Ken Borland

The last time I was fortunate enough to attend the KFC Mini-Cricket National Seminar was five years ago in Kruger Park, so it was wonderful to see CSA’s flagship development programme has lost none of its energy or passion when I was invited to this year’s annual gathering, held at Zebula Golf Estate outside BelaBela last week.

This mass participation grassroots programme, which will celebrate its 40^th anniversary next year, is operated by the noble crew of 10 500 volunteer coaches, working closely with the sponsors and CSA’s development office.

Some of the bile that has been thrown around in cricket circles over the last couple of years has been difficult to stomach, but being able to share in an environment where everyone is just working for the love of the sport, where egos are put to the side because this is the grassroots game, is gratifying enough to cure the most severe indigestion.

Graeme Smith, as director of cricket, has had to deal with much of that bile, but he was happy and relaxed at Zebula, being asked for plenty of photographs by the delegates after his address on the first morning.

“I basically just gave them an update of where cricket is and then it was great to sit through the sessions with them,” Smith said.

“I feel like I’ve been starved of being on the ground with these sort of cricket-lovers. It’s so exciting to be here, this programme is nearly 40 years old and has been a massive investment in the game at all levels.

“All credit to the volunteer coaches and co-ordinators who grow their communities and are mentors for the youngsters. It’s so important that kids have the opportunity to be touched by the game and I know how important KFC Mini-Cricket is to CSA.

“These coaches are the life-blood of our game and I’ll be surprised if there are any other development programmes in this country that come close in terms of reach,” Smith said.

Unfortunately though, like everything else, the effectiveness of the KFC Mini-Cricket Programme does come down to how many Rand are in the bank for CSA.

The organisation held its AGM last weekend and the financial statements clearly showed the serious effects of Covid and how important it is for the Proteas to be a ‘box-office’ team on the global stage.

CSA still has total assets of R797 million, but they suffered a nett loss of R221 million in 2020/21, having budgeted for just a R177 million deficit.

This was largely due to broadcast revenue plummeting from R534 million to R161 million. Having made up almost half of CSA’s revenue the previous financial year, broadcast rights now only accounted for 31% of profit. Sponsorships also dropped from R186 million to R79 million, 15% of revenue.

Accordingly, in an environment of sometimes brutal cost-cutting (but pleasingly with no employees laid off because of Covid), investment in development dropped from R385 million to R273 million.

So anyone who wants to see the game in this country truly transform has to also acknowledge that the Proteas have to be one of the best teams internationally. That’s the only way the Big Three will want to tour here, generating the lucrative broadcast rights that are by far CSA’s biggest revenue-earner.

And KFC Mini-Cricket has certainly produced its fair share of Proteas – Beuran Hendricks and Sinalo Jafta were two in attendance at Zebula. But the programme also wants to empower the coaches, while bringing an estimated 118 000 kids from diverse schools and communities together this summer, introducing them to cricket and also getting them active.

Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said on Thursday that previous South African teams folding under pressure at global events is no concern of the current side as they head into the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Most overseas pundits are not expecting the Proteas to make the semi-finals, despite their fine recent form in the shortest format of the game. This is a far cry from most previous World Cups when South Africa have routinely been one of the favourites and have inevitably failed to deliver.

“The pressure that has been put on previous teams, we’ve had those conversations and we accept those pressures are always there,” Bavuma said. “But this bunch of players does not carry that on their shoulders.

“We accept that the expectations outside of our camp are not as high, but we know the standards we have set for ourselves. As a team, there is a certain level of expectation that we have and we have put in a lot of preparation on the physical and mental side of the game. Everything is quite relaxed at the moment.”

Bavuma said his recovery from his fractured hand is “still on track” and Friday will be the day when he faces ‘live’ bowling in the nets for the first time, having come through a lengthy session of throw-downs on Thursday.

“I had a good batting session and the hand is definitely getting stronger by the day, it’s feeling a lot more comfortable. Tomorrow I will face actual bowlers and get comfortable with what I can do and make peace with what I can’t do. I can assess where I am,” Bavuma said.

