Ken Borland

CLASS … 19-year-old Aiden Markram inspired the Tornados’ victory in the Northerns Bash. – ©Alwyn Myburgh, Big Pic Photography

The Global Gladiators were once again denied in the final of the Northerns Bash as, despite Cobus Pienaar’s brilliant century, the Tornados, inspired by Aiden Markram, beat them by eight wickets at SuperSport Park yesterday.

The Gladiators, who decided to bat first, were indebted to Pienaar’s scintillating 103 not out off 73 balls for their total of 161 for five.

The runners-up in the first edition of the Northerns Bash were off to a great start as Pienaar and Lerato Kgoatle (14) put on 64 in the first seven overs. But the Tornados were brought back into the game by wrist-spinner Thomas Kaber, who landed his first ball perfectly, Kgoatle went back and the umpire lifted the finger for lbw.

Five balls later, Sean Dickson, whose innings of 70 off 42 balls had killed the Tornados on Saturday, was caught by cow-corner running in as he mis-hit a poorly-executed attempt to pull a short delivery from Kaber.

Off-spinner Jacques Snyman then bowled a reverse-paddling Farhaan Behardien (7) three overs later and the Gladiators had slipped to 88 for three. But the left-handed Pienaar batted on, relying on well-placed singles and hard-run twos to keep the scoreboard ticking over and ensure there were wickets in hand at the death.

Evan Jones put his foot on the accelerator in scoring 23, but Pienaar’s beautifully-paced innings saw him reach the first century in Northerns Bash history in the final over, off 69 balls, with 13 fours and three sixes.

The Tornados relied on eight bowlers to deliver the 20 overs and Kaber (3-22-2), left-arm spinner David Bunn (3-22-1), Snyman (3-23-1) and seamers Gerhard Linde (3-22-0) and Corbin Bosch (4-31-0) all handled the pressure situation well.

Titans captain Henry Davids was all class at the start of the Tornados’ chase and it looked to be his day as he raced them to 62 without loss after six overs, being dropped on 28 by Behardien at third man off paceman Sean Nowak.

Davids only added four more runs though, before charging experienced left-arm spinner Ryan Houbert, missing the ball and eventually being stumped by Kgoatle, to leave the Tornados on 69 for one after eight overs.

They needed 93 off 12 overs, a required run-rate of 7.75, and the 19-year-old Markram continued to push the ball around like a seasoned veteran.

With his fellow Tuks star, Theunis de Bruyn, 60 runs were added for the second wicket off just 42 balls to have the Gladiators up against the wall.

De Bruyn eventually fell for 26 off 22 balls as he tried to slap leg-spinner Tertius Gouws through the covers, but hit the ball to extra cover Jones instead.

The Tornados then needed 33 from 31 balls, but there was no escape for the Gladiators as Graeme van Buuren (15*) and Markram continued to pierce the field with ease and completed victory with nine balls to spare.

The Titans are certainly blessed with plenty of young batting talent and Markram is rapidly climbing that list, impressing hugely with his measured innings of 81 not out off 54 balls.

Spinners are normally the most effective bowlers in the Northerns Bash and the Gladiators’ two best performers with the ball were Houbert (1-27) and Gouws (1-25).

The Tornados, who didn’t even use Heino Kuhn because of a knee niggle, are a formidable batting side, however, and they chased down a competitive total with aplomb.

The Northerns Bash is believed to be the only club competition in the world that can attract a handful of internationals and two-dozen first-class cricketers to play alongside their amateur colleagues and the move to play it twice a year has certainly been a success.

In yesterday morning’s game, the Pirates beat the Nashua Phantoms by 48 runs to claim third place. Opening batsmen Eldred Hawken (54) and Wian van Heerden (44) added 101 in 9.5 overs to lead Pirates to 173 for six, and off-spinners Tom Khoza (4-26-4) and Ruben Claassen (3-1-8-2) then bowled superbly to limit the Phantoms, the defending champions, to 125.

Scores in brief

Saturday round-robin: Pirates 158-6 (Tom Khoza 39, Wian van Heerden 42, Ryan Cartwright 22; Eden Links 2-31, Shaun von Berg 2-19). Phantoms 159-7 (Blake Schraader 42, Jason Brooker 54 not out; Ruan Olivier 2-21; Ruben Claassen 2-25). Phantoms won by three wickets.  Gladiators 172-4 (Lerato Kgoatle 37, Sean Dickson 70, Bafana Mahlangu 24, Tertius Gouws 25*; Thomas Kaber 2-34). Tornados 151-7 (Mangaliso Mosehle 24; David Bunn 33, Jacques Snyman 47*; Ryan Houbert 2-25). Gladiators won by 21 runs.

Third/fourth play-off: Pirates 173-6 (Eldred Hawken 54, Wian van Heerden 44, Tom Khoza 20*). Phantoms 125 (Blake Schraader 36, Roelof van der Merwe 21; Tom Khoza 4-26, Ruben Claassen 2-8). Pirates won by 48 runs.

Final: Gladiators 161-5 (Cobus Pienaar 103*, Evan Jones 23; Thomas Kaber 2-22). Tornados 165-2 (Henry Davids 32, Aiden Markram 81*, Theunis de Bruyn 26). Tornados won by eight wickets.

CSA president Chris Nenzani

Cricket South Africa’s affiliates on Saturday voted to extend the term of president Chris Nenzani, three independent directors and three non-independent directors by another year.

Last year the CSA Board was recomposed to include seven non-independent directors, including the president and vice-president, and five independent directors, and the terms of all directors were set at three years.

But at Saturday’s annual general meeting at OR Tambo International Airport, a special resolution was passed to stagger the tenure of the directors and avoid wholesale changes to the board every three years.

