Ken Borland

SuperSport Park has been the site of some high scoring in domestic cricket lately, but Proteas captain Dean Elgar knows his batting line-up will “be up against it” in the first Test against India which starts at Centurion on Boxing Day.

In the last four-day match played at SuperSport Park, when the Northerns Titans drew with the KZN Dolphins, 983 runs were scored for the loss of just 21 wickets, with 12 batsmen getting past 40 and two centuries being scored.

“Although there’s been quite a lot of rain recently, Centurion has had a pretty good pitch of late and if you apply yourself as a batsman, put away some shots, then you can get runs under the belt,” Elgar said of his home ground.

But India possess one of the best attacks in world cricket, coming up against a South African batting line-up that is yet to reach its full potential.

“If there’s some extra pace and bounce in the pitch then bowlers can exploit the conditions and there’s always a bit of spice in South Africa, especially on the Highveld.

“India have an immensely improved bowling attack, especially away from home, and we are going to be up against it, but we’re perfectly comfortable with that.

“We feel comfortable at home and it’s going to be tough for India’s batsmen too against our attack. I’d rather be in our changeroom than their’s,” Elgar said.

Elgar led the batting averages for the Proteas the last time India were here, scoring 207 runs at 41.40, in early 2018. South Africa won that series 2-1, but this time there is no AB de Villiers or Hashim Amla or Faf du Plessis. The left-handed opener will have to lead the way again with the bat.

“I naturally always want to lead from the front with the bat and scoring runs is a massive role of mine, let alone being the captain. I will never run away from that responsibility and hopefully I average a little more this series,” Elgar said.

“I know we have a relatively inexperienced batting line-up, but they have an opportunity to take, which is what professional cricket is all about. Either they take it or there are other guys knocking on the door.

“It’s always tough against one of the best attacks in the world. We need to prepare well against the Indian attack, but I believe we are not far away from batsmen coming in and cementing their places.

“India have a well-balanced attack that covers all the bases. So mentally we really need to tap in, being mentally ready is extremely important for me,” Elgar said.

Dean Elgar was philosophical about the telling blow his team has suffered with the withdrawal of fast bowler Anrich Nortje from the series against India, but the Proteas captain was more upset when he told South Africa’s administrators that they have not backed the squad, and especially the coaches and management, enough.

As has become the norm, the Proteas go into a vital series with off-field clouds hanging over their heads. The most threatening of those is the news this week that coach Mark Boucher and director of cricket Graeme Smith are to be subjected to a formal enquiry by the CSA board based on the “tentative” and “untested” findings of the Social Justice and Nation-Building Report.

On the field, they will be without one of their key enforcers, Nortje needing to see specialists to sort out a persistent hip injury. The 28-year-old has been South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in Tests this year with 25 in five matches at an average of just 20.76.

“It’s not too tough for us, as a team we’ve got used to bad news being around us the last one-and-a-half years,” Elgar said on Tuesday. “We just adapt to it, even though they are not ideal headlines.

“What happens off the field is irrelevant now, we have to try and implement a game-plan and trust it. We’ve been through such crappy times, but we’ve formulated such a bond that works for us as player group.

“There have been so many different administrators, but I feel that we have not received enough backing, especially in terms of our coaches and management. We need to show them some love.

“As players, we would like to say that we back them, we know the work they put in that is not seen by the public. It’s not nice to see them being lambasted by articles in the media,” Elgar said.

Another Proteas squad member who is encountering some mixed media treatment is returning fast bowler Duanne Olivier, and Elgar did his best to bolster the former Kolpak’s image. Nortje’s injury means the 29-year-old is now surely almost certain to play his first Test since February 2019.

“The team has responded very well to Duanne coming back, he’s played with quite a few of the guys before and he has half-a-dozen Central Gauteng Lions team-mates here as well,” Elgar said.

“I want us to have the best opportunity of winning matches and series and I’m sure there’s 100% backing for that in the changeroom. Which means sometimes you have to make tough calls.

“But I’m very pleased and excited to have him back, I know what he can do on the field and there are no bad feelings. I see a different energy and enthusiasm in him.

