Ken Borland

The Unlimited Titans have made arguably the biggest strike in the domestic transfer market by securing the services of top-order batsman Dean Elgar for the next two seasons, chief executive Jacques Faul confirmed yesterday.

The Knights left-hander is on the verge of becoming a Test regular following the retirement of Graeme Smith and he has a first-class average of 43.69 and a List A average of 37.61, plus a strike-rate of 110.15 with a great average of 38.96 in T20 cricket.

“Dean is the kind of player we need at the Titans, he’s gutsy, well-respected in South African cricket and he gives it his all. He’s a helluva player in all three formats, but especially in four-day cricket. At the moment we’re playing guys who are averaging in the 20s, which is not what we want. Dean is a special player and he gives us lots of options,” Faul told The Pretoria News yesterday.

And it would appear to be a good bet that Elgar hits top form for the Titans because Smith’s absence has now given him the chance to cement a regular place for himself in the national team, as evidenced by Cricket South Africa’s decision to give him a contract once the Test skipper retired.

“If he performs at our level then he will become a permanent fixture in the national team. But he must do well for us first and I believe he’ll be fresh, hungry and wanting to prove himself. He’s wanted to come here for a long time and he’s one of the guys who has always been keen to play for his franchise,” Faul said.

While the 26-year-old Elgar is a high-quality signing that will make a real difference to the Titans team, the ambitious franchise did not stop there and also targeted fellow Proteas Ryan McLaren and Quinton de Kock.

McLaren – who Faul complimented on his “honest” negotiations – has been confirmed as a Dolphins player for next season, while De Kock is most likely to remain as a marquee player for the Titans’ Gauteng rivals, the Highveld Lions.

“Obviously we wanted to strengthen the squad but franchises do make counter-offers and sometimes guys are not as serious about moving as they say,” Faul said.

The Titans are also in negotiations with Jacques Rudolph,who wants to be considered as only a limited-overs player next season, and Faul was optimistic that there would be a good outcome, describing the left-handed top-order batsman as “another special player”.

Seamer CJ de Villiers has been sent on his way, while paceman Junior Dala, currently on loan from the Lions, will be joining the Titans full-time next season.

Other high-flying youngsters being rewarded with improved deals are batsman Graeme van Buuren (rookie contract) and Tukkies star Theunis de Bruyn (semi-pro).

Despite the hype around SA U19 captain Aiden Markram, the batsman will have to make do with a contract from the University of Pretoria for the time being.

“Aiden is a very talented young player, very level-headed and smart, and the sort of guy we want to hang on to. But we literally don’t have space because we’re only allowed to contract a certain number of players. We have other former SA U19 stars like Murray Coetzee and Theunis at Tukkies and my best advice to Aiden is to stay patient,” Faul said.

Other big-name moves in franchise cricket include Lions spinner Eddie Leie moving to the Knights, along with Cobras T20 star Richard Levi, and Dolphins left-arm seamer Mthokozisi Shezi possibly going to the Cobras.

Corrie van Zyl was the national coach from 2009 to 2011 and he also ran the high performance academy, so he knows what it takes for young cricketers to make the step up to international level, which is why his excitement over Cricket South Africa’s new Centre of Excellence at the University of Pretoria should make all cricket fans happy.

CSA opened their new state-of-the-art facility at Tukkies on Thursday night, ensuring that the best science and technology will now be applied to the cricket development pipeline.

“It’s sometimes tough to convince people that this sort of facility is what you need, especially when the national team is doing so well, but I believe you need something like this to sustain that success. To stay number one, we have to do things differently,” a delighted Van Zyl, the general manager of cricket, told The Pretoria News at the launch.

“It’s been an unbelievable experience seeing this come to fruition and I hope it will serve as motivation for all our young cricketers to be part of this. Hopefully the Centre of Excellence will bring that spark that will push players to go the extra mile,” Van Zyl said.

Building for the R30 million project began last April and the high-tech facilities are not just intended for the elite players of the national team.

“There is so much else that is important in the pipeline and this centre will address that too,” Van Zyl said. “Although we’d like the national team to be here too, I must emphasise that this is a commitment to all levels of our cricket. We will expose players from within the more mainstream part of the pipeline – cricket centres of excellence in the previously-disadvantaged areas, such as Fort Hare Academy and provincial academies – to expose them to the latest video analysis and technology to grow them and for us to broaden our talent base.”

