Ken Borland

As if the global Covid-19 pandemic has not disrupted the international cricket calendar enough, the Indian Premier League has now moved to September, which Cricket South Africa Director of Cricket Graeme Smith said has put paid to any hopes of the Proteas being in action before November.

South Africa were scheduled to play series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka before summer, but Smith admitted at the weekend that those commitments were now on the back burner. The IPL, meanwhile, has taken advantage of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia being postponed until next year, and will be held in the UAE, starting on September 19.

South Africans scheduled to play in the IPL include Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi for Chennai Super Kings, AB de Villiers, Chris Morris and Dale Steyn are in the Bangalore Royal Challengers squad, while Kagiso Rabada is contracted by the Delhi Capitals and Quinton de Kock is on the Mumbai Indians roster.

“The West Indies tour has been postponed indefinitely because now we’re struggling with the IPL – it looks like our players will be needed there at the beginning of September. We also don’t know when the Sri Lanka tour will be able to take place and in terms of the national women’s team, we are working on getting government permission for their tour to England next month.

“Hopefully November is going to be a very busy time for the national team, hopefully we can cram in all the tours we’ve missed out on, if all goes well and we get things up and running by then,” Smith said.

Faced by a barrage of criticism from certain sectors of the Black Lives Matter movement, Smith said he accepted the position of director of cricket in December in order to restore the reputation of the Proteas, who he previously led to the number one ranking in all formats. The 39-year-old reaffirmed his commitment to seeing that through.

“I was sad to see South African cricket fall from its perch, that’s why I got involved. Back in December it was absolute chaos in South African cricket, there was zero trust between anyone. I wanted to be part of the solution and now that it’s feeling chaotic again, you keep revisiting that. The narrative that a clique has taken over is really unfair and I did not appoint myself.

“I went through a rigorous interview process, led by mainly Black African people, and then I made a number of appointments in December – Volvo Masubelele as manager, Justin Ontong, Charl Langeveldt, Mark Boucher, Enoch Nkwe and the medical staff. The appointment of Paul Harris as a consultant was made around Keshav Maharaj’s request and Jacques Kallis was an interim consultant, he has not been on CSA’’s payroll for many months. But we would be stupid not to involve one of the most successful batsmen in the world,” Smith said.

Smith said he was not invited to the inaugural Social Justice and Nation-Building meeting that arose from the BLM movement, but he hoped to be involved going forward. He said it was crucial to co-operate with Black players in order to ensure they could be comfortable in the Proteas environment.

“We want to create a better environment going forward, we’ve got to create a culture in which everyone feels safe to talk. I was most surprised that the players did not feel they had a voice in the past. Hopefully CSA will involve us in the Social Justice project now after the Board asked us not to be part of the first one. We should all want to be part of the solution. “I was very taken aback by the Makhaya Ntini stuff. I never thought of him as being the silent type when I first came into the Proteas team, he was one of the senior players, and he gave me a different explanation for running to the ground and not coming on the bus. But as the only Black African it must have been tough for him and it’s important that nobody else feels that way,” Smith said.

The country’s rugby players may have returned to training this week but planning for them to actually play competitive matches is not getting any easier with Jurie Roux, the CEO of SA Rugby, confirming on Tuesday that there is “about zero chance” of South Africa hosting any international rugby this year.

And the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are likely to deeply affect the 2021 rugby calendar as well, necessitating major changes in local rugby. Roux did reiterate though that SA Rugby are still hopeful that they will be able to return to play at least by mid-September with local competitions.

“It is still a very fluid situation and there are multiple factors feeding into our daily decisions. But if anyone thinks we are going to return to a format that is close to what existed before this pandemic then they are making a big mistake. The market has corrected itself, it was due a change and it has been brought on by Covid. Rugby will be significantly different, we are trying to prepare for 2020/21 but everything else is in flux.

“There are no plans to host any international games this year because there is about zero chance of entrance into South Africa with our borders closed. The only chance of playing international rugby is in the New Zealand bubble in the Rugby Championship. The broadcast revenue from the Rugby Championship is significant and international rugby will hopefully resume towards the end of October, whatever we can fit in before mid-December,” Roux told an online media conference on Tuesday. a

International travel is not expected to return to normal until midway through next year and quarantine requirements are also squeezing the calendar, and while Roux said SuperRugby was not dead after New Zealand expressed their preference for a trans-Tasman competition with Australia, SA Rugby are hard-pressed to find space for a cross-conference competition before the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa kicks off in early July.

