Ken Borland

The Imperial Lions made some impressive acquisitions ahead of this season but, for at least the opening couple of weekends, like an unsuccessful Christmas gift that needs to be returned to the shops on December 27, all four of their marquee signings could well sit out the opening 4-Day Domestic series match against the Dolphins in Durban, given the riches in personnel that the defending champions possess.

Lutho Sipamla is a Protea and a rising star in the South African fast bowling ranks, but with Eldred Hawken named as the Lions player of the season for 2019/20 and Malusi Siboto always such a reliable performer, whether Sipamla gets a game could depend on whether Beuran Hendricks, who took five wickets the last time he bowled in a Test, is fully fit.

If Sipamla can’t get a game on Monday, what chance Sisanda Magala, who is close to making his Proteas debut, and Tladi Bokako?

And it is not just in the bowling department where the Lions have tremendous depth. Judging by last season, there are five batsmen who are pretty sure of their places in Reeza and Dominic Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, captain Temba Bavuma and wicketkeeper Nicky van den Bergh.

That means new signing Wesley Marshall could well be on the bench, along with bright talents such as Josh Richards, Kagiso Rapulana and Ryan Rickelton. Only one of them can probably play, while the presence of Dwaine Pretorius, the incumbent Proteas Test all-rounder, probably means there will be no space for exciting all-rounders like Wiaan Mulder and Delano Potgieter.

“We are fortunate to have a lot of experienced players and internationals to choose from, guys who don’t need much coaching. But it’s going to be all about managing the players and ensuring the environment is conducive to us playing our best cricket. The first two rounds of the competition are going to be massive with all the Proteas taking part.

“That’s the standard that we as players look forward to, strength versus strength so we can really test ourselves as we try to win back the confidence of the supporters and their trust in the game. We have a culture of excellence at the Lions and the many quality players we produce is indicative of our world-class facilities and coaches,” Bavuma said.

The Lions have set a target of winning their third successive four-day title, which is unprecedented since unity and was last achieved by the Transvaal Mean Machine between 1982/3 and 1984/85. Bavuma said any trophies won this season would be the products of sticking to their brand of cricket.

“Our goal is to retain the title again, because three-in-a-row has never been done. There are only seven games, so we need momentum early on, so our first priority is to get going against strong opposition in the Dolphins at home. We want to see everything done in preparation come to fruition, but not a lot needs to change, we just want to keep on playing aggressive and positive cricket.

“Our batting is quite stable and with our bowling, the challenge is going to be to get the combinations going because we have a couple of new faces. But our strategy will remain the same,” Bavuma said.

Former acting CEO Jacques Faul did his best during his nine months with the organisation to put out the raging inferno that is Cricket South Africa, but on Wednesday he said anybody who served in a leadership position in the federation, including himself, needs to take responsibility for the mess.

Faul was appointed acting CEO last December when Thabang Moroe was suspended with CSA in freefall as their relationships with the players, sponsors and the media were utterly broken. Having restored those relationships and also steered CSA through the Covid-19 pandemic, Faul spent the last three months of his tenure fighting against the internal divisions that wrack the organisation, eventually falling foul of the Board and having his powers removed, which led to him quitting with immediate effect, a month before the end of his contract.

“The calibre of people in management relates directly to the stability of an organisation and the performance of the team, and something is horribly wrong when the administrators are the focus and not the people playing in the game. We have to say that anybody who served in a leadership position, including me, got it badly wrong and we now need to fix it.

“I think we will and there are some very positive things happening and I hope the interim board will bring stability. There are enough good people in cricket to make it work and we have lots of talented cricketers – we should always be top-three in my mind. But it’s not just about academic qualifications or business experience on a CV, it’s about the heart and the leaders have got to love the game,” Faul said at the Titans season launch on Wednesday at SuperSport Park, where he is reinstalled as CEO.

Faul said the health of CSA could only be restored by a cleanout and finding new leadership who are passionate about cricket and also understand the workings of the sport.

“If any of us have been in a leadership position for a while, then we have to collectively take responsibility for the space cricket is in. It’s never just one person and we should all take responsibility for letting the players, sponsors and fans down. CSA needs a clean up, my personal opinion is that is time to move on and get new people in who will do things for the right reasons.

“It’s all good and well having a very good professional CV, but the leaders coming in have got to love the game and understand sport and cricket, maybe that’s what we’ve learnt from this whole fiasco. Things have never been as bad as this before, we had even less direction and more infighting. I’m a bit worried that we are hearing the same people telling a different story,” Faul said.

Cricket South Africa announced on Tuesday the big news that both festive season Tests this season will be played on the Highveld, but what their press release left undisclosed was the reason for the New Years Test being shifted from Cape Town for the first time in more than a century.

