwane’s 91 was part of a second-wicket stand of 169 he shared with Shaylen Pillay, who made an undefeated 156 and put on 135 with Christopher Britz — who scored 60 not out — to ease North West to 313/2. But, with rain getting in the way and preventing any play on the third day, that was as far as the contest was allowed to unfold.

The weather took the last day out of the equation for the Titans, who were 170 ahead with seven second-innings wickets standing at stumps on the third day. Neil Brand made 111 and Gihahn Cloete 56 — and shared 108 — in the visitors’ first innings of 308, in which Zakhele Qwabe took 4/40. Opener Isma-eel Gafieldien was last out for 97 in Boland’s reply of 234. The most pertinent feature of the match in terms of the bigger picture was that Dean Elgar, who is set to lead South Africa against India next month, scored five in each innings.

The Lions top the log with 92 points, 61.62 ahead of WP, who have lost two games and drawn the other two. The Capetonians are in last place, below even North West — who are also winless but have been beaten three times. Only the Lions and the second-placed Warriors, who have three victories, have won more than one match.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Six strikes for Sipamla, Jansen, Magala

Lions, Knights bank big wins.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

A week after batters asserted their dominance in South Africa’s first-class scene, fast bowlers reclaimed superiority. And all in one match played on what is usually among the country’s slowest surfaces.

Khaya Zondo and Janneman Malan scored double centuries in the opening round of fixtures. A week on, Lutho Sipamla, Marco Jansen and Sisanda Magala each took six wickets in an innings in the Warriors’ Division 1 match against the Lions at St George’s Park.

Sipamla swung the wrecking ball first, claiming 6/34 in the Warriors’ total of 96. Having chosen to bat despite the green glint of the pitch, they were shot out in 49 overs in an innings in which seven players made fewer than the extras tally of five.

The Lions fared better in their reply of 170, but they should have made more considering Joshua Richards and Dominic Hendricks shared an opening stand of 73. Left-armer Jansen’s haul of 6/38 had much to do with the crash of 10/97 in just more than two hours.

The Warriors began their second dig 74 runs behind, but their hopes of at least making the visitors bat again plummeted when they shambled to 5/16 inside the first hour of that innings. Magala reaped 6/30 in a catastrophic total of 54 — sealing victory by an innings and 20 for the Lions. This time only one player made more than the 10 extras, and only just: Magala bowled Sinethemba Qeshile for 11.

Sipamla started the slide by dismissing Edward Moore in the fourth over. That was his only wicket of the innings, but he went for just five runs in four overs. Oddly, given the seamers’ success, Duanne Olivier couldn’t take more than 4/42 in the 29 overs he bowled in the match.

The Knights beat North West by 10 wickets in a Division 1 clash in Potchefstroom, where Pite van Biljon scored 127 and put on 234 with Patrick Kruger, who was marooned on 192 not out when Mbulelo Budaza was run out to end the visitors’ first innings with nine wickets down — Nealan van Heerden was absent injured — at 418. Budaza, a left-arm fast bowler, made amends by taking 4/64 in North West’s reply of 237, in which seamer Kruger claimed 3/12 from 4.2 overs.

The home side followed on, and were bowled out for 197 with fast bowler Gerald Coetzer capturing 4/47. The Knights took care of their target of 17 in the space of 13 balls.

Boland and Western Province drew in Paarl, with Malan coming back to earth with a bump: having made an undefeated 200 in his previous innings, he had his stumps nailed for a six-ball duck by fast bowler Mihlali Mpongwana — who took 5/39. Malan’s brother, opener Pieter Malan, scored 96. Opener Tony de Zorzi’s 129 and Zubayr Hamza’s 94 — and their second-wicket stand of 170 — helped WP reply with 444 in which Shaun von Berg, the leg spinner who took the new ball for Boland, claimed 5/119. There were 117 more runs, not out, for Pieter Malan in the home side’s second innings of 269/4. Malan and Isma-eel Gafieldien put on 113 for the first wicket.

Another draw unfolded in the Division 1 game between the Titans and the Dolphins in Centurion. Jordan Hermann’s 112 and half-centuries by Neil Brand, Jiveshan Pillay and Corbin Bosch took the Titans to a first innings of 424. Fast bowlers Daryn Dupavillon and Kerwin Mungroo took four wickets each. Sarel Erwee’s 163 and 50s by his opening partner, Bryce Parsons — they put on 164 — and Jason Smith helped the Dolphins reply with 433. Off-spinner Simon Harmer toiled for 35 overs for his 4/106. The home side were 126/1 in their second innings, thanks to half-centuries by openers Brand and Mokoena and their stand of 125, at stumps on Sunday. Monday’s play was washed out.

