Ken Borland

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming pulled some wicked stunts on a 25-year-old Graeme Smith when they clashed in a Test series, but then became something of a mentor for the Proteas skipper and the cerebral Kiwi is once again helping the growth of another potential South African star of the same age in Chris Morris.

Spinner Aaron Phangiso may have won the man of the match award for his brilliant two for 17 in four overs when the Highveld Lions beat Fleming’s Chennai Super Kings in the Champions League at Newlands last October, but it was Morris who turned the coach’s head.

Morris took one for 24 in four overs, halting a blazing start to the game by CSK, and also helped seal victory for the Lions with an important 12 not off seven balls at the death, including a massive six.

“I bowled well against Stephen’s team in Cape Town and I also hit a six when I was batting. I then happened to bump into him in a restaurant and spoke to him. He pulled me aside and said he was very impressed with my bowling and said I should keep in touch. It’s funny how things go in cricket … ” Morris told Sapa at the Wanderers on Tuesday.

Three-and-a-half months later, the Super Kings paid a head-spinning $625 000 [R5.5 million] to sign the all-rounder for this year’s Indian Premier League and a dazed Morris can still hardly believe how things have turned out.

“I’m still a bit speechless after going for a price like that and it’s mind-blowing because I modelled my captaincy at school on Stephen Fleming, he was my hero, the ultimate captain with a great cricket brain. And I’ll also be playing alongside people like Mike Hussey, a schoolboy hero of mine too, and Ben Hilfenhaus, who I really enjoy watching bowl,” Morris said.

India is probably not top of the list of places pacemen want to bowl in and the Super Kings are based in Chennai, a particularly spin-friendly venue, so Morris knows the IPL will be hard work.

“I hope I catch a game but it’s going to be a very different environment and pitches, plus there’s the heat. Conditions will be tough but it’s going to be a massive learning experience and a big test of my skills.”

But for now, Morris has to focus on the final cycle of four-day domestic series fixtures, with the Lions needing to beat the Warriors in Port Elizabeth to overcome a 9.66-point deficit behind the Cape Cobras in order to win the title.

Morris has been in top-class form with the ball, taking a superb 26 wickets in five matches at an average of just 16.73 and Lions captain Stephen Cook praised his bowlers for doing “a terrific job”.

“Someone has always stepped up, most of them have 20-odd wickets at a low average. When we played the Warriors in PE in a one-day game, the pitch seamed around a bit, but we have Imran Tahir too if the wicket is low and slow,” Cook said.

The weather has bought some breathing space for the Cobras at the top of the log as the Lions have had two matches washed out in the last three weeks, but coach Geoff Toyana, who has enjoyed considerable success since taking over from Dave Nosworthy at the start of the summer, remains positive his team can still win the trophy.

“The boys are in good spirits, although they are disappointed about the last three weeks, and if we play well enough we might be champions. I trust in the guys that they can do their skills and if we play to our full potential then we can come through,” Toyana said.

The Lions will be at full strength with current internationals Alviro Petersen and Quinton de Kock returning to the line-up and considerably boosting the batting.

The Pakistan cricket team have asked their board to take up the numerous dubious HotSpot decisions that were made against them in the first Test at the Wanderers with the International Cricket Council, their manager confirmed on Monday.

“We have given a report about it to our board and they will take it further,” Pakistan team manager Naveed Cheema told the Daily Maverick after they had succumbed to a 211-run defeat at the hands of South Africa.

It is believed their unhappiness will also form a large part of their standard report on the umpiring that is sent to the ICC after all Tests.

On the five occasions in the Test that a review was asked for and HotSpot was used, all five decisions went against Pakistan.

Matters came to a head on the second day when Misbah ul-Haq was given out caught behind for 12, having originally been adjudged not out by on-field umpire Billy Bowden. South Africa called for a review and HotSpot showed no conclusive evidence that the ball had hit the bat, but third umpire Steve Davis gave the Pakistan captain out, leading to an animated expression of disbelief from coach Dav Whatmore in the changeroom.

What really upset Pakistan was that on the first day, AB de Villiers (twice) and Faf du Plessis had both enjoyed positive results from reviews because HotSpot displayed a similar lack of evidence.

The inconsistency was obvious and, on the final day, Umar Gul was given out caught behind on review with HotSpot again not showing any mark on the bat.

The inconsistent application and performance of HotSpot – on the third day it clearly showed edges – has sparked new controversy over the Decision Review System (DRS) and the use of technology in cricket.

But if we accept that technology is now part of the furniture in cricket’s living room, should we be blaming the system when some incompetent human uses it incorrectly and falls off the couch?

According to the match referee, Jeff Crowe, Davis was looking at direct-feed, super-enhanced images different to what everyone else saw on TV.

But, even if this was true and the images were so much better than the regular pictures bounced off satellites into our televisions, it would totally defeat the object of the DRS.