Newlands has been the host every time South Africa has played a New Years Test at home since January 1, 1914, when England clinched their 5-match series with a 91-run win in the third Test, at the Old Wanderers.

But this Christmas, due to Covid-19 and the need to play in a biobubble, Sri Lanka will play the Boxing Day Test against the Proteas at SuperSport Park in Centurion starting on December 26, with the New Years Test beginning on December 3 at the new Wanderers Stadium.

The costs of setting up a biobubble for just one game in Cape Town were deemed to be too much, with Sri Lanka and the Proteas able to stay in the same place for their two Tests over the festive season, which makes financial sense, especially with no spectators expected to be allowed to attend. England are paying for a substantial portion of the biobubble for their white-ball series against South Africa in a month’s time, and they insisted on staying in Cape Town.

“It’s great for our brand and for our sponsors, so it’s a really great thing to be the host from that point of view, but we are sad that we won’t see any fans here at the Wanderers. We are thankful and excited that Cricket South Africa have chosen us as hosts. It certainly wasn’t something we planned for at the start of the year.

“But with the Boxing Day Test happening at Centurion, it means the players can stay and travel from the same place, plus Cape Town will have the England series. If even a reduced number of fans are given the go-ahead to attend then we will be ready to go. We’ve geared ourselves to be ready for whenever fans can return and all safety measures are already in place,” Jono Leaf-Wright, the CEO of the Central Gauteng Lions, told The Citizen on Tuesday.

While only the Proteas fixtures up to that second Test against Sri Lanka were confirmed on Tuesday, that is certainly not the sum total of their summer. CSA revealed that Australia and Pakistan would also feature during the summer.

Australia will arrive for three Tests in February/March, which will undoubtedly be the pinnacle of the season, while a Pakistan tour comprising three ODIs and three T20s will end the summer.

South Africa are also scheduled to tour Pakistan in January for the first time since 2007, with CSA saying a delegation leaves for the subcontinental country at the weekend to do a security assessment.

Fixtures

England tour – Friday, 27 November (18h00):1^st T20I Newlands, Cape Town; Sunday, 29 November (14h30):2^nd T20I Boland Park, Paarl; Tuesday, 1 December (18h00): 3^rd T20I Newlands, Cape Town; Friday, 4 December (13h00): 1^st ODI Newlands, Cape Town; Sunday, 6 December (10h00): 2^nd ODI Boland Park, Paarl; Wednesday, 9 December (13h00): 3^rd ODI Newlands, Cape Town.

Sri Lanka Tour – Saturday, 26-30 December (10h00): 1^st Test SuperSport Park, Centurion; Sunday, 3-7 January (10h00):2^nd Test Imperial Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg.

Following the resignation of the rest of the Cricket South Africa Board on Monday morning, the Members Council will now focus their efforts on setting up an interim board comprised of fit individuals to steer the federation to their AGM on December 5 and also formulate a new Memorandum of Incorporation for the election of directors.

The three remaining independent directors and the last non-independent director, Free State president Zola Thamae, all stood down on Monday morning, following the weekend resignations of five of the non-independent directors on the Board.

With no Board now in place, the 14-strong Members Council is currently in charge of CSA and their first order of business is to set up an interim board, none of whom will be directors from the last four years and none of whom will be eligible for the new permanent Board once it is in place.

The Members Council will present their plans to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa later on Monday, ahead of their scheduled meeting with him on Tuesday, and they will also consult with Sascoc over the composition of the interim board.

While ensuring independent directors are a majority on the board is one of the major recommendations of the Nicholson Commission, a big focus of the Members Council will be in ensuring these independents are fit to serve cricket, because they have been disappointed with the level of contribution made by the independent directors in recent years.

“Everyone on the Board has now gone and we will now move forward with our interim board plan. We want to send the Minister a response before our meeting on Tuesday. We’ve opened communication with Sascoc, but we need to nominate people who will add value to cricket, we need to guard against people coming in who are not going to help CSA.

“We want to get that interim board as clean as possible and you can’t serve on that body and then be a Board member afterwards because that would be a conflict of interest and we don’t want people to be persuaded into doing things that are not for the benefit of the game. Knowledge of cricket is going to be key and the biggest question facing us is whether we want totally independent figures or cricket people,” a provincial president who sits on the Members Council told The Citizen on Monday.

The administrator confirmed that they were trying to convince a recently retired Protea of high standing to swop his whites for a tie and sit on that interim board.

Much of the blame for CSA’s mess can be laid on the shoulders of previous independent directors, on whom the Board depends for expert corporate governance advice, who did not ensure those running the organisation stayed on the straight and narrow.