In Division 2, Northern Cape beat KwaZulu-Natal Inland by 130 runs in Kimberley, Easterns and Limpopo drew in Benoni, as did South Western Districts and Mpumalanga in Oudtshoorn, where the first day was lost to rain. Opener Ernest Kemm scored 121 in Northern Cape’s second innings, and off-spinner Aubrey Swanepoel took 6/42 in KZN Inland’s second dig. Musawenkosi Twala made 124 in Easterns’ first innings, while Thomas Hobson’s 102 bolstered Limpopo’s reply. Openers Yaseen Valli and Blayde Capell scored half-centuries in both innings for SWD. Matches involving Limpopo and Mpumalanga are not first-class.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Double tons for Zondo, Malan

Warriors, Lions, KZN Inland celebrate victory

Telford Vice | Cape Town

KHAYA Zondo has proven his point where it can never be taken away from him: on the field. In recent weeks his name has become code for being a victim of racial wrongdoing at the Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) hearings. On Saturday Zondo gave the game another reason to remember him by completing an undefeated 203 for the Dolphins in their division one match against Western Province at Newlands.

It was one of two double hundreds in the opening round of first-class fixtures, along with Janneman Malan’s 200 not out for Boland against the Knights in Bloemfontein.

On July 22, Zondo gave testimony at the SJN in which he alleged race-based skulduggery in his omission from South Africa’s XI for the deciding ODI of a series in India in October 2015. Zondo was picked to replace David Miller, who had scored 52 runs in four innings, three of them completed, in the rubber. But Zondo did not play.

South Africa’s then captain, AB de Villiers, insisted Miller be retained because of his experience. The selector on tour, Hussein Manack, acquiesced. So Zondo was removed from the side. He might have kept his place after JP Duminy was ruled out through injury, but that prompted the inclusion of Dean Elgar — who had arrived in India to play in the Test series that was to follow — as a left-handed batter who could bowl spin.

Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and De Villiers scored centuries in a total of 438/4. Miller came to the crease when Du Plessis retired hurt with cramp at the end of the 44th over. He made 22 not out off 12 balls. Elgar took guard with five balls left in the innings and scored five not out. He did not bowl in India’s collapse to 224 all out in 36 overs, sealing what remains South Africa’s only success in five bilateral ODI series in that country.

The episode struck a nerve in South Africa, where black and brown players wrote to CSA complaining of being sent on tour to make up the transformation numbers in the squad and not being given the game time they deserved. Zondo has since played five ODIs, all in 2018, but believes the affair has stunted his career.

“It feels like things are constantly being done and it all feels like it stems from 2015,” he told the SJN. “I can’t even get into the South Africa A side. How? They complain about not having black batsmen. I’m a black batsman who scored two centuries [last] season, but they can’t seem to involve me. No other black batsman scored a century this year. My question is, what is it about me that they have such a big issue?

“The performances are not enough. Maybe it’s because I’m not tall enough. There are all sorts of reasons that are put. Things keep being done, over and over and over. It’s almost like they want to say, when my career is over, ‘See he only played five games [for South Africa]; he was never good enough.’”

On Saturday, the second day of the Newlands match, he showed he remains good enough, scoring 174 of his runs in the 68.4 overs the Dolphins faced before declaring. Zondo scored his 13th first-class century in his 205th innings. He marked reaching his maiden double ton by taking a knee — another nod, it will be seen, to 2015 and all that.

Zondo’s feat was the 54th double century seen in senior first-class cricket in South Africa since the advent of the franchise era in 2004/05. The system was restructured before the start of the 2021/22 season, when 15 provincially affiliated teams replaced the six franchises. The 55th double century followed on Monday, courtesy of Malan.

The Dolphins declared their first innings closed at 489/8 on Saturday, and slow left-armer Bryce Parson took 5/82 to help dismiss WP 220 runs behind. The follow-on was enforced, and the home side were 190/7 when rain ended the match.

The Titans beat the Warriors by one wicket in a first division clash in Centurion, where fast bowler Glenton Stuurman took 5/34 in the home side’s first innings of 134. Opener Edward Moore scored 110 in the visitors’ reply of 258. Sibonelo Makhanya and Jordan Hermann shared a century stand in the Titans’ second dig of 359, which left the Warriors a target of 236. Lesiba Ngoepe and Marco Jansen scored half-centuries and No. 9 Tiaan van Vuuren hit 32 not out off 34 balls. Van Vuuren and No. 11 Mthiwekhaya Nabe posted a stand 24 for the last wicket to seal victory.

