Ken Borland

Nielsen Sports, the provider of analytics for the sports industry, recently gave their annual presentation on the biggest trends in sports business and the two major talking points over the last year are the rise of e-Sports and the fact that sports bodies and their sponsors have to know who their fans are in this rapidly evolving marketplace.

Their research shows that, on average, only 10-15% of any sport’s fans are actually ‘game experts’ – people who have intimate knowledge of the rules, history, players, tactics etc. So any sports body or sponsor that only targets this section of the fan base are clearly missing out, for instance, on the 30-35% of ‘connection fans’ – for them it’s about the big event and they are the people packing out the stadia for Pink Day, the Cape Town Sevens rugby or the Durban July.

In the past, the relationship between a sport and a brand was based on the sponsor wanting visibility and the sport just wanting money. But this relationship is now much broader and the rights a sports body sells need to be more flexible and more tailored to their specific partners. Sponsors these days want to own stories and content rules in this digital age in which internet advertising spend overtook that for TV worldwide last year.

It was disappointing to hear that our traditional sports like rugby and cricket are battling to grow in this environment. In South Africa, 25% fewer millennials are interested in rugby, and cricket has seen the same drop in support.

The fastest growing sport in the world is e-Sports, which is basically what professional, competitive gaming is called, and unfortunately, rugby and cricket just don’t have games on the market that are good enough. Research has shown that there is a strong crossover between people who play the virtual game on their computers and supporting the actual ‘live’ sport. For instance, Fifa’s eWorldCup drew seven million gamers last year and Formula One enjoyed similar success with their eSports Final, the winner of which gained a one-year contract as a simulator driver for McLaren.

That e-Sports is rapidly evolving into a major player in the sports industry is shown by the fact that one-third of all their fans came onboard in the last year and they are typically millennial men with money to spend. Which means major global brands like Gillette, C-Smart and Mercedes are moving into that space, the higher LSM also attracting sponsors like Audi and Mountain Dew. Gaming is a $32 billion industry now and at the competitive level it is a mega-production, a whole show with adverts, sponsored decks and kids packed into stadia.

This year’s Overwatch League features 12 franchises based in cities like Boston, London and Shanghai who paid $20 million each to participate. The broadcast rights were sold for $90 million and the average audience is 280 000 per minute.

Speaking of broadcast rights, this field has also become extraordinarily broad for sponsors and sports bodies. Pay TV’s influence is still stable, but there are disruptors now in the picture, especially tech giants like Amazon and Facebook and even Twitter.

The cellphone has become a way of life and we are living in a mobile-first generation. Although high data costs hold us back in South Africa, 20% of local football viewers watch via internet streams, with 69% of those people watching the game live and 42% of those watching the whole game.

Rugby has 25% of its viewers streaming the game, 68% of that watching live and 48% for the whole game; cricket’s figures are 22% streaming, 78% of that live and 40% watching the full game.

The sports industry is certainly a very fluid environment for rights-holders and sponsors to get their heads around.

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Temba Bavuma is the new captain of the Highveld Lions and the Proteas batsman warned that the franchise is dead-set on returning to their previous status as one of the powerhouses of domestic cricket.

The 28-year-old Bavuma is back at the Lions after just one season away with the Cape Cobras and, linking up with new coach Enoch Nkwe, is the sort of inspirational, high-profile figure who can drive a renaissance in Central Gauteng cricket.

“Enoch’s expectation is excellence and we will do everything in our might to fulfil that. But the players have their own expectations and we want to get back to the levels expected of us, get back to the top. We need to put up a performance and fight for the brand of cricket we want to play. We’re coming!” Bavuma said when he was unveiled as the new skipper at the Wanderers on Wednesday night.

Rassie van der Dussen, the leading run-scorer across all formats last season, has been named as the official vice-captain and Bavuma’s Proteas commitments means that he will have a vital leadership role to play as well.

Bavuma said that his return to the Lions was primarily motivated by personal reasons – his fiancée lives in Johannesburg – but it is clear that even though he left to play at his birthplace, his heart remained with his old team-mates.

“I really missed being part of this team and it was quite painful to watch their performances from the side. As captain, I won’t be doing anything different, I’m there to serve the team and inspire the players to perform their best. I know all the guys, we have a good relationship. But I’m not one to speak a lot, my focus is on just going out and doing what we have to do.

