Ken Borland

It will be a momentous weekend for Boland cricket as their thrilling climb to the summit of the CSA One-Day Cup standings, playing top-class 50-over cricket to win five of their seven matches, has rightfully been rewarded with hosting rights for the final in Paarl, but it has been a week in which the credibility of Cricket South Africa has taken another beating.

That’s because Boland’s opponents in the final were basically decided in the CSA boardroom, with the troubled organisation’s directors imposing an almost unprecedented penalty on the Eastern Province Warriors for failing to meet their transformation targets against the KZN Dolphins in Durban in their first match on February 16.

The controversial penalty raised eyebrows enough; the fact that it took CSA’s hotchpotch Board three whole weeks to decide on what they, but not many others, believed was appropriate action, led to much head-shaking. It’s a blow to the image of CSA because it suggests yet again that their leadership is a mess, focused more on political agendas than providing direction to the game they are meant to be serving and bettering.

Arriving at Kingsmead and finding a very spin-friendly pitch, the Warriors decided to choose a third frontline spinner in Jason Raubenheimer, a Coloured from Schauderville, undoubtedly a disadvantaged part of Gqeberha. But that created a problem in balancing the side because it meant leaving out a Black African player, leaving EP with just a couple in their starting XI – wicketkeeper Sinethemba Qeshile and all-rounder Andile Mogakane.

It was a breach of CSA’s stringent quota rules, which require three Black Africans and a total of six generic Black players to be included in every XI. The Warriors registered a massive 126-run bonus point victory, riding a brilliant unbeaten 148 from opener Jordan Hermann. Ironically, it was seamer Mogakane who destroyed the Dolphins batting in a devastating burst of four for 23.

(Upon reflection, I have decided on a small edit here: Credit does need to be given to the Dolphins for the way they bounced back from such a poor start, winning four of their next six matches. They too are victims in this whole mess, which has detracted from their good performances.)

Teams have sometimes failed to meet their race quotas in recent years, but have been able to apply to CSA for permission, based on injuries or illness. Head of Domestic Cricket, Eddie Khoza, is a reasonable man, a lover of the game, and he has generally been sympathetic in this regard. But because EP did not get permission and made their selection for ‘cricketing reasons’ i.e. tactical, and not because of injury/illness, it is believed the decision to severely punish them was made by the Board.

The last time a team was deducted points for missing quotas was twenty years ago, but then last Sunday night, after tournament broadcasters SuperSport had already announced the playoffs line-up, news leaked from CSA that the Warriors were going to be docked all five points for their flouting of the race laws.

But that’s not all!

Eastern Province Cricket were also hit with a R500 000 fine and, even more astonishingly, the Dolphins were given four points for a match in which they were utterly thrashed. It was a meritless gift to KZN that punished the Northerns Titans, a totally innocent party in this fiasco. They had finished the end of the round-robin stage in second place and were due to host the Qualifier that would decide who went to Paarl to play Boland.

But the four boardroom points given to the Dolphins lifted them above the Titans and Kingsmead hosted the Qualifier. A typical spin-friendly, slow pitch was produced for the Highveld visitors, and the Dolphins predictably triumphed to reach the final.

When this new leadership of Cricket South Africa took over a few years ago, it was hoped that they would be a unifying force following the divisive tenures of the previous guard. Hyphens and em-dashes look very similar; the former is used to connect words while the dash is employed to separate thoughts or ideas in a sentence. The current CSA Board seem to have confused them, judging by their recent decision-making. Remember the David Teeger mess a year ago when they rushed to take action, used spurious reasons to justify it and then lied about it being a security issue?

Taking three weeks to make a decision and then choosing the most incendiary option has to be down to poor leadership; there are not enough ‘hyphenators’ on the CSA Board and too many ‘dashers’. There is talk of a big rift between the independent and non-independent directors of the body running cricket in South Africa.

Dashing the trophy hopes of a Warriors team that represents the nursery of Black cricket in this country is bad enough, but CSA’s spraygun reaction has unduly prejudiced the Titans, as well as teams like Western Province, North-West and the Free State Knights.

By gifting the Dolphins four unearned points, they have also allowed them to score five bonus promotion/relegation points for finishing second and not fourth on the One-Day Cup log, leaving them two points ahead of WP in the crucial battle to stay in Division One, and level with EP and the Dragons, and just one point behind Free State.