At the Wanderers, the Lions beat North West by an innings and 72 runs in another division one game. The visitors were bundled out for 159 with Duanne Olivier and Lutho Sipamla sharing seven wickets. Ryan Rickleton’s 159 anchored the Lions reply of 408. North West crashed to 177 all out in 43.4 overs in their second innings. This time Olivier and Malusi Siboto split seven wickets. Olivier claimed match figures of 7/109.

Also in the first division, the Knights and Boland drew in Bloemfontein in a match that was robbed of its entire first day by rain. Pite van Biljon’s 137 bolstered the home side’s first innings of 320. Malan was 139 not out overnight, but it seemed his sturdy batting might be in vain when Boland shambled to 230/7. Enter No. 9 Ferisco Adams to score 127 and put on 260 with the double centurion, which resulted in a declaration at 520/9. The Knights were 143/2 when hands were shaken on the draw.

In two second division matches, KwaZulu-Natal Inland beat Easterns by an innings and 109 runs in Pietermaritzburg and Limpopo and Border drew in Polokwane. Luke Schlemmer scored 153 in the home side’s first innings of 440/6 declared and Easterns were dismissed for 107 in reply. They followed on, and off-spinner Michael Erlank took 5/67 as they were dismissed for 224. In Polokwane, Marco Marais made 146 in Border’s first innings of 392. Left-arm wrist spinner Thomas Kaber took 6/75 in Limpopo’s reply of 192. Border declared at 190/3 to set Limpopo 391 to win. They were 377/8 when stumps were drawn. The latter match was not first-class because it involved Limpopo, who have not been awarded that status.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Different dreams on SA’s fields

“You’ve got to give players a sense of belief. There’s talent here, but it’s about how it’s nurtured.” – Paul Adams, Eastern Cape Iinyathi coach

Telford Vice | Cape Town

“GOOD morning uncle.” Even if you’re of the applicable demographic, it isn’t often you’re greeted so kindly by an official on arrival at a cricket ground. But, in the South African context, Boland Park in Paarl isn’t an ordinary ground.

It has ushers, for a start. They’re all young, all impeccably mannered, and all brown. And they offer warm hellos to visiting strangers, uncle-aged reporters included. This is no accident.

Unlike the country’s other international venues in residential areas, the ground is in the bosom of a district not dominated by whites. Consequently most of those who work there and watch cricket there could live as close as across the road. That’s not the case at other venues, where workers are invariably black or brown and crowds mostly white, and some of the realities of the most unequal society on earth are in your face, whatever colour it is.

Compared to Newlands and the Wanderers, Boland Park is squat and dusty and lacking in facilities. But what it does have is thoroughly utilised and dutifully maintained.

What it doesn’t have is the bilious pomposity that pervades the Cape Town’s concourses and the feral behaviour that stalks the stands in Johannesburg. Paarl’s ground is of its people and their place in the world, and that makes all the difference. Something like togetherness — to call it unity would be too optimistic — is apparent as you pass through the gates. It is a place of excellence — brown excellence, into the bargain — led by the union’s impressive chief executive, James Fortuin. It’s difficult not to believe good things are happening there. Might those good things cross the boundary this season?

If they do, Boland could reach hitherto unscaled heights. They weren’t a force on either side of the racial divide before unity, and thereafter finished in the bottom half of the standings more often than not and stone last four times. In the franchise era they were lumped into the Cobras, whose XIs were dominated by Western Province players.

The six franchises were unbundled before the start of this season, when 15 provincial teams split into divisions of eight and seven will play in the major competitions. Which province goes where was revealed in March by former ICC chief executive David Richardson, who led a four-person committee tasked by CSA with overseeing the bidding process.

“Boland have a tremendous fan base down in their region, especially among the coloured community,” Richardson said in explaining the decision to award the province first-division status. “They have a true love for cricket; there is a cricket culture in the region. They have a stadium of very good quality, and they are very ambitious when it comes to the development of that stadium. Their development pathways are excellent, and they’ve produced results. They have produced players who contribute to the franchise system and their provincial team has done well consistently over the last four years.”

All good. Now for the hard part: competing. We will start to find out whether Boland will do so on Monday, when they play their first match in the T20 knockout competition that began on Friday. The Bolanders will be up against Eastern Province (EP), who have clung to the title of the franchise they used to be part of, the Warriors. Boland will be known as the Rocks. And thereby hangs a tale.

Bjorn Fortuin, Henry Davids and Ferisco Adams were the only Boland-born players in the Paarl Rocks squad who won the 2019 Mzansi Super League (MSL) with the help of stars like Faf du Plessis and Tabraiz Shamsi. But the crowd took them to heart and, unsurprisingly, the atmosphere at the ground during the tournament outdid even the Highveld’s electrical thunderstorms. Add a successful home final against a Tshwane Spartans outfit that bristled with AB de Villiers and Morné Morkel, and the fairytale wrote itself. The Rocks coach was Adrian Birrell.

