Ken Borland

It may just amount to papering over the cracks, but Cricket South Africa are looking to meet the six SA20 franchises to discuss the fall-out from last week’s auction and get more clarity on why Proteas regulars Temba Bavuma and Andile Phehlukwayo were not bought by any of the teams.

Their omission, especially that of national T20 captain Bavuma, dominated South African cricket news, detracting from one of the most important events in the establishment of the new league as hopefully something that will enthral local fans.

Franchises like Sunrisers Eastern Cape, who are owned by the Sun Group who operate numerous Indian newspapers, TV and radio stations and so should understand the media fall-out, and Durban Super Giants chose top-order batsmen with inferior domestic records rather than Bavuma.

“It’s quite difficult because we agreed with the franchises that we would allow the bidding process to run independently,” CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki told The Citizen.

“But we were hugely disappointed, especially by the omission of Temba and Andile, that was quite a shock. We need to have a post-mortem to see how we can avoid this happening in the future.

“I am part of the SA20 board and I will be proposing a post-mortem with the franchises. It will be a discussion, not an interrogation. We can’t control how they go about picking their teams, but we just want to understand better why it happened.

“We will have earnest discussions with them and inform the public as well. We want the public’s buy-in for this tournament, so they need to be able to read and hear why certain players weren’t chosen,” Moseki said.

The first sign that things were heading south at the auction came when Sunrisers Eastern Cape bought Marques Ackerman in the 12^th round of bidding. The KZN Dolphins batsman has a strike-rate of 123.68 and an average of 24.25 in 39 domestic T20s, compared to Bavuma’s strike-rate of 124.67 and an average of 30.52 over 100 matches.

Ackerman’s base price was admittedly just R175 000, while Bavuma’s was R850 000, which was clearly set too high, either by himself or whoever advised him poorly. Moseki confirmed that “the Proteas players could choose their own reserve price, initially they were told to go at R850 000, but if they wanted to go lower then they could do that. It was not possible to lower their price during the auction though”.

“We will ask the franchises whether there was enough local input in their selections. We need a long-term plan to ensure this does not happen again, specifically when it comes to contracted Black players.

“It will be very sad if it happens again next year and we obviously need to plan better,” Moseki said.

The SA20 Auction was always going to be one of the key events in the build-up to the launch of the new T20 league early next year, crucial in getting the public behind Cricket South Africa’s proposed financial saviour.

Unfortunately the six franchises made a complete hash of it by snubbing one of this country’s most popular players. I’m not sure whether Temba Bavuma’s status as captain of the national T20 team or the fact he is a role-model and hero to so many is most important, but either way, he should be playing in the SA20.

His highly-controversial snubbing – there is no other word for it when you fail to get a bid despite going on auction three times – has led to ferocious debate. Some of it has been so lacking in clarity of thought or decent humanity that it reminds me a bit of how Hashim Amla was treated in the early stages of his international career. Despite scoring prolifically for KwaZulu-Natal, Amla had many critics who said he would never make it at international level.

Amla showed ‘em alright how wrong that characterisation of his abilities was.

Let’s be clear, I’m not saying Bavuma should automatically have been bought simply because he is a Proteas captain, or his popularity, or the colour of his skin. I’m saying choose him because there are compelling cricketing reasons to do so.

That the 32-year-old is not the most explosive T20 batsman is a given, but he can perform a very important role in the top-three, especially when conditions give the bowlers a bit of assistance. I watched him score an outstanding century at the Wanderers to win the Highveld Lions the T20 title against the Warriors in 2019.

My point is three of the franchises clearly chose players instead of Bavuma who do not have better records than him.

My alarm bells were ringing when Sunrisers Eastern Cape bought Marques Ackerman in the 12^th round of bidding, admittedly for just R175 000, compared to Bavuma’s base price of R850 000, which was clearly set too high, either by himself or whoever advised him poorly.

Because we’re going to be comparing records of these top-three batsmen, Bavuma’s T20 stats are the baseline. In 25 internationals, he has a strike-rate of 120.60 and an average of 26.76. But there were some purely domestic players who were chosen ahead of him, so Bavuma’s local stats are 100 matches, a strike-rate of 124.67 and an average of 30.52.

Ackerman has played just 39 domestic T20s and strikes at 123.68, with an average of 24.25.

There was an even bigger warning that Bavuma was in for humiliation when Durban Super Giants bought West Indian Johnson Charles in the next round. A bang-average T20 player based on his stats: In 34 internationals, he has a strike-rate of only 121.68 and an average of only 21.93. His domestic figures are 128.63 and 25.76. And before you bring up his wicketkeeping, Durban already had Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen in their squad.

In the next round, Super Kings bought Matthew Breetzke, a sound investment in up-and-coming talent, but he has a domestic strike-rate of 129.43 and an average of 24.78. Like many of the local cricketers, half of those matches have been in the semi-pro ranks, so you really cannot compare him with Bavuma.

When Sunrisers Eastern Cape then bought Test opener Sarel Erwee in Round 15, it really seemed like the auction was merely a device for our IPL overlords to ram home some sort of anti-transformation agenda.

Erwee strikes at 123.64 and has an average of 24.70.

One wonders how much local input the franchises used.

