Ken Borland

The Proteas want to take young, courageous cricketers without the old baggage to the next World Cup, and much of the coming season will be dedicated to finding those players, according to the captain Faf du Plessis.

The 2018/19 season was officially launched in Centurion on Tuesday and, despite the attraction of the Test series against Pakistan, the focus of the summer will be on what happens at the end of the season – the World Cup in England.

“Our focus is not on the short-term, everything is looking ahead to the World Cup, so sometimes the team that is selected might not be the best available, but that’s how we get guys more experience ahead of our goal, the World Cup. We want to give a few guys more time and we will speed up that process now, even though our results have not been as good as we would have wanted.

“But it means we can see some young, courageous cricketers, and I believe that’s how we can win the World Cup, by losing the baggage. We don’t want the players to be limited and so mentally challenged; the mental side of things is the only hurdle we have left to conquer because we have the skills and we’ve done the planning, we’ve just lacked in mentality,” Du Plessis said on Tuesday.

The road to the World Cup includes ODIs against Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home, as well as a short tour to Australia, and Du Plessis said the matches will be used mostly to fine-tune the side mentally as well as sift through the last few pieces of the selection puzzle.

“We want to try and free up the guys mentally, so there’s no fear of failure, the players must get out there and be able to do the job, and we must equip them for that time. That extra 10-20% mentally is where we have not been as good as we could be. I’ve been to two World Cups and we’ve had different approaches in the lead-up and also mentally.

“So I’ve seen the benefits of what has worked and we will try and take from that, but I’ve also seen the bad. A few guys have shown that they are made for international cricket, they’re ready, and a few guys need more time. So we’ll probably only have a more settled team when we play Pakistan and Sri Lanka next year, then we can look more at the style of play we want for the 15-man squad,” Du Plessis said.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/sa-cricket-sport/2004903/faf-proteas-want-fearless-men-without-baggage-for-world-cup/

Temba Bavuma is the new captain of the Highveld Lions and the Proteas batsman warned that the franchise is dead-set on returning to their previous status as one of the powerhouses of domestic cricket.

The 28-year-old Bavuma is back at the Lions after just one season away with the Cape Cobras and, linking up with new coach Enoch Nkwe, is the sort of inspirational, high-profile figure who can drive a renaissance in Central Gauteng cricket.

“Enoch’s expectation is excellence and we will do everything in our might to fulfil that. But the players have their own expectations and we want to get back to the levels expected of us, get back to the top. We need to put up a performance and fight for the brand of cricket we want to play. We’re coming!” Bavuma said when he was unveiled as the new skipper at the Wanderers on Wednesday night.

Rassie van der Dussen, the leading run-scorer across all formats last season, has been named as the official vice-captain and Bavuma’s Proteas commitments means that he will have a vital leadership role to play as well.

Bavuma said that his return to the Lions was primarily motivated by personal reasons – his fiancée lives in Johannesburg – but it is clear that even though he left to play at his birthplace, his heart remained with his old team-mates.

“I really missed being part of this team and it was quite painful to watch their performances from the side. As captain, I won’t be doing anything different, I’m there to serve the team and inspire the players to perform their best. I know all the guys, we have a good relationship. But I’m not one to speak a lot, my focus is on just going out and doing what we have to do.

“It’s a massive honour and privilege to be given the responsibility of captain. I played under Alviro Petersen and Stephen Cook and I learnt a great deal from them and will try to live up to their legacy. I will have a strong hand in the culture of the team, how we go about achieving excellence starts there, and we have to do that on a daily basis,” Bavuma said.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20180622/282226601449013

Of all the contributions Ali Bacher has made to South African cricket – captain of their first world-beating side, CEO of the United Cricket Board during the drive to Unity, running the successful hosting of the 2003 World Cup – the introduction of the then Bakers Mini-Cricket programme to underprivileged areas was arguably the one with the greatest impact on the future of the game in this country.

So one can understand Bacher feeling a little peeved when a Gauteng Cricket Board president mentioned to him almost 20 years after Bakers Mini-Cricket started that the programme was no longer having the desired outcomes.

“The first time we took cricket to the Black townships was in 1986 with the help of Bakers and within 10 years we had sent someone like Makhaya Ntini to Dale College. In 2003 I left Cricket South Africa and in 2005 the Gauteng Cricket Board president phoned me and said the mini-cricket programme is faltering.

