Ken Borland

Proteas batsman Zubayr Hamza will be able to leap back into action less than a year after testing positive for a banned substance, as the International Cricket Council announced just a nine-month ban for the 26-year-old on Tuesday.

Having returned a positive sample for the diuretic Furosemide on January 17, Hamza accepted a provisional suspension on March 22. So he will be eligible to return to play on December 22 this year, in time for the height of the South African summer.

The ICC, in their statement released on Tuesday, said there had been “no significant fault or negligence on his part” and he had admitted the infringement, so what may be seen as a lenient punishment has also been backdated to March 22.

The South African Cricketers’ Association, which supported Hamza through the legal process, said the Western Province batsman had provided “full disclosure of medications that he had been taking, and the sequence of events leading up to the positive test. Through this process, we were able to determine how Furosemide came to be in his sample”.

Hamza expressed his relief and denied any deliberate attempt to illegally enhance his performance.

“I have never intentionally taken a prohibited substance and I am relieved that the ICC determination confirms this fact. The past few months have been difficult for me on a personal and professional level, and I have learnt lessons that I will share with my fellow players,” Hamza said.

Last year the World Anti-Doping Agency also announced that Furosemide was one of the substances that should no longer be considered a banned substance if its concentration in the urine was less than 20ng/ml.

Hamza, who first played for the Proteas in 2019, went through a couple of years of poor form after he was dropped from the Test side during the series against England in early 2020.

But he gave his career a fresh dose of oxygen last summer and not only returned to Test cricket in New Zealand, but made his ODI debut for South Africa as well, scoring 56 against the Netherlands at Centurion.

Then came the positive doping test, a deflating incident which fortunately will not cost the talented strokeplayer more time out of the game.

The Ospreys showed at Ellis Park recently that they have a top scrum, but the Bulls are confident of handling them in their United Rugby Championship match in Swansea on Friday night thanks to the intel provided to them by someone who scaled the heights of Welsh rugby.

Former Springbok tighthead prop Werner Kruger is the Bulls scrum consultant and he also played 122 times for Scarlets, being a key figure in their 2016/17 side that won the Pro12, the Celtic league that was the precursor to the URC.

“It really helps having Werner Kruger in our camp, he is someone who recently played in Wales, so he knows their mindset,” Bulls prop Gerhard Steenekamp said on Tuesday.

“All that information helps and our scrum is something we have really worked on. Now that we have played longer together as a tight five, we’ve got our rhythm.

“Ospreys have a good pack, but we’ve done our prep and we can only give our best. And in terms of adapting to the referee, if we don’t do anything wrong then he can’t penalise us,” Steenekamp said.

Ospreys are looking to win the Welsh Shield in the URC and a place in the lucrative Champions Cup, and are currently level with Scarlets on 44 points, so Friday night’s clash is a massive match for them as well.

They have lost to all three of the other South African franchises, with their heaviest defeat coming against the Lions at Ellis Park. They were beaten 45-15 at the end of March, but the one aspect of the game where Ospreys did come out on top was in the scrum, against a powerful Lions set-piece.

Since then there has been a far more celebratory mood in the Swansea Stadium offices as Ospreys have enjoyed putting 50 points on the board in back-to-back matches against the Dragons and Scarlets and they held their annual awards evening during the last week as well.

The Bulls, meanwhile, are just happy that the weather along the south-west coast of Wales is good.

“The weather is not bad at all,” Steenekamp said. “It’s nearly the same temperature as Pretoria was when we left. The last time we played in Europe it was in midwinter compared to coming from our midsummer.

“We haven’t really changed our touring plans since then, but we have grown a lot as a squad – both in our game and as players,” Steenekamp said.

Tristan Stubbs, the sensational young Warriors batting talent, will have his first taste of international action when he tours India with the Proteas T20 squad next month and his Eastern Province coach, Robin Peterson, believes the 21-year-old will only get better as he gains more experience in the shortest format.

