Ken Borland

The Proteas left for the United Arab Emirates on Sunday and the T20 World Cup, with captain Temba Bavuma saying it will be all hands on deck as they are relying on a team effort and not individual success to do well.

With the likes of Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir and Chris Morris not being selected, never mind AB de Villiers, the Proteas are lacking some of the global superstars of other teams, apart from Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada and Tabraiz Shamsi.

But their form in recent times has been impressive, especially their series wins in the West Indies and Sri Lanka, in conditions that are expected to be similar to what they will find in the UAE. And they have prepared well with a camp in Durban, former Proteas star JP Duminy, seconded to the team as a strategic consultant, saying he was very impressed by the attention to detail the squad showed in terms of their skills.

“We pride ourselves on how well prepared we are,” Bavuma said on Sunday. “And we are not relying on individuals to get us over the line, we will be relying on a team effort. If we all take care of our basics and the small things, if we do the right things day-by-day, then we trust the results will look after themselves.

“The team is in a good space and if you saw our performances in the Sri Lanka T20s, then you will know there was nothing inhibiting us.

“We will be trying to do more of the same, our approach will be no different to what has brought us some good success lately and we will take from those experiences.

“It’s all about how we execute our game-plan and do it in pressurised moments. We back ourselves and our chances, we do although a lot of other people don’t,” Bavuma said with his trademark determination.

In terms of the surfaces they will play on, South Africa are expecting run-scoring to be even more difficult than it has been in the IPL on the same pitches.

“It’s hard to see the wickets getting any better because they will have so much traffic on them. As batsmen, we are expecting tough times on those decks,” Bavuma said.

While the top-order batsman said the thumb he fractured in the ODI series in Sri Lanka is still “not 100%”, he has been given the all-clear by the medical staff.

“I started batting a bit this weekend, just to feel it out. Everything is still on schedule and the medical staff are all quite happy with my progress,” the skipper said.

South Africa will quarantine for six days and their first match is on October 23 against Australia in Abu Dhabi.

There is no honour amongst thieves, so the saying goes, and it seems there is also no end to the greed and selfishness that characterises international cricket. Little wonder then that even The Big Three are starting to box each other, never mind their deplorable treatment of the rest of the cricketing world.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the associated quarantine protocols have given teams an easy excuse not to fulfill their commitments. England’s disgraceful exit from their tour of South Africa last summer was the first sign that The Big Three would not be beholden to anyone, not even the International Cricket Council, when it came to their board or players doing whatever they wanted.

Australia also refused to come to South Africa when the science actually showed their reasons were totally flawed, and India recently did the dirty on England by pulling out of the last Test of their series on the morning of the game due to a couple of positive Covid tests in their tour party.

Never mind that the Indians were probably to blame because they had been out of the bubble attending coach Ravi Shastri’s book launch and what not.

Poor old Pakistan have the added disadvantage of always having the ‘security risk’ tag hanging over their heads and both New Zealand and England have unilaterally pulled out of tours there. They say it’s because of security threats but they have never informed their hosts exactly what those threats were, and it is telling that Britain’s own High Commission in Islamabad supported their tour going ahead.

And let’s not forget that Pakistan toured England last year, staying in crappy hotel bubbles, at the height of Covid when their hosts were desperate for cricket.

Now even the Ashes are at risk because the English players don’t want strict quarantine rules to apply to them and their families in Australia.

It has all just led to a great diminishing of the image of international cricket. The pre-eminence of country-versus-country contests no longer seems to be in place and the ICC, the very custodians of international cricket, don’t seem overly invested in protecting their turf.

Of course, the Indian Premier League towers over all other cricket like the Drakensberg peaks tower over the surrounding midlands. No player ever pulls out of that tournament and every single recent change to the international schedule has benefited the IPL. If the Indian players had played that last Test against England, some of them would have missed the first game of the resumed tournament in the UAE due to quarantine arrangements. And many of the same players who were terrified of Covid in South Africa quite happily went to India when the pandemic was killing thousands of people every day.

The ICC should be like an Alsatian in being the guardians of international cricket, instead they are a lap dog for The Big Three. The consequences of this will be T20 tournaments continuing to ransack the calendar space and the players that should be available to international competition.

If all this double-crossing and use-and-abuse treatment of the poorer nations is allowed to continue, I can see franchise cricket overwhelming the international game. The ICC will limp along as a toothless body holding world cups every few years.