With the veteran finisher David Miller assured of a place in the middle-order and Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen likely to bat there as well, Bavuma said his place in the batting line-up will be at the top of the order.

“My role is quite obvious and clear to me and I will come in at the top. Reeza Hendricks has been batting well there too, so one of us will probably open with Quinton de Kock,” Bavuma said.

Cricket-lovers in Kimberley can look forward to being the first spectators to resume watching live cricket at the ground, with CSA confirming that they are finalising plans to have a crowd in attendance for the first time since the Covid virus spread uncontrollably through the country 19 months ago at next week’s T20 Provincial Knockout Cup.

With government having now given permission for up to 2000 spectators to be allowed as long as all Covid procedures and precautions are followed, cricket is likely to be the second sport to open its doors, after 2000 vaccinated fans were able to watch Bafana Bafana beat Ethiopia 1-0 in their World Cup qualifier earlier this week in Soweto.

The CSA T20 Provincial Knockout Cup resumes with the quarterfinals on Tuesday at the Diamond Oval.

“Chances are that we will have our first set of spectators for the finals,” a CSA spokesperson confirmed to The Citizen on Wednesday evening. “We are finalising the logistics and we should be making an announcement soon.”

Tuesday’s action sees South-Western Districts take on the Northerns Titans, and then the Free State Knights, who used to have Kimberley as one of their home venues, play Western Province. KZN Dolphins versus Eastern Province Warriors and Boland Rocks against North-West Dragons are the other quarterfinals, both to be played on Wednesday.

The semi-finals will then take place on Thursday and then the final will be held on Friday.

SA Rugby announced earlier on Wednesday that fully vaccinated supporters will be allowed to attend both club and professional matches from now on. But the four franchises are all overseas playing in the United Rugby Championship and the first senior professional rugby match to be open to spectators is likely to be on November 6 at Loftus Versfeld when the Carling Champion XV take on Kenya.

Aiden Markram is not sure whether or not his game has grown from his couple of weeks playing in the IPL in the UAE, but he does believe he has a better idea of the flexibility required in T20 cricket, which he says is going to be crucial for the Proteas in the forthcoming World Cup.

Markram joined the Punjab Kings for the completion of the IPL following the withdrawal of English star Dawid Malan, and, batting in the middle-order, made starts in every innings as he ended with 146 runs in six innings, averaging 29.20 with a strike-rate of 122.68.

When South Africa begin their T20 World Cup campaign on October 23 against Australia in Abu Dhabi, the middle-order is where Markram is most likely to find a place in the team.

“The pressure is always a lot more at a World Cup, the environment is all about pressure and you need to perform under it. The IPL is also high-pressured,” Markram said on Monday, “but I’m not sure if my game has grown or not.

“But it’s obviously a good standard of cricket and I was learning on the job, mingling with some seriously good players, chatting to legends of T20 cricket, but also trying to work things out in the middle during games.

“The important thing is that you have plans for the conditions before matches, the type of cricket you want to play, but if conditions don’t allow it then you have to have something else to fall back on.

“Trusting that back-up plan is important and we have certainly upskilled ourselves lately. I don’t think this team brings too much baggage from previous World Cups and we haven’t had too many chats about 2019,” Markram said.

In terms of the conditions, the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi is in the desert but within sight of the dhows in the Persian Gulf, and arguably the best place for batting in the United Arab Emirates. The Proteas have an attack to thrive in most conditions, but the question is whether South Africa does have the batting line-up to put up big enough scores.

“Conditions were not too bad in the IPL, but each ground was very different, which I didn’t expect because I thought the conditions would be pretty generic. But each ground poses a different set of challenges.

“The pitches are not the easiest to bat on, but once you get in, you can take the game away from the opposition. But it’s tough at first for the batsman coming in.

“Sharjah [where they play a qualifier and England] was probably the toughest batting pitch and Abu Dhabi the nicest to bat on.

“In general you’re looking to take pace off the ball, that’s the go-to, lots of changes in pace. And you have to bowl your spinners at the right time, getting that decision right is important,” Markram said.