It’s not just the cricket-loving public who have been left dismayed by CSA’s decision. Imagine how the players feel. Are the CSA mandarins saying Raubenheimer is not deserving of benefiting from transformation initiatives, or that playing a third Black African player would have negatively affected the Warriors to such a huge extent that it would have cost more than 126 runs? Because that’s what one can infer from their decision to take all five points away from the winners on the field and give four to the losers … 

Never mind the irony that it was a Black African player in the promising Mogakane who inflicted the most damage with the ball on the Dolphins.

Does the CSA Board really care about the true transformation of our playing resources or are they just content to tick boxes and satisfy a government that is notoriously callous when it comes to actually improving the lives of the disadvantaged rather than just talk about it?

While government certainly must foot the blame for the dire lack of facilities in disadvantaged areas and the stifling effect that has on the pipeline, CSA need to stop hiding behind the incompetence of the ANC and acknowledge that transformation is failing. That is the biggest takeaway from this week’s shambles.

There is plenty of Black talent coming through the number of excellent cricket schools we have in the country, but too many of those fall off the grid. Instead of hauling a forward-thinking coach and great cricketer like Robin Peterson over the coals, the CSA Board should be focusing on that pipeline.

The grim reality is that the CSA Board don’t really care. Too many of them have their eyes set on scoring political points and riding the cricket gravy train as far as it can take them. Otherwise they would surely have done one simple thing to help the bleak state of our domestic cricket: Let our local teams operate under the same transformation rules as the national sides. That would mean the average use of Black and Black African players is tallied at the end of the season and teams that fail to reach their targets can then rightfully have the book thrown at them. Small infringements like that of the Warriors in February would then not lead to such a disproportionate reaction.

Simon Harmer’s four wickets, as well as his valuable runs, on the second day of the first Test against Bangladesh at Kingsmead on Friday certainly loans credibility to his long-term future with the Proteas side, but it also answered a few of his own questions about whether he was still good enough for international cricket.

After six-and-a-half years and a record 55 Tests missed between appearances for the Proteas, Harmer took all four Bangladesh wickets to fall, for just 42 runs in 20 overs, as the tourists closed on 98/4 in reply to South Africa’s tidy first-innings total of 367.

That the Proteas reached that score after they had been reduced to 298/8 was thanks to Harmer’s determined 38 not out, as he shared important late partnerships with Lizaad Williams and Duanne Olivier.

“Bowling puts bread on my table, but I have worked hard on my batting this season because it hasn’t really gone to plan at domestic level,” Harmer said after play on Friday.

“Taking wickets is my currency though, winning games and trophies, and I have a feeling of vindication today. Although I’ve done it for Essex and now for the Titans, you do still ask yourself ‘Am I good enough for international cricket?’

“To take four wickets certainly answers a few of my own questions and it was a very good day, which I could not really have scripted better. For us to be in this position going into Day 3 is very good.

“We expected the pitch to turn a bit more actually, but we were able to bide our time. We had to bowl double-spin because it was too dark for pace, and Keshav Maharaj and I found some turn with the older ball as the pitch began to wear more,” Harmer said.

Harmer and Maharaj, who was wicketless but bowled well, sent down 39 of the 49 overs Bangladesh have faced. With the Proteas expecting the pitch to turn more and more, they are likely to play the key roles in the South African attack.

Harmer said his time at Essex – he has taken 491 first-class wickets between his last two Test appearances – has given him the confidence that his off-spin can be matchwinning fare.

“Essex gave me the platform to find myself again. I had been dropped by the Proteas and SA A, and I did not know if I would get a franchise contract. So I had a lot of self-doubt.

“But I rediscovered what made me successful, how to be a matchwinner and be more comfortable with that role.

“I now know that I can do it as an orthodox spinner, I have that level of confidence,” Harmer said.

The decision by the Bulls to field top players like Bismarck du Plessis, Marcell Coetzee, Morne Steyn, Harold Vorster and Lionel Mapoe in the Currie Cup loans some credibility to the competition, but truth be told, there can be little doubt that the famous old tournament is now on its last legs.

Of course it helps the Bulls that they have deep pockets thanks to the generous investment of their equity partners. But they should not be criticised for being professional and organised enough to attract those investments and also recognising the need to significantly improve the depth of their squad now that they are playing in two competitions at the same time.

The fact that they have been willing to field a number of players who will feature in Saturday’s URC derby against the Stormers shows that they, at least, are taking the Currie Cup seriously, unlike so many in South African rugby.