“On the back of [the 2019 MSL triumph], they offered me the job,” Birrell told Cricbuzz about his appointment to coach Boland this season. He spoke from Hampshire’s bus as it trundled homeward after Lancashire beat them by a solitary wicket at Aigburth in Liverpool to snuff out the southerners’ hopes of winning the county championship. Five days earlier Birrell’s team had gone down by two wickets to Somerset in the T20 semi-finals. “There’s a lot of pressure to win in England,” he said, adding that he was “exhausted” but also “excited” about the new shape of the game in South Africa.

“Six teams or 66 players [at the top level] is too few; eight teams is a good number,” Birrell said. One of the benefits should be to curb what he called “quite an exodus” of players from the country: “If you look at the associates, you see a hell of a lot of South Africans. Our excellent school system produces too many players for our game. I know this is only two more teams, but it will help.”

The lower levels of international cricket are littered with South Africans: Davy Jacobs in Canada, Gareth Berg in Italy, Roelof van der Merwe in the Netherlands, Dane Piedt in the US, Johann Potgieter in Scotland, and many more. Quotas always come into this conversation, but that is a red herring. Closer to the truth, as Birrell said, is that the engine — the country’s elite schools — produces too much horsepower for the machine it has been assigned to power: the professional game, which is small and impoverished.

Until this season, Boland were minnows even in that pond. Signing Birrell and marquee players like Stiaan van Zyl, Hardus Viljoen, Kyle Abbott and Janneman and Pieter Malan should change that. “The intention is to compete; we’re not there to make up the numbers,” Birrell said.

The opposite is true some 900 kilometres east of Paarl. “The evaluation committee has no doubt as to the potential of the Border cricket region, and its importance to the overall transformation imperative,” Richardson said in March. “Black Africans have played cricket for a long time. They know cricket, they love cricket. A successful Border region is imperative if cricket in South Africa is going to be sustainable in the long run. Unfortunately over the last few years they’ve had issues with governance and administration. Their finances are not strong and their cricket performances are not strong. They are a hotbed of talent and they have contributed players to the franchise system. But I don’t think they’ve fully exploited their potential yet.”

Border — who will be called the Eastern Cape Iinyathi, the isiXhosa word for buffalo — have been consigned to the second division. Former Cobras coach Paul Adams will lead their backroom staff. “It’s a new beginning to bring purpose to the team,” Adams told Cricbuzz. “You’ve got to give them a sense of belief. There’s talent here, but it’s about how it’s nurtured.”

Compared to the coolly confident Birrell, Adams’ tone was that of a firefighter who reckoned he could bring a damaging blaze under control.

The Rocks and the Iinyathi play each other in the T20 competition in Kimberley next Tuesday in what could be conjured as a clash of civilisations. Aside from assembling a prominent dressing room, in the past five weeks alone the Rocks have announced sponsorships from an online betting company, a manufacturer of canopies for pick-up trucks, and a jam-maker. The Iinyathi haven’t been heard from since May, when they unveiled Adams as coach.

Buffalo Park in East London, where Border are based, also isn’t ordinary in the South African context. For some, it is a lacklustre ground bookended by a cemetery and a ravine that swarms with lethal snakes, and where a constant howling wind makes lanyards ping against metal flagpoles unrelentingly. For others, particularly cricket’s black players and followers, it is the Mecca where Makhaya Ntini first sprang to national prominence. Thus it is, in its own way, a field of dreams.

Some will see irony in the fact that Birrell — who is steeped in the Eastern Cape, where he was born, raised and schooled and still farms when he isn’t coaching — has migrated across the country while Adams, every inch a Capetonian, has made the journey in the opposite direction. How did Adams end up there? “It’s about where the opportunities are; I must have had about seven interviews to land a role somewhere.”

Better there than at Gauteng, whose Lions were surprise casualties after the opening round of T20 fixtures. Unfancied South Western Districts lost to them but prevailed over Western Province (WP) and the Northern Cape Heat to top pool A. WP downed the Lions by two runs and three other games were decided in the final over. The Lions needed a super over to beat the Heat, who lost all three of their games — perhaps partly because they were clad in black in 30-degree, well, heat. Zubayr Hamza batted with panache for his 63-ball 106 in the opening match, and Hershell America — yes, really — claimed seven wickets at 10.57 in a dozen overs.

With CSA-branded stumps and a naked white rope for a boundary, the unsponsored tournament could be considered another of the suits’ failures. But that would be to disrespect the cricket it has delivered, which has been competitive and, usually, of a decent standard.

