Ken Borland

The Cricket South Africa Board have brought in the services of a PR company to help polish their tarnished image, which is so bad at the moment that not even all the distractions of a racial witch-hunt have been able to disguise their complicity in the ugly shambles that the beloved game in this country has become.

Of course CSA have also engaged the services of a quarrel of lawyers to help them handle the numerous legal issues they are dealing with, the most recent of which is their failure to appear before parliament’s sports portfolio committee as scheduled on Friday.

The forensic report into the activities of suspended CEO Thabang Moroe and whether the Board itself is implicated in any misgovernance was bound to have been a hot topic in parliament on Friday, but CSA cried off and begged for a postponement because they said the report is not yet ready to be made public.

My legal friends tell me this is probably above board because if serious allegations are made by the report, it would need to be sent by CSA’s Audit and Risk Committee to lawyers in order to ensure due process is followed. But given that the report was finalised at the end of June, progress in this crucial matter has been glacial. Perhaps the sports ministry should apply some ‘global warming’ to the backsides of the recalcitrant administrators, whose behaviour is certainly indicative of people who have something to hide.

But more important than any PR company or even lawyers, CSA have to take notice of what their players are telling them. Their services are the very lifeblood of the game; without our top cricketers, the Proteas slide down the rankings, sponsors, crowds, viewers and broadcasters disappear, and the money dries up. Although that would surely chase away the self-serving vultures feeding on the game, it also creates a vicious circle because with less money, teams become less competitive and the cycle continues to spiral down into oblivion.

The current players, apart from showing their support for the heroic Lungi Ngidi and Black Lives Matter, have been largely quiet in terms of weighing in on all the issues that have been tearing cricket apart during Lockdown. Their union, the South African Cricketers’ Association, have quite rightly been taking up the cudgel and speaking on their behalf.

But the first few murmurings are starting to emerge of how desperately uncertain and unhappy the players are. There have been numerous reasons for top cricketers to leave this country for greener pastures over the last few years but the possibility of the entire professional game collapsing in this country could see the floodgates really open and get that vicious cycle spinning out of control.

While hearing those former players who are speaking out about previous discrimination and the pain it has caused is important and valuable, we have heard way too much from people who have either disgraced the game or who have based their accusations on factual inaccuracies.

I believe these charlatans have been pushed to the front of the choir to further the Cricket Capture agenda which has been in place ever since Moroe and his allies on the Board and in CSA management set it in motion.

Moroe’s temporary replacement, Jacques Faul, has now given up his efforts to clean up the game, forced out by a Board which actively worked against him. Director of Cricket Graeme Smith is clearly now the main target because there have been way too many spurious allegations made about his time as captain. Lest we forget, under his watch the Proteas became the best team in the world in all formats and were at their happiest in terms of unity and embracing diversity.

SACA are now coming under fire too and this fits in perfectly with Moroe’s agenda. The suspended CEO stated clearly his intention to destroy the power and influence the players’ union had in the game. He was trying to achieve this by causing racial divisions, having tried to engineer a split with all the Black African players leaving SACA. Sound familiar in terms of what is now happening?

Fortunately SACA have had a strong president and servant of the game in Omphile Ramela.

There is still hope for South African cricket. We still have incredible playing talent and there is so much love for the game in this country. South African sport has produced many tremendous administrators so they are out there.

But it is getting late. Short of doing what one provincial president recommended to me – “the CSA Board is now in such a bad place that in our culture we say you have to slaughter a goat to cleanse it” – one can only hope the CSA Members Council do the right thing at the AGM on September 5 and vote in people who are committed to saving the game, not parasitizing it.

Killarney Country Club once again put the Sunshine Tour’s top pros through the mill on Thursday, with only four golfers able to enjoy the comfort of being under par after the second round of the Betway Championship, the opening event of the Rise Up Series that marks the return to action after the Covid-19 Lockdown.

Top of the pile was Sunshine Tour veteran Alex Haindl, who shot a marvellous 67 on Thursday to go into the final round on three-under-par, one stroke ahead of another stalwart in Anton Haig. Two other very experienced campaigners in Ulrich van den Berg and Adilson da Silva are the other golfers under par, after they both finished on one-under after shooting 69s.

Although conditions were warmer and there was just a comfortable breeze blowing, the 103-man field once again struggled with the hard and fast greens, putting a premium on accuracy off the tee on the tight, tree-lined layout.

Haindl, rebuilding his career after a couple of back surgeries, was relieved to be playing well in his 20^th season on the Sunshine Tour.

“It’s just nice to be playing again, you don’t know where you game is when you’re just practising at home because you’re not under the gun and you can’t see where your game needs to be better. Since my last surgery last year it just felt like I couldn’t get going, I wasn’t moving the way I like, but today was a bit better. The game was a bit neater today, I kept it together better.

“My short game was a bit sharper today as I got more used to the dry fairways and firm greens. I was just trying to miss in the right places and made a couple of good saves. Luckily I wasn’t playing too early in the morning, although it was a bit windy. But as the weather heats up, the ball flies further almost immediately – it’s like one shot suddenly goes 6-7 metres further,” Haindl said after his round which included just a solitary dropped shot at the par-three 17^th.

The youngsters that are used to bombing the ball miles off the tee seem to be losing this particular arms race, given the veterans in the top four, but there are still some fresh faces very much in contention to claim the first Sunshine Tour title on offer since Lockdown.

