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Ken Borland



Centurion product becoming one of the key white-ball generals 0

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Ken

There were many who believed Aiden Markram would be in charge of the Proteas by now, but even though the product of Cornwall Hill College in Centurion admitted on Tuesday that “I have not got it all worked out yet”, he is clearly becoming one of the key generals in the South African white-ball team.

That side will be in action again on Wednesday evening as they take on Ireland in the first of two T20 matches in Bristol. It will be interesting to see what XI the Proteas field because they have often experimented against the Irish in the past. Paceman Kagiso Rabada has been ruled out of both games with an ankle injury.

But they are fresh off a 2-1 series win over mighty England in which they fielded a few players who may have been thought of as fringe members of the squad that is being built for the T20 World Cup in October.

Markram, although he is their highest-ranked T20 batsman, was one of the ones to sit out, but it says something of his standing in the team that he was given a full explanation of the reasons why it was done. He returned for the deciding match against England and scored a brisk 51 not out off 36 balls as the Proteas batted their hosts out of the contest. Markram also fulfilled the vital sixth bowler role.

“Not playing in India was incredibly frustrating, but it’s one of those things even though it’s strange to get Covid these days,” Markram said.

“But here in England, the communication has been really good from the coach, the management team and captain David Miller. We were told where we stand, we understand where the selection is coming from and why they did it.

“These things happen when you’re building towards a World Cup, you have to give everyone a fair opportunity. Rassie van der Dussen and I understood why we were sitting out.

“The communication made it a lot easier. We’re on a journey to the World Cup so we understand why we try things and different options. If it doesn’t work, then rather get it wrong now than at the World Cup,” Markram said.

The 27-year-old has been one of the most dominant batsmen at SuperSport Park in Centurion, which is one of the smaller grounds in South Africa but still bigger than the ground in Bristol.

England had the Proteas in disarray in the first T20 in Bristol last week but, as they arrange their plans for the World Cup, being able to perform on smaller grounds is one of the things they need to sort out.

“We’re maybe a team that’s better on slower pitches and bigger fields, we’ve played some of our best cricket in tougher conditions,” Markram said.

“But we definitely want to get better at smaller venues where the margin for error is a lot smaller. We’re going to try and nail that because we want to keep growing as a team.”

*Play starts at 7.30pm

IPL teams interested in 4 of the 6 CSA T20 pies 0

Posted on May 30, 2022 by Ken

A new T20 league co-owned by Cricket South Africa and SuperSport will be held in January and Indian Premier League teams are believed to be interested in four of the six pies that are up for sale.

According to a statement released by CSA on Friday, the new league will comprise six privately-owned franchises playing each other in a double round, before the top three sides move to the playoff stages.

These six teams will be totally divorced from the existing domestic teams, who will continue to play their own T20 competition. But grounds like the Wanderers, SuperSport Park, Kingsmead and Newlands are bound to be used as venues and will be paid hosting fees.

The previous problems faced by the ill-fated T20 Global League and Mzansi Super League in securing decent broadcast deals for the events are a thing of the past thanks to SuperSport’s investment not only in televising the matches and providing a global feed, but also as actual stakeholders in the tournament. SuperSport CEO Marc Jury told Saturday Citizen on Friday that “shareholding details will be provided later, but we can confirm that SuperSport and CSA are co-owners.”

The new franchise league seems to already have a better foundation than its predecessors and there has apparently been interest from four of the major IPL teams in getting involved. Names such as Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders have been mentioned, but Jury said the ongoing “discussions are confidential and SuperSport are not at liberty to provide more details at this time”.

While some local CEOs were a little gun-shy at the prospect of another T20 franchise league being launched, saying “we have heard and been through all this before”, others said they were “really excited and it’s a great opportunity” for what CSA have marketed as “all-action cricket sportainment”.

January provides a gap in the international calendar such that all the top local players, including the Proteas, should be available, as well as international stars, except for those who are playing in Australia’s Big Bash, which traditionally runs through until the end of January.

CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki said “a sustainable business model has been created for both the league and the teams, with a healthy salary bill to attract the very best local and international players.

“The league also represents a fresh injection of funds into the sport in SA, which will help grow the game.”

There will be a player auction and all the teams will be entitled to field up to four overseas players in any starting XI. No transformation targets will apply to the competition.

A very good idea gone horribly wrong 0

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Ken

Despite their dodgy origin, there are many who believed the Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) hearings would be a very good idea, something necessary to try and heal the increasingly polarised and embittered environment of South African cricket.

But now that the SJN report has been made public, what a grave disappointment it has been and what a waste of R7.5 million. So much evidence has simply been ignored or totally misinterpreted and the legal flaws within the findings reflect very poorly on Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza’s standing as one of our finest jurists. Never mind the poor job done by his assistants from Werksmans Attorneys.

It is now clear that the entire focus of the SJN was on getting dirt on Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher. Addressing historic wrongs and racial discrimination was just a side project.