Stubbs’s maiden Proteas call-up came on Tuesday following two outstanding T20 campaigns for the Warriors, scoring 506 runs in 17 innings, at an average of 38 and a strike-rate of 156. Many of his innings have been memorable efforts under great pressure at the death.

“We’re very proud of Tristan and very chuffed that he is getting this opportunity,” Peterson told The Citizen on Tuesday. “It’s a testament to his hard work. He’s a very natural player and being aware of the situation is where he has really improved.

“His biggest strength is that he reads the game well. And he doesn’t feel the pressure because he has the skills to get off strike quickly, get in and then explode.

“He comes in in different situations and he will only get better as he builds a database of doing it in different conditions against different opposition.

“Hopefully his IPL experience now with the Mumbai Indians will help make the transition to international cricket smoother. Mixing with Kieron Pollard, he’s getting some elite thinking on middle-order batting, and he has a great opportunity to play alongside David Miller now in the Proteas side,” Peterson, who represented South Africa in 100 white-ball matches, said.

As befitting someone who could come to the crease with three wickets down inside the powerplay, or with just 20 balls left in the innings, Stubbs has the all-round game for all circumstances.

“He has sound thinking around the game and he has all the natural attributes for the middle-order – he plays spin well, he can hit sixes and he runs hard so he doesn’t use up a lot of dot balls,” Peterson said.

“He loves his golf and was a great hockey player, which is probably why he has such good wrists.

“He’s a very laid-back surfer-boy from Knysna, but very competitive and very driven to succeed. It’s been a meteoric rise for him, but I just hope people are patient with him,” coach Peterson said.

Thirteen of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad have been selected for the series in India, with Stubbs and left-arm quick Marco Jansen the only inclusions who have not yet played in the shortest format at international level.

All-rounder Wayne Parnell has also earned a recall, while fast bowler Anrich Nortje is fit again and available for South Africa for the first time since last November.

Squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi.

Quick-scoring Tristan Stubbs will be in line to make his Proteas debut following his first call-up on Tuesday to the South African squad for their T20 series in India, while fast bowler Anrich Nortje will be making a welcome return to international action.

The 21-year-old Stubbs has played sensational T20 cricket for the Warriors, scoring 506 runs in 17 innings over the last two seasons, at an average of 38 and a strike-rate of 156, outstanding figures in the shortest format. Many of his innings have been memorable efforts under great pressure at the death.

The talent of Stubbs was noticed by the Mumbai Indians, who called him into their IPL squad as an injury replacement two weeks ago. That cut short his involvement with the SA A team on their recent tour of Zimbabwe, but he did play twice, scoring 37 and 19, being not out in both innings and scoring at a strike-rate of 121.

His inclusion means the Proteas could field an explosive middle-order with David Miller and Aiden Markram both in outstanding form in the IPL.

Paceman Nortje has also been playing in the IPL, proving his recovery from back and hip injuries, and will be playing for South Africa for the first time since the T20 World Cup last November.

From that squad that performed admirably in the UAE, sadly falling just short of the semi-finals, spinner Bjorn Fortuin and all-rounder Wiaan Mulder have unfortunately lost their places, being replaced by pacemen Marco Jansen and Wayne Parnell, both of whom are useful lower-order batsmen too.

South Africa were only allowed to take 15 players to the T20 World Cup, but have selected 16 for the India tour as they finalise preparations for the next edition of the global showpiece, in Australia at the end of October.

Fortuin performed highly creditably for the SA A team in Zimbabwe, but Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj are always going to be ahead of him in the spinners’ queue. If one of them gets injured then Markram could fill in and, with their being at least two days between all five matches in India, Fortuin could always be flown in if necessary.

Parnell is arguably a more explosive batsman than Mulder and his left-arm swing bowling offers variety to the attack, with fellow left-armer Jansen generally using his height to hit the deck hard.

South Africa’s first match in India is on June 9 in Delhi.

Squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi.