Ken Borland

Louis Oosthuizen will once again hog the Major limelight amongst South African golfers as he tees off at the Masters on Thursday in one of the feature three-balls, but there are also five other local stars gunning for glory at Augusta.

It will be a Masters unlike any other because not only have spectators been banned due to the Covid-19 pandemic but it is also taking place in winter, far removed from it’s usual slot at the height of spring in April.

Oosthuizen, South Africa’s highest-ranked golfer at No.19 in the world and third in the U.S. Open in September, has been drawn with new sensation Bryson de Chambeau, who won the previous Major, and Spain’s Jon Rahm, who is also one of the favourites to win the famous green jacket.

The 38-year-old Oosthuizen is considered one of the top draws in world golf due to his stellar record in the Majors. He may have won just one – the 2010 Open Championship – but apart from finishing as the runner-up in all four, he has also claimed three other top-10 finishes.

Erik van Rooyen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Dylan Frittelli are the other South African golfers within the top-100 in the world rankings who will be playing at Augusta, with Van Rooyen and Bezuidenhout making their Masters debuts.

Van Rooyen told his Twitter followers that he had goosebumps watching videos of Augusta and “cannot wait for the first tee shot”, while Bezuidenhout described it as “a dream come true”.

Justin Harding, on his debut at Augusta, was South Africa’s best finisher in last year’s tournament, his tie for 12^th earning him a place in the 2020 field.

Charl Schwartzel has dropped out of the world top 200 after struggling since his return from a wrist injury, but is in the field thanks to his 2011 Masters triumph.

Trevor Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion, also had an exemption to play, but the South African has decided to be in the television commentary box instead.

Jacques Snyman scored the fastest ever franchise four-day century and Matthew Kleinveldt, Raynard van Tonder, Pite van Biljon and Farhaan Behardien also went past fifty as the Knights thoroughly dominated the opening day of the first-class 4-Day Domestic Series match against the Warriors in Bloemfontein on Monday.

Snyman reached three figures off just 71 balls, beating the previous record for fastest four-day century of 73 deliveries set by team-mate Shaun von Berg when he was playing for the Titans. The 26-year-old Snyman also became the first batsman to score a century before lunch on the first day of a franchise four-day match since fellow Free Stater Rilee Rossouw did it in 2010 against the Titans at Centurion.

Rossouw went on to score 319 in that innings, but Snyman’s fun ended at 109 off just 78 balls when he was run out after a terrible mix-up with Kleinveldt.

But their opening stand of 164 in just 28 overs had put the Knights well on the way to their close of play total of 405 for five, against a Warriors side that was thoroughly disrupted by the withdrawal of six players due to two positive Covid tests and other players needing to self-isolate.

Kleinveldt went on to score 73, and Van Tonder (85) and Van Biljon (53) then added 94 for the third wicket, Behardien then ramming home the advantage late in the day with 67 not out.

The Titans have made a good start to the new season with the ball as they restricted the Cape Cobras to 264 for nine declared at Newlands, but the visitors have lost a key wicket as they went to stumps on four for one with Aiden Markram (2) rather bizarrely treading on his own wicket as he jumped back to turn spinner George Linde away on the leg-side.

Linde had earlier shared in the biggest partnership of the Cobras innings, scoring 43 as he and Kyle Verreynne (39) added 69 for the sixth wicket.

Opener Pieter Malan was the top-scorer for the home side with 51, but the Titans kept plugging away with the ball and would have been pleased with their efforts after losing the toss. Former Cobras paceman Lizaad Williams must have enjoyed having a good day against his previous team and took four for 51 on his Titans debut, while spinner Tabraiz Shamsi took three top-order wickets.

The defending champion Imperial Lions made a solid start to their rain-affected match against the Dolphins in Durban, posting 153 for three at stumps. Captain Temba Bavuma (30*) has Ryan Rickelton (15*) for company and they have already added 45 for the fourth wicket. Durban had solid rain over the weekend and play could only get underway after lunch, but Reeza Hendricks played some great strokes as he raced to 76 off 86 deliveries to immediately allow the visitors to settle in at the crease.

