Ken Borland

Ryan Rickelton’s 2022/23 season was stocked full of runs and accolades, and yet the 26-year-old maintains that it was a failure because he did not entirely nail down his place in the Proteas team.

Never mind that the management of the national squad seemed reluctant to choose him due to an ankle injury that their medical staff deemed too much of a risk.

Rickelton showed his determination by ploughing through the season, churning out runs at domestic level for the Central Gauteng Lions as he stubbornly refused to have surgery and his ankle became the most talked-about body part in South African cricket.

The wicketkeeper/batsman scored three centuries in his five four-day innings for the Lions and he was the leading run-scorer in the One-Day Cup with 452 at 64.57, scored at better than a run-a-ball and playing a leading role in his team claiming a third-successive 50-over title. He was named the Lions’ Player of the Season and Players’ Player of the Season recently.

But his opportunities at international level were limited to one Test and two ODIs. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the lack of consistent game time for the Proteas, he scored just 22 and 10 in the second Test against the West Indies at the Wanderers and 14 and three in his two ODIs against the same team.

And that is why Rickelton, because of the passion he brings to the game and the high standards he sets himself, deems the previous summer to have been a failure.

“It was not my best season, if you look at the whole package. I had a couple of successful competitions but there were also failures at international level and in T20. I had four chances for success in the international season, so it’s a failure for me by pure percentages, but I guess I will take it and move forward,” Rickelton said.

“I always have this anxiety that I don’t want to be just a good domestic player. I had no fear in my international debut in March 2022, but now it’s something I need to overcome.

“If I can just make one score at international level then that will settle the nerves and I’m sure I can make a good contribution for the Proteas. It’s hugely different to playing at domestic level, but awesome at the same time, which is why everyone aspires to play there.

“There’s a helluva lot more pressure, shit it’s hard. For the first time in my career, you get dismissed cheaply and you feel like you might not necessarily get runs tomorrow either.

“But it’s more internal pressure from myself. I’ve stuck my foot in the door now and I’ve just got to climb the ladder and get more comfortable as I get more opportunity,” Rickelton said.

The left-hander leaves no doubt that his fiery ambition burns brightest for Test cricket, which is why his mediocre return at the Wanderers was most upsetting. For a naturally free-flowing player, full of strokeplaying talent, efforts of 22 off 49 balls and 10 off 29 deliveries left him “disgusted”. On both occasions he was caught behind, edging a cut in the first innings and then attempting to drive on the up and providing the wicketkeeper with another catch.

But cricketers are not computers and it is difficult to simulate the kind of pressure that burrows its way into the consciousness when a batsmen feels like they are playing for their place. Rickelton should have played in the first Test against the West Indies at Centurion, when South Africa chose an extra bowler (spinner Senuran Muthusamy only delivered eight overs in the match) and their middle-order was badly exposed. One mistake and you’re out, gone, and there could be a long wait for another chance at Test level, particularly given how sparse the Proteas’ schedule is in that format.

“When I got the opportunity for the Proteas, technically I was not batting as well as I had been at the start of the season. But it’s also mental because you desperately want the fairytale.

“I was told two days before the Wanderers Test that I would then play. So I knew I had at least one innings, maybe two. You’re playing on your home turf, your parents are coming to watch, and you start thinking ‘maybe I will get a hundred, that would be cool’. And those thoughts accumulate.

“I felt really good going into the match, but in the end I was disgusted with my Test, I had no idea what was going on. It was like my head and body had no idea what the other one was doing.

“In the first innings I was maybe unlucky but I did not have to play that shot. Now you have one more chance and it gnaws at you.

“It’s the first time I’ve experienced fighting the same battle, making mountains of molehills, and I don’t like it. But I just have to deal with it.

“You so desperately want to prove that you belong, to take that weight off your shoulders and not have to fight for your place. You just want to bat with intent, open up on your own terms, but it’s ferociously difficult at the highest level. You have to earn the right to play like you want to.

“With the Proteas playing just 10 Tests over the next four years, every series you will feel like a new cap again, which doesn’t help. It’s going to be frustrating not to be able to build any momentum. Test cricket is the purest form of the game and I hope that the administrators don’t cripple it,” Rickelton said with searing honesty.

T20 franchises are becoming the main drivers of the game now, and Rickelton is sober-minded enough to know he has to master that format in order to have a long career. He was poor last season, by his own admission, in both the CSA T20 Challenge for the Lions (averaging 15 with a strike-rate of 131) and the SA20 for MI Cape Town (averaging 20, strike-rate 113).

“I have a shit-load of work to do quickly before next season to make sure I progress. Apart from making sure I step up internationally, I also need to rediscover my T20 game, which I lost a bit. I’m going to put a lot of effort into that and make sure I have a very good SA20. T20 is so important nowadays and I’ve neglected it a bit,” Rickelton said.

The ankle has now been operated on and fixed, and Rickelton says it is “loading very nicely”. He has started batting again and was part of the Proteas’ recent camp in Durban.

He hopes to be match-fit in a couple of weeks and able to push for selection for the ODIs against Australia in September.