The DRS was introduced to put an end to obviously bad decisions that were then replayed on TV so everyone was aware of them; before widespread live coverage of cricket, the system was not necessary because mistakes were less obvious.

For the public to be told, “don’t worry, you’re not seeing the whole picture” is totally unsatisfactory and takes us back to the old days when the first time people became aware of a bad decision was reading about it in the newspaper the next day. People still see the replays and are unlikely to buy this disingenuous justification from the ICC.

Besides, the scoreboard at the Wanderers, which runs on the same direct feed the third umpire gets, was showing images identical to the ones broadcast on TV, albeit a couple of seconds earlier.

There is not much wrong with the DRS system if it is used properly. As soon as concerns were expressed on the first day with HotSpot, it should have been scrapped for this Test.

The system is there to reduce controversy in international cricket, by taking away the howler, but with the players now using DRS tactically and the umpires sometimes not having the nous to use it correctly, the technology is often stealing the limelight unnecessarily.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-02-05-pakistan-turn-heat-on-hotspot/#.UZzHwqI3A6w

Bisho schoolteacher Chris Nenzani became South African cricket’s premier administrator at the weekend, promising a new era for the game as he was elected president and chairman of Cricket South Africa’s board of directors.

Nenzani was the winner of a two-horse race with Western Province’s Beresford Williams and was an optimistic man as he faced a media contingent not yet convinced that Cricket South Africa has really changed its ways.

“We have come from a very difficult period and if you had asked me a year ago if there was a crisis, I would have said ‘Yes’.”

“But we have now gone beyond those trying times and we are looking forward to a very promising future. We will be checking our governance structure to ensure we regain public confidence and we must remember that the role of the administration is to remain in the background while the players are at the forefront,” Nenzani, the president of the Border Cricket Board, said after his election at the Wanderers.

While Nenzani was a popular choice and is a likeable man who distanced himself from fired chief executive Gerald Majola early on in the bonus scandal, CSA’s annual general meeting was notable for the number of administrators who have somehow survived their disgraceful actions – and lack of action – while the game was being looted and embarrassed in this country.

Andy O’Connor, the Easterns president, was at the forefront of the pro-Majola lobby and quite vicious in his criticism of the media over the last couple of years, and yet his name is in the list of seven non-independent directors who will run cricket for the next year alongside five independent appointees.

Northerns president Vincent Sinovich, Free State’s Leon Crawley and North-West’s Archie Pretorius were in the minority in terms of CSA board members who insisted that Majola should face independent investigation and their reward has been to be cast into the relative wilderness.

Norman Arendse, the former president of CSA who then tried to do the jobs of the chief executive and convenor of selectors, is one of the independent directors, in accordance with the recommendation of the nominations’ committee, which just happened to be dominated by people from his home city, Cape Town.

The other independent directors are Wesizwe Platinum’s Dawn Mokhobo, Constitutional Court trustee Vusi Pikoli, Absa’s Louis von Zeuner and Old Mutual chief operating officer Mohamed Iqbal Khan, while the other CSA nominations are Nenzani, vice-president Peter Cyster of Boland, Graeme Sauls (EP), Faeez Jaffar (KZN) and Rihan Richards (GW).

The decision to give the non-independent directors the majority of board places flies in the face of the Nicholson recommendations, but CSA was given the easy way out through the interference of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee [Sascoc], which insisted that the game should be run by “sports people”.

Nenzani admitted that one of the first tasks of the new board would be to reassure the public that it is not lapsing into the bad old ways that forced Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula to institute the Nicholson Inquiry in the first place.

“I wouldn’t say we have backtracked. My understanding is that our restructuring is not just about the composition of the board. As members of Sascoc, we are committed to continuing our engagement with them. We have to get the right balance between independent directors and those with cricketing knowledge,” Nenzani said.

Outgoing acting president Willie Basson described the situation as being “stranded” between Sascoc and the wishes of Mbalula and Judge Nicholson.

“CSA has engaged with the Nicholson process in good faith but in the end found itself stranded between powerful forces and seriously conflicting objectives. Being left stranded between the high aspirations of the Memorandum of Agreement with the minister and Sascoc’s requirements was both uncomfortable and disappointing,” Basson said.

Unfortunately Nenzani sounded like the National Party politicians of old who claimed they willingly ushered the country into democracy when he defended the continued presence of Majola sympathisers on the board by saying: “These are the same people who have taken this process to where we are now, they took it upon themselves to undo what made the public uncomfortable.”

Ah, Mr Nenzani, the CSA board had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Nicholson Inquiry and it was only thanks to the perseverance of the sports minister and Basson, who the board tried to get rid of, that there has been any reform at all.

The fact that the AGM took place half-an-hour after the start of play on the second day of the Test shows that many of the administrators seemingly have little interest in the actual game. The gravy bowl is perhaps their prime focus and it seems the same old snouts are in it.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-02-04-csa-stranded-between-sascoc-and-the-wishes-of-mbalula-and-judge-nicholson/#.UZvqyaI3A6w