Ntsebeza has found Smith’s appointment as director of cricket to be irregular and has also accused him of racist behaviour in the past. This is despite what I thought was compelling evidence presented by the likes of Cricket South Africa, the South African Cricketers’ Association and former Proteas manager Mohammed Moosajee.

The report almost entirely ignores all of that and goes way outside of its mandate in slamming Smith’s appointment. Surely Ntsebeza is aware that headhunting is a common occurrence in the corporate world and his appointment was approved by a number of people, the majority of whom were Black?

But no, it was racist. As was Boucher’s selection as Proteas head coach.

Enoch Nkwe is a very good coach and, in an ideal world, should be the successor to Boucher. But to say he was discriminated against based on the colour of his skin is ridiculous. It ignores the fact Boucher had more experience and more success coaching at the level below the Proteas and the wicketkeeper/batsman’s immense international knowledge from his playing days.

Three franchise trophies in one season point to Nkwe’s potential, but to equate trophies won in second-tier cricket in the Netherlands, semi-pro cricket or junior weeks, and even a second place in the Canadian T20 league, with Boucher’s achievements is ludicrous. The report also makes no mention of the 3-0 hammering South Africa suffered in India under Nkwe as interim head coach just before Boucher’s arrival.

The SJN could really have done with some advice from an ex cricketer or anyone with some idea of how high-performance sport works. The total lack of expertise in this regard has been made clear by the report. There was an early warning sign of this when legal assistant Sandile July asked why Imran Tahir had not stepped down from the Proteas team to allow another spinner a chance!

I also believe Mr July exhibited a lack of impartiality in his examination of those witnesses who had been implicated. He seemed to implicitly believe that the evidence of the complainants, even those dishonest individuals banned from the game for their involvement in matchfixing, was true.

The allegation made this week that over 250 paragraphs of the complainants’ heads of argument, which were written by July and Fumisa Ngqele, have been simply cut and pasted word-for-word directly into the ombudsman’s report, reflects poorly on the fairness of the SJN process.

These are not just minor matters that need amendment. Most damning of all is Ntsebeza’s own admission in his closing remarks that the evidence presented was not able to be tested. He says he cannot make definitive findings, describing his own conclusions as being “tentative”.

And yet he has happily painted Smith, Boucher, AB de Villiers and various other former players and officials as being racist. The decent thing for Ntsebeza to do would be to pay back half the R7.5 million to CSA for doing half a job, never mind the compensation he might have to fork out for the damage he has done to the reputations of people based on “untested evidence” and “tentative findings”.

De Kock points out he comes from a mixed-race family, & he will take a knee 0

Posted on December 09, 2021 by Ken

Quinton de Kock said on Thursday that he comes from a mixed-race family and has always believed Black lives matter, and he will now be taking a knee along with the rest of the Proteas team in the remainder of their T20 World Cup campaign in the United Arab Emirates.

De Kock’s turnaround came after he issued a statement strongly denying any racist intent in his refusal to take a knee before this week’s match against the West Indies, as directed by the CSA Board, and his subsequent withdrawal from the game. The wicketkeeper/batsman said he was deeply hurt by people calling him a racist.

The chairman of the CSA Board, Lawson Naidoo, and two other directors also met virtually with the Proteas on Wednesday night to engage with the players and clarify why they wanted a unified stance on Black Lives Matter from the squad and management. According to a CSA statement, De Kock then agreed to follow the directive and issued an apology for his actions on Thursday morning.

“For those who don’t know, I come from a mixed-race family. My half-sisters are Coloured and my step-mom is Black,” De Kock revealed in his statement. “For me, Black lives have mattered since I was born. Not just because there was an international movement.

“I was raised to understand that we all have rights, and they are important. I felt like my rights were taken away when I was told what we had to do in the way that we were told.

“We were previously told we had the choice to do what we felt we wanted to do. … I didn’t understand why I had to prove it with a gesture, when I live and learn and love people from all walks of life every day.

“When you are told what to do, with no discussion, I felt like it takes away the meaning. If I was racist, I could easily have taken the knee and lied, which is wrong and doesn’t build a better society,” De Kock said. 

The key batsman is therefore available for South Africa’s match against Sri Lanka on Saturday and the whole BLM saga, that has rumbled on for over a year, is hopefully now over.

De Kock’s initial defiance is also, however, a warning to the new CSA Board that reactionary leadership and issuing edicts from upon high without properly consulting the players is only going to cause further divisions.

Even CSA’s apology for the timing of its directive – on the morning of a key match – is mealy-mouthed, merely saying that they “regret … that the timing … may have been unsettling for the players”.

The one man who is emerging from this week’s crisis with credit, however, is Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma, who De Kock praised in his statement when he said “he is a flipping amazing leader”.

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    1 John 2:5 – “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.”

    James 2:14 – “What good is it if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?”.

    Love without action is useless.

    If you love God unreservedly, you will offer your best to him and be willing to serve him wherever he wishes to use you.

    Love has to manifest itself practically.

    “Love requires uplifting and inspirational deeds.

    “How genuine can your love for God truly be if you are aware of a serious need and do nothing to alleviate it?”- Solly Ozrovech, A Shelter From The Storm



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