That’s the thing about dreams: they can come true on any field. All it takes, as Adams said, is belief.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Domestic bliss or bother in 2021/22

15 into nine? Where be Dragons? Will Boland be WP’s noisy neighbours?

Telford Vice | Cape Town

DON’T look now, cricketminded South Africans, but the domestic season is upon us. You weren’t planning on looking? More’s the pity. Because the summer of 2021/22 could spark the change the game in this country so desperately needs. Or not.

For the past 17 seasons South Africa’s major competitions have been contested by six franchise teams, which were cobbled together from the 11 provincial unions that had previously represented the highest domestic level. Cricket will go back to the future on Friday with a T20 knockout tournament that will involve 15 provincial teams and the national under-19 side.

This season’s first-class and one-day competitions will feature the 15 provincial sides — split into two divisions — while the resurrected Mzansi Super League (MSL) will be restricted to the eight teams in the top division: Boland, Eastern Province, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Coastal, North West, Northerns and Western Province (WP). The second division will comprise Border, Easterns, KZN Inland, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and South Western Districts (SWD). With the exceptions of Boland and North West, the top tier mirrors the bigger partners in the franchises that have been dissolved — things have, largely, stayed the same. And they will do for two seasons: the promotion and relegation component of the new structure won’t come into effect until after the 2023/24 campaign.

But, this being South Africa, it’s not as simple as that. For one thing, 11 of the 21 second-division four-day matches will not be recognised as first-class. These games involve Limpopo or Mpumalanga, who have each played only eight matches at that level and none since 2006/07. For another thing, the country has, in geopolitical terms, nine provinces. How do we get from nine provinces to 15 provincial teams? By cramming the provinces with more than one team. The Western Cape is home to WP, Boland and SWD; Gauteng to Gauteng, Northerns and Easterns; KZN to the Coastal and Inland sides, and the Eastern Cape to Eastern Province (EP) and Border. Only Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West — the least populated provinces — have one team each.

That’s not the end of the complications. Some of those sides have opted to keep the names of the franchises of which they used to be part. Gauteng will play as the Lions, Northerns as the Titans, KZN Coastal as the Dolphins, Free State as the Knights and EP as the Warriors.

Other teams have invented new monikers. Boland would prefer to be known as the Rocks, Border as the Iinyathi, Easterns as the Storm, KZN Inland as the Tuskers, Limpopo as the Impalas, Northern Cape as the Heat, North West as the Dragons, and Mpumalanga as the Rhinos.

Only SWD and WP will be dear old SWD and WP — the former because a competition that the provincial board ran in the community to come up with a snappy name didn’t yield the desired result, and the latter chiefly because the feeling at Newlands is that WP is a strong enough identity. Indeed, some among the suits believe the Cobras brand, which the union was part of, detracted from what is represented by WP.

It’s a decent argument, and it asks an important question: the public didn’t warm to the teams created for the franchise era, so why do some unions want to retain the mostly uneasy memory of entities that no longer exist? And why have most of the other unions dreamt up other fake names when cricket has proved to itself that loyalty cannot be conjured by marketing departments? Didn’t those guilty of both these blunders get the memo that the franchises failed, not least because they represented nothing and no-one beyond logos? Little wonder ever fewer cricketminded South Africans notice when the domestic season comes around.

Even so, some of the new branding makes sense. The Rocks echo the success that the Boland-based Paarl Rocks earned by winning the 2019 MSL; Iinyathi is the isiXhosa word for buffalo, a well-known emblem in the Border region; spectacular electrical storms are common in summer in Benoni, Easterns’ home; and it is indeed oppressively hot in Kimberley, where Northern Cape play.

But why not call yourself what you are, if only to avoid confusing your supporters? Those keeping tabs on KZN Inland, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West would be forgiven for skipping straight past reports and scorecards of matches played by the Tuskers, Impalas, Rhinos and Dragons. You could remedy the situation, but only by spending a lot of marketing money that smaller unions — and all of those immediately above are small — don’t have.

For all that, there is reason to be hopeful that cricket in South Africa is on the verge of an age of repair and improvement after years of neglect and damage. Weird names aside, the teams will represent real regions and their people. There will be more opportunities for players to catch the national selectors’ eyes, even if the focus stays firmly on the first division. More matches, in every format, will be broadcast on television, albeit not on the free-to-air service. Viewers will have the option of commentary in isiXhosa, the first language of many more South Africans — and therefore of many more South African cricketers — than those whose mother tongue is English or Afrikaans. Stand by, isiXhosa speakers, for the delight of the views of Makhaya Ntini, Mfuneko Ngam and Monde Zondeki unfiltered through English.