Following the resignation of the rest of the Cricket South Africa Board on Monday morning, the Members Council will now focus their efforts on setting up an interim board comprised of fit individuals to steer the federation to their AGM on December 5 and also formulate a new Memorandum of Incorporation for the election of directors.

The three remaining independent directors and the last non-independent director, Free State president Zola Thamae, all stood down on Monday morning, following the weekend resignations of five of the non-independent directors on the Board.

With no Board now in place, the 14-strong Members Council is currently in charge of CSA and their first order of business is to set up an interim board, none of whom will be directors from the last four years and none of whom will be eligible for the new permanent Board once it is in place.

The Members Council will present their plans to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa later on Monday, ahead of their scheduled meeting with him on Tuesday, and they will also consult with Sascoc over the composition of the interim board.

While ensuring independent directors are a majority on the board is one of the major recommendations of the Nicholson Commission, a big focus of the Members Council will be in ensuring these independents are fit to serve cricket, because they have been disappointed with the level of contribution made by the independent directors in recent years.

“Everyone on the Board has now gone and we will now move forward with our interim board plan. We want to send the Minister a response before our meeting on Tuesday. We’ve opened communication with Sascoc, but we need to nominate people who will add value to cricket, we need to guard against people coming in who are not going to help CSA.

“We want to get that interim board as clean as possible and you can’t serve on that body and then be a Board member afterwards because that would be a conflict of interest and we don’t want people to be persuaded into doing things that are not for the benefit of the game. Knowledge of cricket is going to be key and the biggest question facing us is whether we want totally independent figures or cricket people,” a provincial president who sits on the Members Council told The Citizen on Monday.

The administrator confirmed that they were trying to convince a recently retired Protea of high standing to swop his whites for a tie and sit on that interim board.

Much of the blame for CSA’s mess can be laid on the shoulders of previous independent directors, on whom the Board depends for expert corporate governance advice, who did not ensure those running the organisation stayed on the straight and narrow.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher says the team has found a new vision and identity for themselves and also a new way of playing that will hopefully bring greater success as a rebuilding side looks to regain their glory days.

The South African cricket team’s Culture Camp at Skukuza last month not only dealt with wrongs of the past, especially those that involved racial discrimination, but also plotted a way ahead for the future. #ProteaFire, the mantra of the team that went to number one in all three formats with Boucher as a player, has now officially been extinguished, replaced by three watchwords: Belonging; Empathy; Respect.

“One of the biggest changes came in terms of #ProteaFire, which gave us direction and the values to become the number one side, especially when under pressure. But none of those guys are playing anymore and we have outgrown that, it’s an outdated identity. Maybe it became too commercialised, it ended up just being on paper and the guys no longer live it.

“There are more cultures in the team now and it was time those came through. It’s important for a new team to create a new identity and that’s exactly what we got – a new set of values. It will start with how we play and the players chose the same route that myself and Enoch Nkwe [assistant coach] wanted, everything aligned without us really trying. It’s also about how new guys coming into the team must feel and management did not choose the vision, the players did,” Boucher said in an audio interview released by Cricket South Africa on Monday.

Boucher said the Culture Camp also gave the larger group of players from which the Proteas will draw the opportunity to talk about their pet peeves and he found the revelations to be eye-opening.

“We all come from different backgrounds and have been brought up in different ways, and we must understand our shortfalls in the past. We can’t turn a blind eye, we must acknowledge them, that’s empathy, which is a big word for us. We need to use our four or five different cultures to our advantage and I came out of the camp with a completely different understanding.

“I educated myself, I found it quite fascinating, things I have never thought about before. The camp opened my eyes in a massive way and I would encourage people to get out there and try and understand the feelings of different races. Now the best thing for the game would be for our biggest assets – the players – to be able to take over the headlines for good things, let the game do the talking rather than the other things that have been hogging the headlines,” Boucher said.