It’s amazing that such a sleek, impressive facility could be built in less than a year and its beneficial effects should stretch on for many more years.

“The facilities are unbelievable and it’s going to be the best place for teams to prepare. As well as the indoor part, we have all the University of Pretoria outdoor nets, which can be set up to replicate any away country a team needs, as well as the L.C. de Villiers Oval field.

“This is a real cricket complex and I’m hoping it will become the nerve centre of South African cricket, somewhere where we can share knowledge,” Van Zyl said.

Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat was yesterday not only able to deliver the good news that he has been exonerated of all wrongdoing surrounding his alleged involvement in the media statement criticising ICC governance by their former legal advisor David Becker, but also news of on-going negotiations with Australia and England for more Test cricket against those countries.

The International Cricket Council yesterday announced that they could find no evidence linking Lorgat to Becker’s damning statement and also cleared him of allegedly trying to bribe or threaten journalists in an attempt to withdraw the story.

“Being exonerated is no surprise to me because I knew exactly what I had done and what I had not done, and I knew that I would not fail myself nor cricket in South Africa,” Lorgat said at the Wanderers yesterday.

“But I am gravely disappointed that I was found guilty in the media and a lot of things were said about me even before the investigation began.”

Not much seems capable of taking the former ICC chief executive by surprise and Lorgat also brushed off the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s decision to not stage any of the IPL in South Africa while revealing the prospect of increased Tests against Australia and England.

“We weren’t surprised at all by the BCCI announcement, they want to play the tournament close to home. We were involved in discussions all along and we were informed of the decision before it went public. It made sense to have the first 16 games in the UAE, if they needed longer outside India then maybe we would have featured,” Lorgat said.

“But we never had any plans for the IPL in the financial forecasts. It would have been a windfall, but it’s something we hadn’t bargained for.”

With Lorgat and CSA having a well-publicised falling out with the BCCI last year and India, Australia and England staging a virtual coup to take control of the ICC, the fears that South African cricket would be sidelined don’t seem to be materialising.

Lorgat revealed the success of preliminary negotiations with other boards that would see more Test cricket being played in South Africa.

“We are very keen to play four-Test series against Australia and we’ve gone some way to agreeing to that, although it’s dependent on the calendar. And we are talking to England and have agreed in principle to play a five-Test series in 2015/16. So we’ve already achieved a lot working together since the original ICC proposal, which has already been changed considerably,” Lorgat said.

Chief executive Haroon Lorgat said on Thursday that hosting some of the 2014 Indian Premier League (IPL) would have been a “windfall” for Cricket South Africa, but the organisation had not catered for the tournament in their financial forecasts.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Wednesday that this year’s IPL would begin in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on April 16, before moving to India from May 1, with Bangladesh on standby should the elections in India not allow them to host it until later that month.

The announcement put to an end speculation that South Africa would host some of the tournament, having successfully staged the entire 2009 event.

“We weren’t surprised at all by the BCCI announcement, they want to play the tournament close to home. We were involved in discussions all along and we were informed of the decision before it went public. It made sense to have the first 16 games in the UAE, if they needed longer outside India then maybe we would have featured,” Lorgat said on Thursday.

“But we never had any plans for the IPL in our forecasts. It would have been a windfall, but it’s something we hadn’t bargained for. If it had come here, we would have embraced it, but equally we can deal with it not coming here. It’s their tournament and we respect their choice.”

With Lorgat and CSA having a well-publicised falling out with the BCCI last year and India, Australia and England staging a virtual coup to take control of the International Cricket Council (ICC), there have been fears that South African cricket would be sidelined.

But Lorgat revealed there has been a rush of activity in negotiations with other boards that would see more Test cricket being played here.

“We are very keen to play four-Test series against Australia and we’ve gone some way to agreeing to that, although it’s dependent on the calendar. If we can fit it in, then we will do that.

“And we are talking to England and have agreed in principle to play a five-Test series in 2015/16. So we’ve already achieved a lot working together since the original ICC proposal, which has already been changed considerably,” Lorgat said.

The CEO also denied reports from India that CSA had refused to stage only part of the IPL, wanting the whole tournament or nothing.

“To say we made demands like that is totally untrue and the amounts of money that we were reported to have wanted have also been exaggerated,” Lorgat said.