“So I looked at the report and the problem was that any young kid with passion and talent would still not make it if they stayed in the township, because everything was against them there. I went to King Edward VII and when we left high school we were ready to play provincial cricket and Kagiso Rabada had five years of that as well at St Stithians.

“But in the townships there are no grass fields, pitches, nets or covers. There are 27 000 schools in South Africa and they are mostly Black with no facilities because they don’t have money for it. If talented players were identified there then you had to get them quickly to government or private schools that were traditionally good cricket schools,” Bacher explains.

KFC have now taken over the mini-cricket programme and their efforts deserve recognition because they are still a tremendous feeder system. But the approach when it comes to high school pupils has now changed, under the guidance of Bacher and with the support of Blue Label.

As the chief marketing officer of the mobile telecoms innovators, Rob Fleming, explains: “Transformation is absolutely critical and it needs constant love and attention. But what’s the best way of achieving it? I’ve seen multiple ideas and there’s no doubt we need to do a better job.

“Our real strength in South African cricket is our schools, but forty of them probably produce 80% of our players, so is that the right place to develop our cricket? If we take township kids to those schools then often they are not up to it academically and it affects their cricket and the whole scheme collapses.

“So it was Ali’s idea to go to old traditional cricket schools and try and reignite the game there, let’s create another forty top cricket schools. There’s no doubt the talent is there, that’s our conveyor belt and I love how coherently this programme can work with the rest of the system,” Fleming says.

What deters many schools from playing cricket is the time and expense it involves, which is where Blue Label is coming in to provide resources for Focus Schools, three of which (Uitsig, Akasia and Hendrik Verwoerd) were recently named in the Northerns region, joining schools in Johannesburg, Krugersdorp and Vereeniging that are already in the programme.

Cricket is competing heavily with other codes at these schools, and teachers and facilities are few, but by combining resources, their weakness has become a strength.

Our schools are where the rubber hits the tar in terms of capacity building and getting more and more talent into the pipeline.

“Many of these traditionally good cricket schools are now 99% Black so we are completing the circle and Rob is passionate about this as well. We’ve identified government schools that were former White schools and they still have good facilities but cricket was no longer being played. For example, Krugersdorp High School, hardly any cricket was being played; Highlands North used to provide most of the Balfour Park club, who were very good, but there was no longer any cricket there.

“But if we can get cricket back on its feet again in schools like that then I reckon we will see a plethora of good players coming through. Like Queen’s High School which is on the other side of the Jeppe Hill, it’s all Black and their cricket is so good. Their U15 side only lost one match last season and they beat Pretoria Boys High, they are well-dressed and their parents are all there. This will be so good for South African cricket,” Bacher says.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20180609/282243781291243

Stephen Cook on Wednesday stood down as the Highveld Lions captain after their disappointing 2017/18 season but the franchise are still going to enjoy the benefits of his leadership and experience, with the 35-year-old set to fulfill the role of a senior pro as new coach Enoch Nkwe looks to rebuild.

“I have captained the side for the better part of five years and we had some success, but I’ve been thinking of standing down. At the back end of last season, with all the uncertainty over coaches, would not have been the right time though, but with the changing of the guard it’s a good time now for a fresh start.

“I spoke to Enoch and my leadership will not be lost. I know what has worked effectively in the past is to have the benefit of a senior player who is not the captain, and in my career, guys like Adam Bacher and Neil McKenzie are examples of that. So it’s just a different position I’ll be filling and I certainly don’t see it as the end of my career,” Cook told The Citizen on Wednesday.

Cook denied that the captaincy had distracted him from his batting, after a mixed season in 2017/18. Although he had many failures, when he occupied the crease for some time he still scored heavily and a return of 632 runs at an average of 37.17, including three centuries, was still solid.

“I’ve played some of my best cricket while I’ve been captain, but last season was a bit patchy, I was not as consistent as I would have liked but I still felt it was a good campaign. Of course cricket is a performance sport and if I don’t get the numbers on the board now I will be in trouble like anyone else.

“But I’m excited about next season, Enoch and I played together from when we were 11, we came through the ranks together. My resigning might actually help him because I might not have been his first-choice skipper and he can now go ahead freely with the new way he wants to bring in,” Cook said.