“They stated their preferred structure due to restrictions and the costs of travel with fewer flights to New Zealand, and there is every indication that ourselves and Argentina will not be able to go there without spending two weeks in quarantine until the end of May, so the previous format of SuperRugby is just not viable. So New Zealand will play domestically first and then hopefully we can have some sort of crossover SuperRugby.

“So the plan is for us to play domestically from February to April and if the borders are opened then we can have some sort of format across conferences, with Argentina most likely with us. But it all needs to finish by the time the British & Irish Lions tour starts in the first week of July. We are all part of the Sanzaar joint venture and there are legal agreements in place,” Roux said.

Like any good farmer who has planted his vegetables, cared for them carefully and patiently and then waits for a rich harvest, Hilton Moreeng believes the Proteas Women’s side is now ready to blossom as he begins another three-year stint in charge of the team.

Moreeng’s reappointment was confirmed on Wednesday, allowing the 42-year-old to continue the fine work he has done since 2012 in building a squad of talented youngsters into one of the best international teams. Under the former Free State wicketkeeper/batsman’s guidance, the Proteas have reached the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2014 and 2020 and the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2017. And in those last two final-four appearances they have come perilously close to beating both England and Australia, the powerhouses of the women’s game.

“It’s a great privilege for me to be reappointed, it shows the confidence Cricket South Africa has in the work I’ve done. This team is coming of age and it’s time we started challenging for ICC silverware. I hope to improve the team further and as a coach I am learning every day and no two days are alike. We want to be a top-three team and we are making strides towards that.

“But we cannot be complacent because the international cricket environment changes every day and we have to keep working extremely hard. But the building blocks we have are very good and in terms of skills we are now one of the best teams. We’ve had to be very patient, we want to be number one in the world one day, that’s everyone’s ambition but it doesn’t happen overnight,” Moreeng said on Wednesday.

The Proteas Women’s first assignment once they return to action will hopefully be a triangular series in England with India in September, but the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand starting next February is their priority in the short-term.

“We knew our tour of New Zealand earlier this year would be crucial in our preparation and whitewashing them on home soil shows our skills and character. Now we are seven months from the World Cup and we will focus on that. But it will be a very important series in England because it might be our only chance for competitive cricket before the World Cup. We will be working hard on what we can improve as a team and CSA are making sure we have everything we need,” Moreeng said.

Part of that is investigating the feasibility of a professional domestic women’s league. But in the meantime CSA are focusing on beefing up the women’s high performance and academy programmes.

“We believe the Momentum Proteas can now challenge the top three regularly and the results in New Zealand and Australia earlier this year show the top leadership of Hilton and Dane van Niekerk [captain]. It’s very important to CSA that this team now moves forward over the next three years and I’m very confident we’ve made the right decision in reappointing Hilton.

“We need to grow and enhance the environment. Hilton has put in a lot of hard work to grow the team to where they are, and now he has the opportunity to take them even further. He can grow them to another level and having a proper women’s league is an area of focus for us. A lot more investment has been put into the women’s pipeline and we are looking to strengthen that,” director of cricket Graeme Smith said.

The new T20 Global League to be held in South Africa at the end of the year will have the most cosmopolitan feel of any of the T20 tournaments around the world as team owners from five different countries were unveiled at a function in an upmarket Knightsbridge hotel in London on Monday.

Cricket South Africa’s desire for the bulk of the franchises to be locally-owned has played second fiddle to the rewards of big overseas investment, with the eight team owners coming from Pakistan (2), India (2), Hong Kong and Dubai. The two teams based in Pretoria and Stellenbosch will have South African owners.

“It’s really important that there is local investment from a South African point of view, but the foreign interest means we’ll be playing in front of much bigger audiences. It places a much bigger emphasis on South African cricket, especially for our domestic players. It should keep most of our players in the country now because the T20 Global League provides a huge step forward in terms of opportunity and financially,” Proteas captain Faf du Plessis, who will be playing for the Stellenbosch franchise, said at the launch.

There are drawbacks, however, that come with the overseas investment, with the foreign team-owners having no real answer to questions about transformation imperatives.

Both the Pakistani team owners – their teams will be based in Durban and Benoni – spoke about T20 cricket being the answer to the problems besetting their game. Even though Pakistan’s memorable Champions Trophy triumph at the weekend had London’s large cricket fanbase abuzz, their game is still faced with the problems of not being able to host any games due to security concerns.

The Pakistan Super League has attracted some overseas players back and both Fawad Rana (Durban) and Javed Afridi (Benoni) spoke about their involvement in the T20 Global League improving the image of cricket in their troubled country.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20170620/282759176664564