“He’s a different cricketer now and he brings a lot of knowledge and experience back into the team, which is what we need. He’s a matchwinner, I’m very aware of that and that’s what I want to have,” Elgar said.

Former Proteas captain AB de Villiers has already taken public umbrage at the findings of the Social Justice and Nation-Building Report and other players and officials who have been named will also be expressing their unhappiness in letters to the Cricket South Africa board.

SJN ombudsman Dumisa Ntsebeza accused De Villiers of unfair discrimination based on racial grounds due to his leading role in the non-selection of Khaya Zondo for the decisive last ODI of their tour to India in 2015.

De Villiers, who stated in his affidavit to the SJN that he had earlier been told by the selectors that Zondo was in the squad as a learning experience and not to be part of the playing XI, responded on social media with a message saying his opposition to the then-uncapped Zondo’s selection was purely based on cricketing reasons.

“Throughout my career, I expressed honest cricketing opinions only ever based on what I believed was best for the team, never based on anyone’s race. That’s the fact,” De Villiers said.

The CSA board will consider what action to take based on the report in the new year.

The fact that Ntsebeza himself admitted that the SJN “cannot make definite findings”, “there was no process in place for testing the submissions” and that his recommendations and findings are “merely tentative”, will give the board some leeway, especially since so many of the implicated are lawyering up.

Others, however, have expressed their lack of confidence in the ability of the entire process to treat them fairly.

“I am afraid there isn’t much to say that will benefit me at all. I was found guilty before any response by a kangaroo court,” one former player told The Citizen on condition of anonymity.

“I am trying to take the higher ground without it being a tit-for-tat argument, but I am spending too much on lawyer’s fees already.

“But it doesn’t suit the narrative, I am not holding my breath, we’ve been hung out to dry, so I am not expecting that to change,” he said.

De Villiers has, of course retired from all cricket and so is out of CSA’s jurisdiction, but the originators of the SJN hearings have wanted the prize heads of Proteas coach Mark Boucher and director of cricket Graeme Smith for a long time.

Ntsebeza has delivered what they wanted, but critics of the SJN report say his report is fatally flawed on legal grounds and CSA will undoubtedly have to tread carefully unless they are to find themselves embroiled in more courtroom battles.

CSA’s director of cricket Graeme Smith is always just a call away from BCCI supremo Sourav Ganguly and the former Proteas captain assured on Wednesday that reports from India that their tour of South Africa would be reduced in duration had no basis.

The Times of India, quoting unnamed sources, reported on Wednesday that the BCCI has been “left with no choice” but to reschedule the series, with the number of Test matches reduced from three to two, ostensibly allowing the Indian team to fly out to South Africa later than their scheduled departure date of December 9.

The report implied that it was the players who were pushing for a shorter tour. India are also scheduled to play three one-day internationals and four T20s.

Smith’s response to questions over whether there is any truth in the Indian reports was a terse “Nothing like this has been discussed.”

Smith has been a long-time supporter of BCCI president Ganguly and the mutual respect between the two former national captains is obvious. They are in regular cellphone contact.

The uncertainty is still causing immense frustration, however, because South African cricket has been down this road before with both England and Australia contriving to almost ruin last summer by their rancouring decision to pull out of tours.

The selection of the Proteas squad for the first Test, starting on December 17, has been delayed. Not just because of the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid but also because of some injury problems.

Lungi Ngidi’s positive Covid test – and the fact he has only bowled seven competitive overs since July – and Lizaad Williams’ side strain are in the public domain, but there are also apparently a couple of other injuries that nobody seems willing to talk about.

On the plus side, the selectors have confirmed that they have been in contact with rampant Central Gauteng Lions fast bowler Duanne Olivier and he is available for the Proteas again. The former Kolpak player has roared to the top of the wicket-takers’ list in four-day provincial cricket, with 28 scalps in four matches at an average of just 11.14.

He has been ferocious and the thought of a raging Olivier hurling down the ball at India’s batsmen at Centurion and the Wanderers, along with fellow fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, is a tantalising one.