Lovers of T20 will be delighted as that format will dominate the calendar even more, but traditional cricket fans, especially lovers of the Test game, will be left angry and disinterested.

At the moment, those with the power in cricket all seem to just want to chow down at the banquet table without any consideration for those who produce or serve the feast. It is this greed and selfishness that is destroying the game.

Unless there is a sea-change in mindset and cricket gets some non-selfserving leadership in place, it will be a case of bad luck to the poorer nations as the rich get richer and the rest simply fade away.

Poor weather meant only one match was possible on the final day of Pool B action in the CSA Provincial T20 Cup in Bloemfontein on Thursday and it was the game that decided whether it would be the Northerns Titans or the KZN Inland Tuskers who joined the Free State Knights in going through to the quarterfinals.

The Titans were again indebted to Donovan Ferreira for turning an iffy total into something matchwinning as the 23-year-old lashed 43 not out off 24 balls to lift them to 157-7.

The 21-year-old Jandre Pretorius, standing in for injured captain Dean Elgar, opened the batting and scored 40 off 39 balls to allow a solid start.

KZN Inland were then restricted to 133 for seven, with Okuhle Cele (4-0-24-2) and Aaron Phangiso (4-0-19-1) again the stars with the ball after their heroics at the death kept the Titans in the competition on the second day as they defended 70 in seven overs against Mpumalanga.

Corbin Bosch (4-0-25-0) was also very tidy.

The Titans’ composure in the closing overs of both their games against KZN Inland and the Mpumalanga Rhinos made all the difference for them.

Mpumalanga had their game against the unbeaten Free State Knights on Thursday afternoon washed out without a ball being bowled, leaving the Knights and Titans to advance from Pool B.

There was heartbreak for the Central Gauteng Lions as they beat South-Western Districts in their last match of the CSA Provincial T20 Cup in Kimberley on Sunday, but not by a big enough margin to qualify for the quarterfinals.

The exit will be particularly galling for coach Wandile Gwavu, who led his team to the franchise T20 title earlier this year.

The Lions edged home by four wickets with just one ball to spare against SWD, and when Western Province beat Northern Cape by six wickets with 10 balls left later in the day, it meant three teams had finished with two wins each.

But WP’s nett run-rate (+0.17) was enough to lift them above the Lions (+0.04), who paid the price for a poor batting performance by the top-order on Sunday.

Chasing just 130 for victory, the Lions slipped to 88 for six in the 15^th over and were grateful to young Ruan Haasbroek, who finished the innings superbly with his determined 44 not out off 38 balls. Malusi Siboto (16*) provided great support as they added 44 off 33 balls to win the game.

Spinner Sean Whitehead was the best bowler for SWD, taking one for 18 in four excellent overs.

What will really hurt for the Lions is that they bowled so well after winning the toss to restrict SWD to 129 for six, especially their fiery pacemen Lutho Sipamla (4-0-23-2), Sisanda Magala (4-0-18-1) and Siboto (4-0-23-1).

Captain Jean du Plessis scored 41 off 38 balls, and Jhedli van Briesies provided a late boost with his 24 not out off 17 deliveries, SWD putting enough runs on the board to ensure they go through to the quarterfinals in first place in Pool A with a nett run-rate of +0.44.

But ultimately the Lions batsmen let down their bowlers.

Kyle Verreynne once again showed his mettle under high pressure as he took Western Province home to their tricky target of 164 in 18.2 overs with his 25 not out off 11 balls, ensuring they go through.

Zubayr Hamza continued his rebirth as a quality T20 player with his 62 off 50 deliveries, putting on 63 for the first wicket in 7.5 overs with Tony de Zorzi (30).

There were also welcome runs for young Jonathan Bird, who showed his talent with 42 off 23 balls.

Western Province had sent their friends from the Northern Cape in to bat and reduced them to 58 for five by the halfway stage as seamers Tshepo Moreki (4-0-23-2) and Wayne Parnell (4-1-30-3) bowled superbly, spinner Kyle Simmonds (4-0-27-1) providing great support.

But Evan Jones (50 off 35) and Beyers Swanepoel (39* off 18), both Pretoria products, then combined for a punishing end to the innings as Northern Cape shot to 163 for eight.

It was a testing target, but not enough to save the Lions.