Ken Borland

The Central Gauteng Lions have decided to move away from the prescribed racial constituencies for the election of their board in their AGM on Saturday, because critics say it encourages individuals elected as directors to only focus on their particular segment of the game.

Since the Langa Commission in 2009, which was set up by disgraced Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola as punishment for Gauteng cricket’s role in bringing the bonus scandal to light, the Lions board has had a specific racial composition, with racial voting blocks that meant Black African clubs could only vote for the Black African members of the board, likewise for the Coloured and Indian and White groupings.

Last year, CSA pulled a similar stunt, delaying the AGM when the Ngoepe Commission was instituted to see if the changes brought about by the Langa Commission had aided transformation. Judge Bernard Ngoepe found that they had not, but then said the provisions should continue.

Of the seven non-independent directors to be elected to the board, three of them had to be Black African, with the Coloured/Indian and White constituencies electing two representatives each. But the Members Council, comprising all the province’s clubs, have agreed that in Saturday’s AGM there will be two guaranteed posts for each of the racial categories, for which everyone can vote, while the seventh place on the board is open to anyone.

The Black African Cricket Clubs (BACC) grouping this week lashed out at the Members Council and have threatened to pull out of Saturday’s AGM.

“Transformation has not been fully achieved but there has been progress. The Coloured and Indian clubs don’t feel any less Black than the Black African ones and having more Black African representatives does not automatically guarantee transformation. The board has been majority Black African for a number of years but the report by Judge Ngoepe said transformation had not been achieved.

“We want to vote for the best board, whether that means five Black Africans, seven or two. But the BACC are basically fighting about one seat and have been threating the Concerned Cricketers Forum (Indian/Coloured) and the Previously Advantaged Clubs (White), both of which have definitely changed their demographics anyway. We don’t want to vote by constituency anymore.

“All clubs should play a role in electing all seven board members, so the Members Council have decided that all clubs can vote for all seven, the best seven. There are also the five independent directors to be chosen by the new board and I would be surprised if that wasn’t 80% Black African. We want to be able to hold every board member accountable, with three different constituencies the directors all just look after their own interests. The day a Black African club can ask a White board member what they are doing for that club is the day we move forward,” a Members Council insider told Saturday Citizen.

Central Gauteng Lions CEO Jono Leaf-Wright said he believed the Members Council’s only agenda was to obtain long-overdue unity.

“We just want a united board that can grow all cricket and execute our mandate, including transformation. In terms of transformation, I believe we have ticked many boxes. It would be different if we were fielding lily-white teams, but our system and pipeline are very strong,” Leaf-Wright said.

Keshav Maharaj is not satisfied to be merely South Africa’s number one spinner in Test cricket; the 30-year-old said on Thursday that he wants to play in all three formats. And he even dreams of captaining the Proteas to World Cup glory one day.

While Maharaj is pretty much unchallenged for his place in the Test team, having taken 110 wickets in 30 matches, he has only played seven ODIs and is yet to be picked for a T20 International. Three of those appearances came in the whitewash of Australia earlier this year though and the left-arm spinner performed tidily enough to cement himself in the national selectors’ plans, being chosen for the abandoned limited-overs tour of India. It was Maharaj’s form for the Dolphins as they won the Momentum One-Day Cup that forced his return to the Green and Gold as he ended as the fourth-highest wicket-taker with 16 wickets, despite only playing seven out of the 10 games, and had the best average in the competition – 14.68.

“Since making my ODI debut in England in 2017, I had to work on my plan for limited-overs cricket and I went back to franchise cricket and worked as hard as I could. So it was a really good experience to be drafted back into the ODI side. Being boxed as a red-ball cricketer has been extremely frustrating for me because I was branded as a white-ball bowler early in my career!

“To be handed another opportunity for the Proteas was like making my debut again. I want to play for South Africa in all three formats, but for T20 I need to bide my time in the ODI side first. I want South Africa to be number one in all formats and if that happens then I must be doing my job. Then I just want to do better the next season,” Maharaj said on Thursday.

And if one enquires about the Durban-born star’s long-term goals then the drive and ambition of a champion competitor becomes clear.

“When I asked what I had to do to get back in the ODI side, I was told that apart from my bowling I had to work on my batting as well. I was fortunate to have extra responsibility as the Dolphins captain, it made me want to be able to bail the team out of any situation or put them in a winning position, and I managed to get some scores last season. I know I have a lot more ability with the bat than the numbers suggest.