Rookie Ruan Korb is just three strokes back on level-par, while former amateur sensation Jayden Schaper showed once again that he has the mettle, even though he is still in his teens, to mix it with the men as he lay in a threatening position just four strokes back after solid rounds of 73 and 68.

Keith Horne is with him on one-over-par and he clearly has all the weapons to win on Friday, having claimed nine Sunshine Tour titles. First-round leader Dylan Mostert slipped back into a tie for ninth after a 75 on Thursday, but he is just five shots adrift of the lead.

Haindl said patience and accuracy off the tee would be key attributes to win on Friday.

“The par-fives are quite important but it’s very difficult to stop your second shot on the green, so there are no gimmies. If you drive decently then you can have a lot of wedges coming in, so if you’re swinging okay then you can give yourself a few chances. But it’s very tough, you need to stay patient and accept the outcome if you’ve done your best, if you had a good yardage and a good swing.

“My game-plan was pretty decent, I kept it in play most of the time and gave myself chances. In order to win tomorrow, I just have to play better than the other guys!” Haindl said.

Dylan Mostert was well-served by his irons as he claimed a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Betway Championship at Killarney Country Club on Wednesday, but he was quick to acknowledge he was favoured by being able to play the majority of his round in the afternoon.

The morning field who marked the return of Sunshine Tour professional golf in South Africa, with the first tournament of the Rise Up Series, were greeted by brutal conditions – freezing temperatures and a four-club wind that combined to make the greens play like ice-rinks. Level-par was the best score anyone in the morning field managed.

Come the afternoon, the sun began shining more brightly and the wind died down. Not that Killarney was playing easy then either, and Mostert’s three-under-par 67 was the best score of the day, one better than the 68s shot by Dylan Naidoo, Ruan Korb and Albert Venter.

Michael Hollick, Wallie Coetsee, Makhetha Mazibuko and Anton Haig were on one-under, while seasoned Sunshine Tour pros such as Keith Horne, Jaco Ahlers, Adilson da Silva, Danie van Tonder and Ulrich van den Berg were among the golfers who finished on level-par.

“I hit a lot of greens because as soon as you are far away from the holes here you don’t have much chance. And I only hit three or four Drivers, I used my irons to plot my way around. I have game-plans for both winds and if it blows the opposite away tomorrow I can probably use more Drivers. But you have to be really careful where you leave the ball as you have to be on the right side of the greens.

“And it was a helluva lot easier in the afternoon. I heard it was very cold in the morning and the greens were probably a lot firmer. It was a bit windy all day, but no more than a two-club wind this afternoon, so nothing overly bad. But it must have been really hard to stop the ball on the greens this morning. It will be a lot colder tomorrow when I play so I’m going to have to grind it out,” Mostert said after his round.

Venter had a share of the lead until a bogey at the ninth hole, his last, when he missed the green on the left and was left with no shot for par. But considering that it was the 24-year-old’s first ever Sunshine Tour round it was a top-class effort.

He started on the 10^th and made par and then immediately dispelled any nerves with a tremendous run of four successive birdies.

“For my first event I’m really happy with my day’s work because I had quite a few nerves. But I had a brilliant start, a really good tee-shot down 10 and then on 11 I holed my shot from the greenside bunker so that was a real boost of confidence. I just hit the ball well, got it close to the hole and made good putts. It was just a matter of planning every shot.

“I had a few bad breaks on my back nine and it’s a tight course, hitting fairways and greens is the key. And the greens were fast so you need to be close to the hole and make your two-putts. You have to figure out when to attack on greens like these, you can’t go for everything. Plus I had the better side of the draw. So I’m starting on the front nine tomorrow and I know I must not be over-aggressive,” Venter said.

South African Cricketers’ Association president Omphile Ramela on Wednesday said the leadership of Cricket South Africa has taken the game to the brink of “total collapse” and called for intervention at Board and management level.

On the same day that CSA announced chief commercial officer Kugandrie Govender as the new acting chief executive following the immediate resignation of Jacques Faul, the players’ union issued a statement slamming the organisation for the current crises, which they say threaten the future of the game in this country.

“Instead of facing these crises, CSA is embroiled in destructive politics at Board and management level. It is evident that cricket is unable to self-correct. With the CSA AGM looming, the reality is that many of the administrative challenges confronting the game are as a result of administrators failing to adhere to principles of corporate governance.

“A number of affiliates have crises of their own, and it is these structures that provide leadership to CSA. Before we see the total collapse of the game of cricket there needs to be a leadership intervention at Board and management level that is able to stabilise and transform both the game and the business of cricket,” Ramela said.

SACA said the level of crisis within CSA is now up to the point where the players themselves feel that their livelihoods as professional cricketers are threatened.

“SACA has engaged directly with players over the past few weeks and there is a growing realisation amongst players that their careers as professional cricketers are being threatened by the very organisation that should be nurturing them. SACA has consistently called for certainty and consistency in the governance and management of the game.

“The sudden resignation of both the President and Acting CEO is clear evidence that cricket in South Africa is at war with itself. Mr Nenzani owes all stakeholders an immediate explanation as to why he has stood down a mere three weeks before the CSA AGM, after he had refused to do so over the previous eight-month period despite calls to do so from key stakeholders within the game. Together with the sudden resignation of Dr Jacques Faul as Acting CEO, one can only deduce that the Board of Directors has yet again reached a level of dysfunctionality that threatens the existence of the game in our country,” Andrew Breetzke, the CEO of the players’ union, added.