There will be concern that the changes haven’t been enough to retain the services of Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander, who were to have played for WP. Philander will be Pakistan’s bowling coach for the T20 World Cup while Amla, who played for Surrey this winter, hasn’t announced plans for the summer.

But there will also be keen interest in whether erstwhile minnows Boland become WP’s noisy neighbours under new coach Adrian Birrell, especially with Kolpak returnees Stiaan van Zyl, Hardus Viljoen and Kyle Abbott on their books and Janneman and Pieter Malan having signed on.

North West have done well to secure the services of Dwaine Pretorius and Heino Kuhn, and the spotlight will be on another Kolpak couple, Duanne Olivier and Simon Harmer, at Gauteng and Northerns.

No-one can say whether the restructure will have the desired outcome of a healthier domestic system and thus a stronger international set-up. But, for the first time in 18 seasons, cricket in South Africa will look itself in the eye and see who and what it really is. That is a precious commodity without which no real progress can be made. Without reality, dreams can’t come true.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Provinces: Who goes where

Boland boss James Fortuin thanks the fans for “playing what we feel was a big role in getting us first division status”.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

THE coinciding of the end of the franchise era and the scrapping of the Kolpak system will change the landscape of cricket in South Africa in 2021/22. Provincial teams, who last represented the top level of the game in the country in 2003/04, will be restored to that status and be staffed by more prominent players. And, when the squads were announced on Tuesday, it seemed Boland and Western Province had shopped more cannily than others.

Boland, which has long lived in neighbouring WP’s shadow, have acquired Kyle Abbott, Stiaan van Zyl, Pieter and Janneman Malan, Hardus Viljoen, Christiaan Jonker and Shaun von Berg. That should curb concerns that historically smaller provinces will struggle to compete in the top flight.

In a CSA release Boland chief executive James Fortuin was quoted as thanking the province’s supporters — who earned something like fame for their passionate backing of the Paarl Rocks in 2019 Mzansi Super League — for “playing what we feel was a big role in getting us this status”.

WP’s players include Vernon Philander, Hashim Amla, Wayne Parnell and Beuran Hendricks. Philander hasn’t played at any level since his retirement Test, against England at the Wanderers in January last year. Amla, who is currently an overseas professional with Surrey, last played in South Africa in a T20 for the Cobras — essentially WP by another name — in April 2019.

North West, another of South Africa’s lesser cricketing lights, have signed Senuran Muthusamy and Heino Kuhn, while Dwaine Pretorius comes home to them. “I think being one of two new teams in the top division was a bit challenging when it came to contracting players, but we embraced it and are happy with our team,” North West chief executive HP Prinsloo was quoted as saying.

Duanne Olivier will turn out for Gauteng, who will call themselves the Lions, and Simon Harmer and Aaron Phangiso for Northerns.

Provincial squads:

KwaZulu-Natal Coastal: Marques Ackerman, Ottniel Baartman, Eathan Bosch, Ruan de Swardt, Daryn Dupavillon, Sarel Erwee, Thamsanqa Khumalo, Kerwin Mungroo, Lifa Ntanzi, Thando Ntini, Bryce Parsons, Keegan Petersen, Grant Roelofsen, Jason Smith, Prenelan Subrayen, Khaya Zondo, Andile Phehlukwayo, David Miller, Keshav Maharaj.

Central Gauteng Lions: Bjorn Fortuin, Wiaan Mulder, Lutho Sipamla, Kagiso Rapulana, Ryan Rickleton, Joshua Richards, Sisanda Magala, Dominic Hendricks, Tladi Bokako, Malusi Siboto, Duanne Olivier, Ruan Haasbroek, Tshepo Ntuli, Mitchell van Buuren, Codi Yusuf, Levert Manje, Kagiso Rabada, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Reeza Hendricks.

Boland: Janneman Malan, Pieter Malan, Hardus Viljoen, Is-maeel Gafieldien, Ferisco Adams, Siyabonga Mahima, Christiaan Jonker, Ruan Terblanche, Imraan Manack, Shaun von Berg, Michael Copeland, Zakhele Qwabe, Clyde Fortuin, Achille Cloete, Stiaan van Zyl, Ziyaad Abrahams, Kyle Abbott.

North West: Delano Potgieter, Lesego Senokwane, Nicky van den Bergh, Senuran Muthusamy, Nono Pongolo, Eldred Hawken, Heino Kuhn, Lwandiswa Zuma, Shaylen Pillay, Wesley Marshall, Ndumiso Mvelase, Eben Botha, Johannes Diseko, Duan Jansen, Chad Classen, Jason Oakes, Dwaine Pretorius.