“It’s a massive honour and privilege to be given the responsibility of captain. I played under Alviro Petersen and Stephen Cook and I learnt a great deal from them and will try to live up to their legacy. I will have a strong hand in the culture of the team, how we go about achieving excellence starts there, and we have to do that on a daily basis,” Bavuma said.

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Kwagga Smith on the charge again. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

An excellent second half by the Lions saw them seal an enthralling 44-26 win over the Waratahs in their SuperRugby semifinal at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions had to overturn a 14-0 deficit inside the first eight minutes, which they did in thrilling fashion through brilliant tries by Kwagga Smith and Aphiwe Dyantyi.

But the Lions conceded a soft try from a simple front-of-the-lineout move by the Waratahs right on halftime, to set up an exciting second half with the scores locked at 19-19.

Having over-complicated matters by trying to do the miraculous before they had nailed down the basics, and by wasting penalties inside opposition territory, the message finally seemed to get through to the Lions that they were playing knockout rugby when flyhalf Elton Jantjies kicked a 55th-minute penalty from in front of the posts to give them a 22-19 lead.

From then on there was only one team in it as the dominant Lions forwards, led by the heroic Kwagga Smith, nailed down the victory and a trip to Christchurch for the final against the Crusaders, the reigning champions.

The Lions will get an icy welcome to the South Island and, given how invincible the Crusaders have been in playoff games at home – Saturday’s comfortable win over the Hurricanes was their 20th in a row – Swys de Bruin’s team will have to focus far better on defence, where they suffered some costly lapses at Ellis Park, and also fix a lineout that did not operate as smoothly as it should have.

The Waratahs held sway in the early exchanges and, although Lourens Erasmus, playing at flank, snaffled a couple of turnovers to end promising attacks, the Lions just could not contain the early width of the New South Wales game. They will also wish errors such as a missed lineout and a slipped tackle in midfield had been cut out of their game.

The opening try came from the sort of move they probably watched on video numerous times this week in their analysis of the Waratahs, flyhalf Bernard Foley launching a bomb into their 22, which Israel Folau won. The ball was immediately sent out wide right before going wide left almost as quickly, flank Ned Hanigan cantering over for the try.

Four minutes later, the Waratahs attack had the Lions at sixes and sevens down the left wing as Taqele Naiyaravoro stormed through tackles to get the visitors into the 22; lock Rob Simmons was stopped just short of the line, but fullback Folau was at hand to get the recycled ball and charge over for the second try.

The Lions finally got on the board in the 21st minute. An incredible piece of individual skill by wing Dyantyi saw him take a pass at the same time as he was swiveling out of a tackle; once in the Waratahs’ 22, flank Smith then showed just how explosive and strong he is with the ball as he powered over for an impressive try.

Dyantyi would go one better just five minutes later with a try that will go into Lions’ folklore. The new Springbok gathered the ball inside his own 22 as the Waratahs went the aerial route and immediately decided to counter. He went to the boot to get over the initial line of defence, regathered his own deft chip and then simply switched to another gear, showing amazing pace to pull away from the remaining defenders for a scintillating try.

Aphiwe Dyantyi dives over for his magnificent solo try. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

The Lions grabbed a 19-14 lead just before halftime with a thunderous rolling maul, hooker Malcolm Marx dotting down, but the Waratahs snuck over for an equalising try in the 40th minute. It felt like a sucker punch as a simple, but clever short lineout allowed prop Tom Robertson to go charging over.

Dyantyi unfortunately did not come out for the second half due to what coach De Bruin later described as a hamstring twinge, and firebrand loose forward Marnus Schoeman would prove a telling substitution for Erasmus.

It was his ferocious carry that led to Jantjies’ first penalty and Schoeman then produced another storming run two minutes later to carry the Lions into the Waratahs’ 22. The attack ended due to a lazy runner, with replacement hooker Damien Fitzpatrick yellow-carded for the offence in the red zone, the Lions setting another excellent lineout drive which resulted in Marx scoring again.

THE BIG HIT … Malcolm Marx puts down Israel Folau. Photo by Marcel Sigg, runridedive.com

At 19-27 down, the Waratahs were chasing the game thereafter; but Smith showed good toe after breaking loose on the 22 for another rousing try and, as the deficit reached critical mass at 34-19, the Australians desperately tried to get the ball wide as quickly as possible.