The feeling of having to fight for a regular place in the team is not a new one for Rickelton. Surprisingly, given his natural talent and a pedigree that included playing for the 2014 SA Schools side, the St Stithians product initially languished in the Gauteng semi-pro team before making his breakthrough.

“I found my feet slowly and had to fight for my life at Gauteng, even though I knew what I could do. I almost had to prove it to myself though and allow myself to be free and have a real crack with the bat.

“It’s an experience every player goes through and I’ve been guilty of wanting things too badly in the past. But I will keep going,” Rickelton stated.

PRETORIA, Gauteng – Albert Venter led by four strokes after the first round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Time Square Casino at the Wingate Park Country Club and the 26-year-old ensured he kept the door closed on his rivals in Thursday’s second round as he posted a solid three-under-par 69 to stretch that advantage to five strokes.

Venter will head into the final round on 12-under-par for the tournament, having shot a brilliant 63 in the first round.

There was a blustery wind in Pretoria on Thursday, just the sort of conditions in which a golfer could blow a lead on the hard and fast greens of Wingate Park, and Venter began his round cautiously, being level-par, with a birdie and a bogey, through his first eight holes.

But he was then able to tear around the turn with three birdies in the next four holes. Six straight pars coming in on the front nine completed a round which could only be considered a success.

“The wind picked up a lot today so my first few holes were not too bad. It was definitely trickier today to figure out which way it was blowing. Because the course is tree-lined, it swirls around a bit,” Venter said.

“There were quite difficult decisions to make over which irons to play. But we predicted the wind would pick up and the plan was to get my score as low as possible to build a bit of a cushion.

“Thankfully I kept my head in the game and managed to get a decent score. I can’t control what the other golfers do, but I am in a really good position,” Venter said.

On a hard day to shoot a really low score, Estiaan Conradie (69) and Jean Hugo (68) have done really well to position themselves as Venter’s closest challengers, on seven-under-par.

Luke Brown produced the round of the day, a 66 that included seven birdies to join Ruan Korb (70) on six-under for the tournament.

Venter won the Zimbabwe Open in May for his maiden Sunshine Tour title and will be able to learn from that experience in Friday’s final round.

“The big thing about winning is trying to get into those positions more and more, trying to get used to the atmosphere and nerves you face on the final day,” the Silver Lakes golfer said.

“I’ve been in quite a few situations like that in the last few years, although I wouldn’t say I’m experienced. But I’ve been in the situation before and I know how to deal with the nerves and the adrenaline.

“I can’t get ahead of myself, I have to stay patient and stick to my guns,” Venter said.

HARARE, Zimbabwe – An excellent day with the putter saw Albert Venter to a superb final-round 66 and a playoff for the FBC Zimbabwe Open at Royal Harare Golf Club, with the 26-year-old then sinking a 16-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to claim his maiden Sunshine Tour title on Sunday.

Venter had to hold off Stefan Wears-Taylor, who also shot 66 in the final round, and Louis Albertse (67) in the playoff after the trio all finished the R2 million tournament on 10-under-par.

They all parred the 18^th in the first playoff hole, but on their next attempt, Venter spun a sand-wedge from the fairway back to 16 feet from the pin and then nailed the birdie putt, with Albertse and Wears-Taylor unable to make their shorter putts.

Venter’s success with the putter was unexpected because the Silver Lakes golfer struggled with the short stick in the third round.

“I knew I needed to just keep grinding today, follow my processes, and my goal was to just get in contention on the back nine,” Venter, who began the final round five shots off the lead, said.

“I was playing with the American, Dan Erickson, and he was off to a flyer – six-under after seven holes. So he was the guy to catch and I just tried to stay in touching distance of him.

“Then I caught fire on the back nine and I just kept following my processes, just keeping the ball in play, hit the greens and make the putts.

“Yesterday [Saturday] was a really bad putting day – 31 putts – so last night I spent an hour or two on the green and I found something. The putter paid off today with the prize,” Venter said.

Venter finished runner-up (his best finish on tour) in last September’s Sunshine Tour Invitational at Centurion Country Club, but two missed cuts in October probably cost him a top-50 finish in the final 2021/22 order of merit.

His victory on Sunday means none of that matters now and he said his big breakthrough felt surreal.

“At the moment, it’s still kind of surreal. To get to this professional level is hard enough, but then to win is a whole another level.

“It’s about belief and I can only thank my supporters, my coaching staff and family, who felt I was good enough. I would not be in this position without them,” Venter said.

Erickson was still in the lead when he birdied the par-three 15^th, which Venter bogeyed, but the American was knocked out of contention by a bogey-bogey finish.

Wears-Taylor birdied 16 and 17 to claim the outright lead, but then bogeyed the last to force him into a playoff, with Albertse staying alive as he birdied 18.

Venter’s round was built around three successive birdies from the seventh hole, and he then burnt up the back nine with a run of four straight birdies from the 11^th hole. Despite dropping a shot at 15, he stuck around to the bitter end.

Overnight leader Luca Filippi faded into seventh position after shooting a 75, while Louis de Jager and Jaco Ahlers joined Erickson in fourth place, two shots behind, after they both made 70s on Sunday.

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.