Eastern Province: Matthew Breetzke, Wihan Lubbe, Sinethemba Qeshile, Jon-Jon Smuts, Eddie Moore, Marco Jansen, Glenton Stuurman, Rudi Second, Akhona Mnyaka, Lesiba Ngoepe, Diego Rosier, Tristan Stubbs, Dane Paterson, Kabelo Sekhukhune, Mthiwekhaya Nabe, Tsepo Ndwandwa, Anrich Nortjé.

Northerns: Lizaad Williams, Okhule Cele, Theunis de Bruyn, Dayyaan Galiem, Gihahn Cloete, Junior Dala, Neil Brand, Sibonelo Makhanya, Corbin Bosch, Aaron Phangiso, Chris Morris, Dewald Brevis, Ayabulela Gqamane, Jiveshen Pillay, Grant Mokoena, Simon Harmer, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Quinton de Kock, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen.

Free State: Mbulelo Budaza, Gerald Coetzee, Patrick Kruger, Wandile Makwetu, Migael Pretorius, Jacques Snyman, Pite van Biljon, Raynard van Tonder, Farhaan Behardien, Patrick Botha, Matthew Kleinveldt, Gregory Mohlokwana, Mangaliso Mosehle, Alfred Mothoa, Dilivio Ridgaard, Nealan van Heerden.

Western Province: Zubayr Hamza, Kyle Verreynne, George Linde, Tony de Zorzi, Nandré Burger, Yaseen Vallie, Kyle Simmonds, Jonathan Bird, Hashim Amla, Mihlali Mpongwana, Tshepo Moreki, David Bedingham, Aviwe Mgijima, Vernon Philander, Basheer Walters, Wayne Parnell, Beuran Hendricks.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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New old world looms for domestic game

“If your franchise came sixth did it really matter? There was no real consequence. In promotion and relegation there is huge consequence.” – David Richardson on a key aspect of the new structure.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

IF you turned on a television on Sunday and subscribe to the service offered by one of sport’s leading broadcasters, you might have seen something that hadn’t appeared on that platform for almost 15 years. There, live and in living colour on a dazzling Highveld morning, was a South African first-class match.

The coverage in the four-day game between the Titans and the Knights lasted until stumps, and will do until the match is over. SuperSport will also broadcast a game in the last round of the competition, which starts next Tuesday, and the five-day final, which begins on March 25. Banal as those facts will seem, they are extraordinary.

Last time first-class cricket was broadcast live and ball-by-ball in this country Charl Langeveldt had played less than half of his 87 matches for South Africa. He is now their bowling coach. We were days away from Jason Gillespie’s Test double century, Brian Lara’s third appointment as West Indies captain, and the ICC awarding the 2011 and 2015 World Cups to Asia and Antipodea.

It was April 2006, when the Dolphins and the Titans shared the title after somnambulating to a draw in the final at Kingsmead. With that cricket played in whites in South Africa, when it didn’t involve a Test team, disappeared from television. All the while the Lions and the Warriors, et al, have played plenty of one-day and T20 cricket onscreen. But the first-class aspect of the franchise revolution, which hit South Africa in 2004-05 when 11 provincial teams were melded into six newly minted sides with unfamiliar names dreamt up by marketing types, has barely been televised. Thirteen provincial teams have continued to exist, but essentially as feeders for the franchises, which were established through amalgamation. Geographical neighbours Western Province, Boland and South Western Districts formed the Cobras, for instance.

But from the summer of 2021-22 the franchises will be disbanded and the top level of domestic cricket in South Africa will revert to a provincial model. Boland, Eastern Province, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Northerns and Western Province will play in the first division. The second division will be contested by South Western Districts, Easterns, Border, KwaZulu-Natal Inland, Northern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. That won’t change for two seasons. After the 2023-24 campaign the bottom team in the first division will be relegated and the winner of the second division promoted.

The intention of folding 11 teams into six was to narrow the pipeline to the national team, so only the best players would reach the highest level. That argument prevailed over the theory that the game in the country was too big to limit elite playing opportunities to 66. Now it seems the thinking has swung towards broadening the stage to ensure quality talent gets more chances to shine.

It is counterintuitive, then, that the new deal means there will be 75 fewer player contracts on offer. Currently 280 players are signed to franchises. In future the eight first-division outfits will contract 16 players each and the seven second-tier sides 11. That adds up to 205. Jobs will also diminish in the coaching sector, with franchise coaches likely to be put in charge of the major province in their region, thus pushing out some of their provincial counterparts. Administration and other staff around the country could suffer the same fate.

How did we get here? Through a process CSA started in 2016, ostensibly as a way to cut costs. South Africa’s struggling economy has left a smaller slice of the cake for sport than previously. And cricket’s share is crumbling, given its perennial governance problems that have alienated sponsors. With the franchises leaning ever heavily on CSA for financial survival, push has come to shove.