According to the resolutions, Nenzani, three independent directors and three non-independent directors will now stay in office until the conclusion of the 2016 AGM.

The explanatory notes issued with the resolution stated: “The challenge, however, is that each three-year term will present an election conundrum in that all the directors’ terms of appointment would expire and potentially a number of the directors might not be re-elected, meaning that the board could be challenged by the loss of valuable institutional knowledge and memory, thereby impacting the smooth running of the company.”

The AGM also approved resolutions postponing the expansion of the board (as agreed during the Nicholson Commission of Inquiry) to 16 directors (seven independent and nine non-independent) to “an appropriate time” and removing a clause in their Memorandum of Incorporation stating that CSA shall comply with the constitution of Sascoc [South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee) and any directives issued by them.

“It is submitted that we should not expressly document this in our MOI in the event that we may in future, for good reason, be forced to legally challenge a directive from any such organisation,” the explanatory notes stated.

 http://www.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/CSA-extends-term-of-president-20140913

Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat said on Saturday that national coach Russell Domingo’s contract has been extended for another year because they were considering the negative impact uncertainty could have on World Cup preparations.

Lorgat announced on Saturday that Domingo and national team manager Mohammed Moosajee both had their contracts extended to April 2016 by the CSA board, who had met on Friday night.

“We’re very satisfied with the performance of the head coach and manager, in particular during this time of transition with great players retiring over the last couple of years. It has been seamless and the board was very impressed by the way the team grew back to number one in Tests and has migrated up the rankings in ODIs as well,” Lorgat said.

“Our focus is now on the World Cup and the team has progressed very well. We knew their prowess in Test cricket, but Russell is building a very competitive team in ODIs as well. His contract was due to expire at the end of the World Cup in April 2015, but we wanted to take away that uncertainty.”

Lorgat said negotiations over the contracts of Domingo’s eight management members –Adrian Birrell (assistant), Allan Donald (bowling), Claude Henderson (spin bowling), Paddy Upton (performance), Greg King (conditioning), Riaan Muller (logistics), Brandon Jackson (physiotherapist) and Prasanna Agoram (video analysis) – would now commence.

Domingo’s good fortune in terms of his contract was slightly marred by a shock announcement at Saturday’s AGM, which was generally marked by an air of contentment, by Advocate Vusi Pikoli, the chairman of the ethics sub-committee and a former head of the National Prosecuting Authority, that his committee were deeply concerned by the allegations of ball-tampering surrounding the national team.

“The committee wishes to raise its deep concern on the recent reports and allegations of ball-tampering. The committee takes a very dim view of these reports and wishes to send out a strong message that such behaviour cannot be tolerated. Such conduct damages our fragile reputation.

“It’s not about what others do, it’s about our reputation and we urge our lads to take this matter very seriously,” Pikoli said in his report to the AGM.

– http://www.iol.co.za/sport/cricket/domestic/proteas-coach-contract-extended-1.1750447#.VBvlWfmSxe8

The management of Cricket South Africa were praised on Saturday for their effective running of the organisation through trying times as a profit of R199 million was announced at the annual general meeting at O.R. Tambo International Airport.

The audited financial statements showed revenue of R810 607 000 for the year ended April 30, 2014, with expenses of R634 092 000. With investment income of R17 324 000 and a net foreign exchange gain of R5 571 000, CSA were able to present a total profit of R199 410 000 for the financial year. This is only R18 million less than the targeted profit despite the calamitous curtailing of the lucrative Indian tour to South Africa late last year.

“Instead of the R200 million loss predicted by some in the media because of the India tour being curtailed, we are less than R20 million short of our target. If you consider the high level of dysfunctionality in governance and the inappropriate responses of the board back in 2010, then the management has been our saving grace. They have put a semblance of normality in place, they had to be creative and resilient and we have moved from crisis to normality,” CSA president Chris Nenzani said at the AGM.

Louis von Zeuner, an independent director, the chairman of the audit and risk sub-committee and a leading businessman, also praised CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat and chief financial officer Naasei Appiah for their efforts.

“We really must applaud management for the way they have dealt with such curtailed income, stabilising cricket in this time of changing financial models. We have a balance on the board between business people and those with the cricket knowledge, so it’s the best of both worlds. If you look at the economy, the exchange rate, the impacts of changes in the international body and sponsors, it’s a totally different environment nowadays,” Von Zeuner said.

Appiah pointed out that cricket’s finances had to be planned over a four-year cycle and this four-year cycle just ended had seen CSA budget for R500 million a year of expenses, which would now increase to R650 million per year for the next four-year cycle.

Lorgat said this success was due to CSA implementing more efficient financial systems.

“We had to generate new revenues, such as the Festival of Cricket, but this did not affect our existing cricket activities. It was untrue when reports said we had to cut programs.

“What did happen was the re-engineering of our operating model, we had to understand exactly how everything worked, through a far more detailed process of measuring and managing, down to such details as ‘how many match balls does an affiliate need?’

“We’re confident that we can control the growth and sustenance of the game because we went into great detail to come up with the numbers. Funds are now allocated exactly according to activity, whereas in the past we used to just divide up the cake,” Lorgat said.

The CEO also said the Future Tours Programme for the next eight years would see a 44% increase in international cricket hosted by South Africa, with an average of 46 days of Proteas action per year, as compared to 32 in the previous FTP.

The money men were particularly looking forward to 2017/18 when four international teams, including India, are scheduled to tour South Africa, with 13 Tests set to be played.

“We’re fortunate to have the world’s best team, so we’re in a good space to be able to work out a profitable FTP, plus South Africa is an attractive destination,” Lorgat added.

http://www.supersport.com/cricket/domestic-cricket/news/140913/csa_management_praised_for_r199m_profit