“In India last year I tasted what it was like to get an international fifty. The biggest problem was getting the first one and hopefully now I can move to being a bowling all-rounder or even a fully-fledged all-rounder, able to contribute evenly with ball and bat. And I really enjoy captaincy, I really want to lead the Proteas, that’s my dream. Raising the World Cup trophy was a childhood dream of mine,” Maharaj said.

Richard Pybus has been one of the real legends of domestic coaching in South Africa, having won nine trophies with the Titans and Cape Cobras franchises, but he began his career guiding lowly Border into a position where they were competitive against the big guns of local cricket. So when the former Pakistan and West Indies coach says plans to change the domestic structure, increasing the top level to 12 provincial teams, are not addressing the true problems in South African cricket then his views should be considered seriously.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Pybus said of the plan to do away with the six franchises at the top table of domestic cricket. “They are trying to fix the wrong thing. The issue is the administration of the game and not franchise cricket. Why are Cricket South Africa in their current financial position? They should review that. Why pull apart a highly effective system, the same sort of model that has given Australia consistent success?

“The issue is not our model but getting our administration right. Our problems are not about the franchise game, that’s giving us what is needed, which is incredible competition, the best 66 players in the country going up against each other. The franchise system was directly responsible and supported our national team getting to number one. We want strength versus excellence, not to dilute that,” Pybus told The Citizen from his house in Hermanus.

The 55-year-old Pybus said the domestic system needed to reflect the differences between the high-performance needs of the Proteas pipeline and those of growing the game.

“Our cricket has lots of layers and it needs to be clearer whether those layers serve the recreational game or the Proteas, with a lot of layers not really serving either of them. A lot of our cricket should not be professional and any changes should be about strengthening that level. We have a brilliant, multi-cultural game and it also needs to be inclusive.

“The development programme does have some issues, there are not enough players coming from Black communities, but that has nothing to do with franchise cricket. There are geographical and historical reasons for those issues. Coaching is also a real problem and it will take a generation to transform that because we have pushed all our senior coaches out, that intellectual capital is gone,” Pybus said.

This last year has probably been the toughest in Faf du Plessis’ Proteas career but the 35-year-old revealed on Monday that he does not believe this is the end of his story as an international cricketer.

A year ago, Du Plessis was coming off the ignominy of leading South Africa to a Test series defeat to Sri Lanka at home, but looking forward to the World Cup with optimism. This hope was misplaced and the accursed tournament was an even bigger disaster than the ones that have gone before for the Proteas, and then Du Plessis was at the helm for a humiliating Test thrashing in India.

As if the on-field woes were not enough, Du Plessis then had to pick up the slack as the dysfunctional Cricket South Africa executive imploded just weeks before England arrived for the summer’s major tour. Having helped restore some stability along with Jacques Faul, Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher, Du Plessis then lost form with the bat, scoring just 195 runs in 11 innings in the Tests against England and three T20s versus Australia. This put pressure on his place in the underperforming team.

He relinquished the captaincy in February. And then Covid-19 struck, leaving him in Lockdown and the Indian Premier League, the lucrative annual jamboree of the world’s elite cricketers, cancelled. But all the troubles have at least focused Du Plessis’ mind.

“It was probably one of the toughest seasons I’ve ever had to face and it was not just about cricket. I felt that I had fought the good fight, I gave everything leading the Proteas, I went away to reflect and I felt it was the right time to stand down. There’s a new coaching staff, maybe they should start their journey with someone new and me stepping aside could fast-track that process.

“But I still believe I have a lot of value to add, I still love playing and being involved with the Proteas. I’m still extremely motivated to play in all three formats and at no stage did I think of signing overseas. The time away from the game has made sure that my hunger is still there and I really look forward to getting back to the Proteas. The time is right to help grow other leaders,” Du Plessis said.

The veteran of 36 Tests as captain said he is optimistic that the Proteas will now return to winning ways, although he warned the Test team is still in a growing phase.

“The India tour showed us the Test team was far behind, we weren’t scoring enough runs and we weren’t able to take 20 wickets, plus we didn’t have the skills to back up our performance. There are a lot of holes. It was obvious for me that you can’t replace all the playing experience we lost overnight, but I also felt there was a lack of experience in the coaching staff, which required a lot of energy from me.

“Enoch Nkwe did a great job in India but we needed to fill that lack of experience in the coaches because you can’t just get experienced players in. Some really good moves were made in the build-up to the England series and we are in a position to start producing again now. Our structures look sound and we have good heads in charge to grow the game. The series against Australia showed that we definitely have a lot of talent,” Du Plessis said.