“In the long run we definitely expect the process to save CSA money,” Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s acting chief executive, told an online press conference on Monday. “More than that we hope that it will allow the affiliates to commercialise themselves better and chase opportunities in the market.” The parents are trying to get the kids to stand on their own two feet. Less kindly, they are kicking them out of the house.

The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), which represents the players, necessarily took a different view, as articulated by chief executive Andrew Breetzke: “The Proteas men’s team generates over 80% of CSA revenue. We need to be competing at the highest level, we need to be at the table with the big three, and therefore we need a strong team.” That meant domestic cricket would have to be as healthy as possible. “We need our top players playing, they must be playing in competitive cricket, and the step up to international cricket must be as close as possible. Within that domestic structure we need a strong transformation pipeline. Our teams must represent the demographics of South Africa.” He spoke of the imperative for CSA to be “financially viable and sustainable”, adding ominously: “We have a consistent fear about the financial sustainability of cricket in South Africa and in the world at the moment, for that matter.”

CSA resolved in 2016 to redesign the domestic game, and the last few months have involved deciding who would be in which division. Provinces subjected themselves to a bidding process that was presided over by a four-person committee led by David Richardson, the former South Africa Test wicketkeeper and ICC chief executive. The committee used a scorecard devised by CSA management in consultation with the provinces.

“The committee’s role was to make sure that all the data that was used to populate that portion of the scorecard which evaluated the historical performance and current status of the members across the seven key dimensions was correctly captured and the weightings correctly applied,” Richardson said. “Secondly, the role was to evaluate the future strategies and plans of the members against those seven key dimensions.

“Those dimensions are cricket services and their infrastructure — what are the pathways for developing not only players but also coaches and umpires? What is the structure around the professional team performances; the high performance area? What does their stadium look like? What does their secondary field look like? On the commercial and financial side, what do the revenues look like for the future? What are the commercial plans? What kind of support do they have from other stakeholders such as local government? We also looked at the important dimension of transformation, and how they are structured from a governance and administration point of view, and the finances of each of the members.”

First-division provinces were expected to be “financially self-sustainable, well-structured and administered, producing results on the field, and providing access and quality opportunities for all who play the game”.

The difference between first and second-division realities is best illustrated by the contrasting fates of Boland and Border. Both are among cricket’s smaller provinces, and both are important in transformation terms. Boland are based in Paarl, where cricket is central to the community, most of whom self-identify as coloured. Outside of South Africa they would be regarded as brown or mixed race. Border are based in East London, which is a hub for many towns and villages where the history of black cricket stretches back more than a century.

But while Boland has thrived through excellent management, headed by chief executive James Fortuin, Border is mired in ethical and financial problems that have spilled onto the field — they were dismissed for 16 by KwaZulu-Natal in a first-class match last week.

“Boland have a tremendous fan base down in their region, especially among the coloured community,” Richardson said. “They have a true love for cricket; there is a cricket culture in the region. They have a stadium of very good quality, and they are very ambitious when it comes to the development of that stadium. Their development pathways are excellent, and they’ve produced results. They have produced players who contribute to the franchise system and their provincial team has done well consistently over the last four years.”

He painted a different picture about Border: “The evaluation committee has no doubt as to the potential of the Border cricket region, and its importance to the overall transformation imperative. Black Africans have played cricket for a long time. They know cricket, they love cricket. A successful Border region is imperative if cricket in South Africa is going to be sustainable in the long run. Unfortunately over the last few years they’ve had issues with governance and administration. Their finances are not strong and their cricket performances are not strong. They are a hotbed of talent and they have contributed players to the franchise system. But I don’t think they’ve fully exploited their potential as yet.”

In some ways not much will change. The provinces in which the franchises are headquartered — Eastern Province, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Northerns and Western Province — have all earned places in the first division. Effectively, the Knights will become Free State and slough off Northern Cape, their little brother whose players rarely reached the franchise XI. But the new system will be stress tested if bigger provinces, with their cash and cachet, are relegated.

“One of the challenges with the franchise system is that [franchises] went through cycles and stages,” Richardson said. “If you came sixth did it really matter? There was no real consequence. In promotion and relegation there is huge consequence. When you get demoted you have the potential of losing sponsors and financial support.”

That could happen in Cape Town, where it’s not impossible that Newlands’ majesty will be sullied by Western Province slipping down the ranks. The Cobras last won a first-class match in January 2019. They’ve gone three seasons without winning more than half their list A games, and they lost four of their five matches in this summer’s T20 competition. You’re not going to turn on your television to watch that, even if Table Mountain is in the background.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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