Ken Borland

Kagiso Rabada became the second-quickest bowler, in terms of deliveries bowled, to reach 250 Test wickets during South Africa’s almighty thrashing of England at Lord’s, making it three Proteas inside the top-four of that particular statistical honours list.

The great Dale Steyn tops that list, needing just 9 927 deliveries to take 250 wickets, with Rabada reaching the milestone with his 10 065^th ball, a clever slower-ball that had a slogging Stuart Broad caught at backward point. Pakistani legend Waqar Younis is third on 10 170 deliveries, with Allan Donald, the godfather of Proteas fast bowling, the fourth quickest (11 559).

Since South Africa’s return from isolation in November 1991, they have taken over from the West Indies as the team that has consistently produced the most lethal fast bowlers, and it was great to see that traditional strength used to such marvellous effect at Lord’s.

Test cricket is arguably at its best, a heavenly spectacle indeed, when great fast bowlers are in action, especially these days when so much is loaded in favour of batsmen.

South Africa is clearly blessed to have four world-class pacemen at the same time in Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen, who played together for the first time at Lord’s.

Sadly, it seems they will not be given enough Test matches to put up the same numbers as some of the other great fast bowlers in the history of the game.

Rabada, for instance, takes his wickets currently at a rate of 4.71 per Test. With just 28 Test matches scheduled for the Proteas over the next five years, given the same strike-rate, Rabada will be on around 380 Test wickets, still well short of breaking Steyn’s mark of 439 as South Africa’s most prolific bowler. Even Steyn himself expected Rabada to cruise past his record, but if South Africa keep playing as few Tests as they do, it will take the man who sprang to fame as the spearhead of the U19 side that won the Junior World Cup until he is in his mid-30s to claim the record.

For neutrals, South Africa’s demolition of England at Lord’s must have made for compelling viewing. Surely the International Cricket Council would want to ensure their fans get to see more of that?

Proteas coach Mark Boucher was no doubt still feeling the sting of beating almighty England but still not advancing from their pool after just one defeat when he said “you can’t describe our campaign as successful” as they exited the T20 World Cup on Saturday.

South Africa beat previously unbeaten tournament favourites England by 10 runs in Sharjah, but failed to qualify for the semifinals because their nett run-rate – 0.739 – was lower than Australia’s (1.216), the only team to win against the Proteas. Having posted an impressive 189/2, South Africa needed to restrict England to less than 131 on Saturday night to make the final four.

“You can’t describe our campaign as successful because we were knocked out, but it’s a bitter pill to swallow because we beat the in-form side in white-ball cricket for the last few years, a very dangerous England side,” Boucher said.

“It’s a tough one. We were under pressure after we lost that first game to Australia and the equation today was very difficult for us to get through, even though we did the job today.

“That was a tight first game, but we just didn’t bat well enough. We lost the toss, it was the first game and we weren’t sure what would be a good total. We thought 160, but 130 would have done the job.

“Maybe we could have gone harder against Bangladesh, but the pitch was going all over the shop and we lost a couple of early wickets. It’s all ifs and buts and it’s no good starting with those now,” Boucher said.

But the Proteas, considering in what disarray they were in a year ago, have given plenty of reason to believe they are on the right track, especially with the next T20 World Cup coming up in less than a year’s time in Australia.

“The team knows they are on a journey, they are on an upward curve and this tournament will stand us in  good stead. We did really well in some highly pressurised games, we will take confidence from that and hopefully go from strength to strength.

“We are heading in the right direction and we have won a lot of games lately, even though we unfortunately did not pass the test at this World Cup. I’ve said all along that we are improving.

“It’s about results as well of course, but we have played some really good cricket for quite some time. The players have been upskilled and they are learning to play in different situations.

“We are not the finished product, but we are working hard to get back to where we should be in world cricket. It’s going to be an exciting next year and we just need to be patient and keep challenging the players,” Boucher said.

The Sands of Time are running out for Cricket South Africa’s Members Council so their last desperate attempts to block progress and the restructuring of the Board should be no surprise. The same self-serving administrators who put their own interests ahead of those of the game as a whole and allowed cricket to be captured were never going to vacate their seats on the gravy train without an almighty struggle.

That they have been operating in poor faith becomes clear when one considers that they themselves agreed to the establishment of the Interim Board on the basis that they would introduce a majority independent board chaired by an independent director, but now that the memorandum of incorporation amended to include these prerequisites has been presented, they have refused to accept it.

Their excuse for not ratifying the changes was that they were instructed to do so by their constituencies, but it seems this is a flimsy reason. Follow-up investigations with the provincial boards have shown that the ones who mandated a vote against the new MoI did so based on the incomplete picture they were presented by their provincial president sitting on the Members Council. And eager to have more of a shot at a place on the new Board.

The major sticking point appears to be the definition of an ‘independent’ director and those wanting to stymie progress have warned that this will lead to cricket being run by people who have no love nor knowledge of the game. Which is pure fear-mongering and much of it has been deliberate and not just the understandable caution when approaching a landmark change in how things are done in cricket administration.

There is an inevitability that the recalcitrant administrators will eventually lose, but some of them seem willing to hold out for as long as possible, never mind if it breaks the game in this country. As has been said, and proven, several times before, the Members Council cannot take on the Minister of Sport and hope to win.

Nathi Mthethwa holds all the aces and has all the legal weaponry he needs to force them to comply. Unfortunately, many of these will devastate the game – much like a couple of nuclear bombs ended World War II but also caused immense suffering and damage. The sports minister can withhold funding or remove the right to award national colours from CSA, effectively suspending the Proteas’ involvement in international cricket.

Let’s hope that matters do not have to go that far.

It causes immense frustration that the players – through a strongly-worded statement from SACA, sponsors, media and the general public have all expressed their great dismay at the attitude of the Members Council and yet the stubborn miscreants who have already done so much damage to the game continue to defy all calls for them to embrace change or move out.

Minister Mthethwa will justifiably be enraged by the lack of respect he has been shown and that is certainly the emotion I feel when confronted by the sheer, selfish obduracy of the parasites on the Members Council.

In their desperation, the Members Council have also, when it suits them, invoked Sascoc’s policy that members need to have a majority of non-independent directors on their board. Never mind that CSA ignore what goes on at Sascoc 95% of the time, that organisation is squelching through the mud of their own corporate governance crisis.

In 2017, then Minister of Sport Thulas Nxesi instituted the Zulman Commission to investigate the governance and management of Sascoc. It red-flagged conflicts of interest surrounding board members and recommended that they follow the benchmarks of international best practice and amend their board to have more independent directors.

Having more non-independent, hands-on directors in provincial structures might make sense, but a national board, considering their oversight function and the billions of rands they deal with, must be dominated by an independent contingent whose only concern is the overall good of the game.

The world has changed, top-level sport is no longer an amateur endeavour that can be run by the blazer brigade. It is big business and one needs heavyweights of the corporate world to steer the organisation.

Hopefully the light bulb will come on soon in the Members Council boardroom and they will ensure a more certain future for the game in this country.