Ken Borland

The Titans bowling attack might have been figuratively armed with water pistols for most of last season, but Dayyaan Galiem and his swing bowling was the exception as the all-rounder brought an exciting new dimension to the team in his first season after moving from the Cape.

Galiem was their leading four-day wicket-taker last season with 21 scalps, while he also took 11 Momentum One-Day Cup wickets, second only to spinner Imraan Manack. Add in 310 four-day runs at an average of 25.83 with two half-centuries and the 23-year-old was a worthy recipient of the Titans’ First-Class Player of the Season, Newcomer, and Player of the Year awards on Thursday night.

“I was very surprised to be given the new ball and to become one of the leaders of the attack, but I loved the challenge. I prefer the new ball because it moves around a bit more, although there is pressure that comes with that. I learnt how to control the ball better and the more confidence you have, the more you can show your skill. I do regard myself as a swing bowler, but I would also like to improve my pace.

“I was working on getting more energy on the ball and trying to get it to swing later, and I found that once I got my speed up and hit the deck hard then I was getting late swing, which makes it more challenging for the batsmen. When you’re not confident and not sure where the ball is going, then you tend to just stick to one thing, but the more situations I’m in, the more I learn and the better I can deal with them,” Galiem told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

Nobody can be sure who first coined the phrase that partnerships win matches, but in terms of his batting, Galiem is not satisfied to have merely contributed to some crucial lower-order stands and next season he wants to go big.

“Batting was more of a challenge, just adapting to the level of cricket because I played just the one four-day game for the Cobras before coming to the Titans. I had a lot of starts, some good partnerships, a couple of big ones. But I would like to kick on and get hundreds, going into next season I want to improve my batting a lot and score big hundreds.

“I’m happy with how my first season went, but I was not satisfied with my batting and I know I can do better. I want to be more consistent with the bat and score bigger runs. I was really happy with my bowling but I also want to have more consistency of intensity with the ball, bowl better spells and trouble the batsmen for longer periods,” Galiem said.

It is hard to believe that the youngster who arrived at Centurion as a highly-rated all-rounder but with little franchise experience behind him, is now the collector of three Titans awards including the biggest of the lot. But Galiem clearly has the talent and belief to make sure his move to the Titans continues to be a huge success.

“When I came into the side I was a bit worried about performing, I had the pressure of coming from a different province and wanting to do well. I felt I had a lot to prove, but the guys were very welcoming, they made it a lot easier and I felt part of the team immediately, so big thanks to them. Obviously it was still nervewracking though and hopefully I will just get better and better now.

“I feel like my game has improved a lot. But when I arrived I just hoped for an opportunity. I believed in myself and I learnt patience from playing three-day cricket. I was very nervous at the start and I felt nervous every game. But I just tried to keep things simple, do the basics for a long period of time and it worked out. Cricket seems so complicated but the team that does the simple things best usually comes out on top,” Galiem said.

There seems to have been some misinterpretation of Jurie Roux’s comments this week to the extent that the Australian Associated Press news agency claimed that the SA Rugby CEO had made the call for legal action to be taken against New Zealand Rugby for their plans to basically pull out of SuperRugby as we know it.

The truth is likely to turn out to be almost the opposite. While Roux did say “New Zealand have kicked themselves out”, he also added that they had “every right to determine their own future” and that discussions were happening with all Sanzaar partners.

You see, the Covid-19 pandemic would almost certainly qualify as a ‘force majeure’, the trendy new legal term borrowed from the French for what we used to call Acts of God. A ‘force majeure’ is an unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstance that makes it impossible to fulfil a contract.

In terms of rugby, it is clearly impossible for SuperRugby in its usual format to happen in 2021 if international travel is not yet allowed, if there are strenuous quarantine measures still in place or if the paucity of flights makes overseas trips prohibitively expensive.

Roux did say that there are Sanzaar legal agreements in place and that if anyone ignored their commitments to them then they would be liable to legal action, but with that French word coming into play, it would clearly take some pretty soulless leadership to try and sue a union that is just trying to keep themselves afloat in this time of economic catastrophe.

The shoe is on the same foot when it comes to South Africa because even if New Zealand wanted to proceed with SuperRugby as per normal next year, our franchises probably wouldn’t be allowed into the country without quarantining for two weeks and the costs of travel would be unaffordable.

Roux is a shrewd man as well and, although he has never publicly dissed the brand, he would have been well aware that the current SuperRugby format had lost the support of the general rugby-loving public and was busy pushing SA Rugby into poverty. He admitted this week that for more than a year he has been looking at additional options for SA Rugby and said “we are a long way down that road already and some of those options probably suit us better”.
This surely means a move into the lucrative Northern Hemisphere market. The Springboks and our top four franchises have plenty to offer European competitions as well – it is not as if we are the peasants of the game, we are the world champions and one of the biggest broadcast markets for rugby in the world.

But while SuperRugby may well be discarded like the old, worn out pair of boots it is, there is no doubt South Africa want to maintain a good relationship with New Zealand, traditionally their greatest rivals. Roux spoke about how the Rugby Championship is not only a significant revenue-earner for SA Rugby but it also enables them to cross-subsidise so many of their other competitions.

Those Sanzaar legal agreements are going to force New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, and Argentina, to the negotiating table to thrash out whatever win-win-win solution they can come up with. Leverage is always the name of the game when it comes to negotiation and while South Africa have the numbers and therefore the money to bring to the table in a big duffel bag, and New Zealand also have a large bag based on their historical record as having the best teams in southern hemisphere competition and therefore the biggest drawcard, it would seem Australia and Argentina only have sachets to barter with.