And considering the awful racist targeting of Bavuma and Andile Phehlukwayo, whose omission from the SA20 is also a shock, by some Indian social media, and the right-wing, anti-liberal current Indian government, one wonders whether there is not more to these auction outcomes than meets the eye.

We sincerely hope not.

The Paarl Royals have emerged from this week’s SA20 Auction with the most impressive roster of players, benefiting from a bold start to the auction and then a strong finish as they kept valuable bid money in reserve.

Having pre-bought T20 stars like David Miller, Jos Buttler and Obed McCoy, Paarl then netted two marquee bowlers from the first set of players to go under the hammer, getting Proteas lynchpins in Tabraiz Shamsi and Lungi Ngidi.

Jason Roy, Dane Vilas and Bjorn Fortuin, all with strong T20 pedigrees, came from sets two, three and six respectively, before a late flurry of bidding saw Paarl emerge from the express rounds at the end with half-a-dozen fantastic signings.

Former England captain Eoin Morgan was their penultimate pick for R2 million and the Royals have gained some great local talent in Boland stars Ferisco Adams and Imraan Manack, and hard-hitting batsmen Wihan Lubbe, Evan Jones and Mitchell van Buuren.

JP Duminy, in his first year as a head coach, said he will benefit from the experience of players like Morgan, captain Miller, Buttler and Roy.

“The team has an inexperienced coach so it needs a good bunch of leaders,” Duminy said with characteristic modesty. “Fortunately it played out that way.

“There’s a lot of leadership quality in the squad, Eoin Morgan is a World Cup winning captain, and David Miller will gain traction from that as he gets exposure to the captaincy.

“We know Jason Roy will be destructive up front and I’m sure he will find form in the next few months. We had planned for Donovan Ferreira, but that did not work out and then it was about who will fill the finisher role?

“Eoin is one of the leading finishers in world cricket and Evan Jones is someone for the future as well, and he will have the opportunity to learn from Eoin,” Duminy said.

While the Proteas’ leading run-scorer in T20 cricket said much of their success at the auction in Cape Town was ‘the rub of the green’, there is little doubt the Royals executed a carefully thought-out strategy, aiming for players who have done well in Paarl before.

“Bjorn Fortuin and Tabraiz Shamsi were pivotal to the success of the Paarl Rocks in the 2019 MSL, and I’ve already seen a pic on social media about how excited they are to play together again,” Duminy laughed an hour after the auction.

“And it’s good to see locals like Ferisco and Imraan in the squad; Ferisco sent me a message saying he will be bringing the whole of Robertson to our home games!”

Watching T20 cricket at Boland Park is set to once again be a real earful as well as an eye-catching experience.

Paarl Royals squad – Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Wihan Lubbe, David Miller, Eoin Morgan, Dane Vilas, Corbin Bosch, Bjorn Fortuin, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi, Obed McCoy, Evan Jones, Ferisco Adams, Mitchell van Buuren, Imraan Manack, Ramon Simmonds, Codi Yusuf.

The SA20 Auction resulted in a fabulous outcome for young batsmen Tristan Stubbs and Donovan Ferreira, while some other very good cricketers missed out on being bought, most notably Proteas regulars Temba Bavuma and Andile Phehlukwayo.

Stubbs is just 22 years old but has already made his mark at international level as a devastating finisher who is also a great fielder and can bowl some spin. He attracted the highest price of the auction – a life-changing R9.2 million paid by Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

MI Cape Town just kept their paddle in the air from the moment Stubbs went on auction, from his base price of R175 000 into the millions. They eventually bowed out at R4.6 million as the Sunrisers made a concerted effort to keep Stubbs at St George’s Park. Joburg Super Giants pushed the price past a new high of R7 million and then MI Cape Town came back, before the Eastern Cape franchise held on to keep their star player.

MI Cape Town coach Simon Katich said Stubbs had become like a son to him during the recent Hundred competition in England and he was disappointed not to get him again.

“I’ve just worked with Tristan in The Hundred and he feels like my third son, that’s how much we enjoyed working with each other. He’s a Mumbai Indians player in the IPL as well. He’s a special talent, which is why we went so hard for him,” Katich said.

The 24-year-old Ferreira, who did not have a full-time contract last season and had to get leave to play for the Northerns Titans in the T20 competition, scored a massive R5.5 million from Joburg Super Kings.

A very good ball-striker, and part-time bowler, he is considered a promising white-ball talent, but the bidding frenzy he sparked was scarcely believable.

As was the complete lack of interest in Bavuma, who will captain South Africa at the T20 World Cup next month, and Phehlukwayo, who couldn’t even get interest from Durban, where he is a very effective bowler. Franchises perhaps baulked at their R850 000 reserve prices.

The dangerous Rilee Rossouw was second to Stubbs in terms of price tag and will be going to Pretoria Capitals for R6.9 million.

Two left-arm bowlers who are also threats with the bat were next in terms of popularity, with Marco Jansen going to Sunrisers Eastern Cape for R6.1 million and Wayne Parnell being bought by Pretoria Capitals for R5.6 million.

Sisanda Magala once again upstaged some of his more illustrious colleagues as he earned R5.4 million in another coup for Sunrisers Eastern Cape.