It all became a mess though as passes went behind the receiver, the move broke down and the Lions flooded the breakdown to win a penalty which Jantjies kicked from 52 metres out.

The Waratahs did manage to put together a decent attack with just four minutes remaining, Foley finding eighthman Michael Wells with a lovely pass, and once through the gap the former Brumbie linked up with replacement scrumhalf Jake Gordon for a consolation try (26-37).

Pegged back in their 22 from the restart, the Waratahs were then faced with an impregnable Lions defence, replacement scrumhalf Dillon Smit putting in a bone-rattling hit on Foley, the ball was turned over and Jantjies found Courtnall Skosan, Dyantyi’s replacement on the wing, with a pinpoint crosskick for the Lions’ sixth try.

The Crusaders scored four tries in beating the Hurricanes and these two great sides will enjoin in battle in a repeat of last year’s final, although this time it will be in Christchurch rather than Johannesburg.

Of all the contributions Ali Bacher has made to South African cricket – captain of their first world-beating side, CEO of the United Cricket Board during the drive to Unity, running the successful hosting of the 2003 World Cup – the introduction of the then Bakers Mini-Cricket programme to underprivileged areas was arguably the one with the greatest impact on the future of the game in this country.

So one can understand Bacher feeling a little peeved when a Gauteng Cricket Board president mentioned to him almost 20 years after Bakers Mini-Cricket started that the programme was no longer having the desired outcomes.

“The first time we took cricket to the Black townships was in 1986 with the help of Bakers and within 10 years we had sent someone like Makhaya Ntini to Dale College. In 2003 I left Cricket South Africa and in 2005 the Gauteng Cricket Board president phoned me and said the mini-cricket programme is faltering.

“So I looked at the report and the problem was that any young kid with passion and talent would still not make it if they stayed in the township, because everything was against them there. I went to King Edward VII and when we left high school we were ready to play provincial cricket and Kagiso Rabada had five years of that as well at St Stithians.

“But in the townships there are no grass fields, pitches, nets or covers. There are 27 000 schools in South Africa and they are mostly Black with no facilities because they don’t have money for it. If talented players were identified there then you had to get them quickly to government or private schools that were traditionally good cricket schools,” Bacher explains.

KFC have now taken over the mini-cricket programme and their efforts deserve recognition because they are still a tremendous feeder system. But the approach when it comes to high school pupils has now changed, under the guidance of Bacher and with the support of Blue Label.

As the chief marketing officer of the mobile telecoms innovators, Rob Fleming, explains: “Transformation is absolutely critical and it needs constant love and attention. But what’s the best way of achieving it? I’ve seen multiple ideas and there’s no doubt we need to do a better job.

“Our real strength in South African cricket is our schools, but forty of them probably produce 80% of our players, so is that the right place to develop our cricket? If we take township kids to those schools then often they are not up to it academically and it affects their cricket and the whole scheme collapses.

“So it was Ali’s idea to go to old traditional cricket schools and try and reignite the game there, let’s create another forty top cricket schools. There’s no doubt the talent is there, that’s our conveyor belt and I love how coherently this programme can work with the rest of the system,” Fleming says.

What deters many schools from playing cricket is the time and expense it involves, which is where Blue Label is coming in to provide resources for Focus Schools, three of which (Uitsig, Akasia and Hendrik Verwoerd) were recently named in the Northerns region, joining schools in Johannesburg, Krugersdorp and Vereeniging that are already in the programme.

Cricket is competing heavily with other codes at these schools, and teachers and facilities are few, but by combining resources, their weakness has become a strength.

Our schools are where the rubber hits the tar in terms of capacity building and getting more and more talent into the pipeline.

“Many of these traditionally good cricket schools are now 99% Black so we are completing the circle and Rob is passionate about this as well. We’ve identified government schools that were former White schools and they still have good facilities but cricket was no longer being played. For example, Krugersdorp High School, hardly any cricket was being played; Highlands North used to provide most of the Balfour Park club, who were very good, but there was no longer any cricket there.

“But if we can get cricket back on its feet again in schools like that then I reckon we will see a plethora of good players coming through. Like Queen’s High School which is on the other side of the Jeppe Hill, it’s all Black and their cricket is so good. Their U15 side only lost one match last season and they beat Pretoria Boys High, they are well-dressed and their parents are all there. This will be so good for South African cricket,” Bacher says.

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