Nobody would want Australian rugby to be isolated like their country was before James Cook arrived with his cutlass, but the fact is they are not in a position of strength when it comes to negotiating the future of Sanzaar.

It is not too surprising that New Zealand do not want to accommodate all five Australian franchises, but if allegations that they have been in clandestine contact with a couple of them are true then that would be as offsides as the former SA Rugby president who fired the Springbok coach by fax.

Whatever comes of the negotiations, though, it would seem South African rugby fans can look forward to a stronger Currie Cup-type tournament locally, a refreshed, shorter, crossover event with the other Sanzaar teams and more of our franchises dunking their toes into European competition.

With the British and Irish Lions touring here next year, the stars of the UK game could become the same sort of attractions/nemeses as the likes of Dan Carter, Christian Cullen, Richie McCaw and Stephen Larkham.

And given the time zone, watching our teams playing in Europe will be much easier for those of us who tend to suffer from moderate dysania.

South African bowling great Vernon Philander said on Wednesday that he experienced no racism during his time in the Proteas team but his support for the Black Lives Matter movement is based on what he classifieds as “inequality” in the cricket system.

Philander was one of 30 former Proteas to last week sign a letter supporting BLM and calling on Cricket South Africa to confront the problem of racial division in the sport. The 35-year-old retired from international cricket at the end of the Test series against England in January, with outstanding figures of 224 wickets in 64 matches, at an average of just 22.32.

“BLM has a totally different meaning in South Africa than abroad, here it stands for equality and respecting peoples’ views, everyone’s, regardless of the colour of their skin. Those questions of inequality are still relevant today if not worse. I support other causes like White farmers being murdered just as much, we’re not discounting one cause to support the other.

“We need to provide a lot more opportunities, we need to start building communities again. For me, transformation has been done completely wrong because we have taken Black cricketers out of their safety zones, out of their own clubs and schools. We need to restore dignity to these communities, give them facilities and coaches, provide the people with opportunities to enhance their lives with job creation,” Philander told The Citizen on Wednesday.

Philander comes from the humble Cape Town suburb of Ravensmead and has had to fight tremendously hard for every bit of the considerable success he has enjoyed. He was initially chosen for South Africa in limited-overs cricket in 2007, but in spite of being the dominant bowler in South African domestic cricket, spearheading the Cape Cobras’ drive to successive four-day titles in 2009/10 and 2010/11, he had to wait until November 2011 to make his return, in the Test side.

His impact was immediate and stunning, but not a surprise to those who had seen him make up for a lack of sheer pace with extraordinary skill and accuracy in franchise cricket.

“When I started playing, things were more chilled although there were one or two incidents in club cricket that caused a lot of upset people, mostly involving players of the older generation. I cannot vouch for any racism in the Proteas although being left out after 2007 without explanation was pretty hard. And my experience in the 2015 World Cup showed me that they need to protect the players much better. The whole team lost, we need to move past this business of blaming transformation or two or three players,” Philander said.

The key for Philander is the huge inequality that makes it much harder for Black players to reach the heights he did.

“We need to see the injustices and understand that they are still happening today. We want this to be a country for everyone but then there needs to be opportunity for everyone. My background was very poor and the time is now to speak up, without hatred but acknowledging that inequality is the big thing. We need to change mindsets and perceptions.

“It will take a massive effort, including from our White counterparts, but if we give all cricketers the same opportunity then we can take the best out of that and the team will really be chosen on merit. This is not about dropping standards, but we need to rebuild communities in order for them to compete on equal ground. We need to close the gaps in terms of facilities and coaching,” Philander said.

Ever since leading the most transformed Springbok side yet to World Cup glory, Siya Kolisi has gone beyond being merely a sports star and has become a powerful symbol of change and unity in South Africa, so it was no surprise to hear SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux say the national captain has every right to express his opinion.

Roux was responding to questions over how SA Rugby would respond to Kolisi’s social media post this week in which he supported the Black Lives Matter movement and spoke of his difficulties in fitting in with the Springboks and their culture. He said his culture was not represented in the team and he felt he had to conform in order to be accepted. Kolisi added that “the next generation can’t suffer like we did”.

Kolisi also pointed out that World Cup-winning coach Rassie Erasmus had addressed the issues and transformed the Springbok team both in terms of personnel and environment.

“Siya is his own person and he got to where he did by himself and led us to the World Cup, so it’s not for me or anyone else to tell him what he must say. We must give people the opportunity to tell their stories, and people will either support or not support what they say, but that is always the case. Personally, I respect his comments.

“Black Lives Matter is basically about respect for others and how we treat people on a daily basis. That should be first and foremost, whether we are talking about BLM, Farm Attacks or Gender-Based Violence. We’ve seen that rugby can have an influence in society and we need to own up to those issues and not steer away from those conversations,” Roux said this week.

Roux made the call for more discussions over improving opportunities for Black people in the sport.

“Let Black people tell their stories and what’s more important is for us to listen and hear what they are saying. We must not shy away from awkward truths. We must continue dialogue and figure out together how to bring change. Is our transformation plan robust enough? These are very serious matters that transcend way beyond sport.

“Maybe some elements of our plan do need change, for example when it comes to Black coaches. Rassie has presented a plan to fast-track Black coaches and we need to look at that more seriously. I’m the first to acknowledge that things have gone wrong, even if we have made some very good progress in transformation. As a federation, rugby has been very good at acknowledging our sins of the past,” Roux said.