Ken Borland

I know Cricket South Africa’s fancy head office is situated at No.86 on the corner of Fifth and Glenhove streets in Melrose Estate, but in figurative terms, their erf extends to wherever the great sport is played in this country and to every house where the game is supported, whether they have a back garden ‘ cricket field’ or not.

Now obviously what goes on in the boardrooms and executive offices of CSA is cause for great concern, especially the disdain with which too many self-serving administrators treat the good of the game as a whole, but I know for a fact there are many people in those Melrose Estate offices who do fantastic, selfless work for cricket and have done so for many years.

Covering the Cricket South Africa beat is a tough job because journalistic integrity demands that we interrogate and criticise them in no uncertain terms when their chief decision-makers have lost their way so badly. Like the valiant journalists in this country who have worked so hard to uncover State Capture, most of the cricket media has shone a light on #CricketCapture, even though it is far less of a threat to the country in general than what corrupt politicians have been up to.

By constantly painting CSA in a bad light, we run the risk of saying everyone who works for them is a bad person, but that is certainly not the case. It is the leaders, the Board and executive, who are letting the whole organisation down.

The hard work of director of cricket Graeme Smith and the Proteas management will hopefully show fruit when we return to international action against England next month, but while results at the top are easy to see and examine, the work of those running the cricket pipeline is often less apparent.

The launch of the new season was held this week at one of their focus areas, the Hammanskraal Cricket Club, and the excellent presentation of Eddie Khoza, the Acting Manager of Cricket Pathways, showed the effort and resources CSA are putting into the development of the game.

Khoza’s passion and enthusiasm for cricket were obvious, and he is one of the younger leaders in CSA who should go far. For an organisation that is unfairly being harangued for a perceived lack of Black African management, it would make sense for them to drop the ‘Acting’ part of Khoza’s title and make him a full-time manager.

Graeme Smith is wisely re-examining the sagacity of spending hundreds of millions of rand on the Hubs and RPC system in light of what comes out at the other end of the pipeline, but I have a feeling the blockage is closer to the top end of the pipe than at grassroots.

As Khoza pointed out, the system not only plants cricket infrastructure in areas where this is lacking, but also tries to re-establish the sport in schools where it has fallen dormant due to socio-economic reasons.

Hammanskraal is now rated a Blue Flag club because it is considered a healthy pathway. At the top end it has produced players such as Alfred Mothoa, the Titans stalwart who has now joined the Knights, and Tebogo Macheke, a women’s wicketkeeper who is earmarked for the Proteas and receiving specialist coaching from Tuks coach Kruger van Wyk, a former New Zealand gloveman.

But five kilometres from the Hammanskraal cricket ground and its impressive clubhouse, is Prestige College, one of CSA’s focus schools, which means cricket is being re-engineered back into the school. But CSA’s development programme is not just about cricket but also the holistic individual, so academic support is also provided to bridge any gaps.

There are 552 schools across the country who are catered for in a similar way, linked to 57 Hubs and 12 RPCs. Not all of these Hubs and RPCs have been totally successful, but there seems no better system at the moment and let’s hope more talent blooms from these historically disadvantaged areas.

So, although the cricket-loving public understandably sees red when they hear or read CSA’s head honchos being dishonest or acting in ways that clearly lack integrity, we should remember that there are still many great people working for that embattled organisation, and they are just as embarrassed and appalled by what is happening in their own Boardroom.