The Sharks are probably in an even better position financially, but they made a slow start to the Currie Cup by beating Griquas by just one point in Durban. But conditions – hot and humid and then raining – were definitely a levelling factor and the Sharks were not helped by having to play the final quarter with 14 men due to a red card. But even with all their riches – both in personnel and in finances – the Sharks only fielded one Springbok in 33-year-old prop Lourens Adriaanse.

The Bulls being 40-0 up against archrivals Western Province at Newlands and the Pumas putting fifty past the Lions at Ellis Park does little for the credibility of the Currie Cup.

Little wonder then that the public response has been muted. If SA Rugby is barely interested in the Currie Cup, why should spectators pay good money to support it? The Currie Cup, from being South African rugby’s second biggest brand after the Springboks, is now so devalued and the public are not going to be fooled by all the hype when there is little substance.

Some people do enjoy rugby more from the aesthetic of plenty of tries being scored and this mishmash Currie Cup will probably provide that. But even the Bulls are unlikely to use their top players in it once the United Rugby Championship gets into full swing.

SA Rugby find themselves with a problem because the URC hasn’t captured the public imagination yet like SuperRugby did in the early days. In that regard Covid has obviously not helped, neither have the poor performances of the South African franchises overseas.

But a disjointed, lopsided competition – Jake White made the point that Saturday’s game at Loftus Versfeld is the Bulls’ first at home in the URC, which started on September 24 – now also has its waters further muddied by the Currie Cup taking place at the same time.

I would call it an absolute howler by SA Rugby but there are some extenuating circumstances in their defence.

First of all, it is the provinces who have said they want a double-round of Currie Cup, which then becomes a challenge to fit into an already crowded calendar. Player workload concerns are also a factor, with URC starting in January and running through to June 18, after which there is the Test window.

But the last time a normal Currie Cup season was played in a double round, it began on June 18 and ended on September 11. I would still play the Currie Cup after the URC. Sure, the current Springboks would not play, but when last did they feature in a proper Currie Cup anyway?

At the moment, this most famous of domestic competitions has been reduced to Vodacom Cup status.

Jake White described his team’s 29-19 victory over the Cardiff Blues in their United Rugby Championship match at the Arms Park on Saturday night as being a huge result for not just the Bulls but for the whole of South African rugby as well as for the credibility of the new competition.

The Bulls result, achieved via a superb second-half comeback that saw them overturn a 3-16 deficit, completed a highly encouraging weekend for the previously beleaguered South African franchises.

It was the Sharks who set the ball rolling with a brilliant second-half comeback of their own against the Ospreys on Friday night, winning 27-13 after they were level 6-6 at the break. And then earlier on Saturday the Lions went down 13-9 to the Glasgow Warriors, who were awarded a try that never should have stood, while the Stormers fought back from 14-0 down after just six minutes to draw 20-20 with Edinburgh.

“It’s massive for us, for South African rugby, for everyone, it brings credibility to the competition,” White said. “We read in the media that viewership is through the roof and we certainly don’t want to lose and lose.

“It was a fantastic game for us, a great comeback after being 13-0 down and losing Johan Goosen to a knee injury. We were so resilient and I’m sure the URC are incredibly happy too because it shows there is healthy competition.

“We’re going to get massive confidence from this result and also from the way we played. I was really happy with the way we changed our attack, using forwards and backs, and we played with a lot of width at times too,” White said.

The Bulls were poor in the first half, unable to keep the ball for more than a couple of phases at a time, and this was largely due to another inept showing at the breakdowns by them.

But this all changed in the second half as they came out with some much-needed fire in the belly, started dominating the gain-line, hanging on to the ball for longer and this led to the pressure – and the wrath of the referee – shifting on to Cardiff at the breakdowns.

Veteran hooker Bismarck du Plessis was prominent in a tough first half for the Bulls, and he set the ball rolling early in the second half with a big carry, winning a penalty for the Bulls. Eighthman Elrigh Louw just tapped and went and was straight over for the try with no problem.

This certainly lifted the Bulls and a fantastic break by replacement flank Arno Botha followed, Marcell Coetzee, who really came to the fore in the second half, then carrying strongly to earn a penalty. This was slotted by Chris Smith, who replaced Goosen at flyhalf with enormous aplomb.

Suddenly the Bulls were just three points behind and then wing Madosh Tambwe scored a tremendous try on the hour mark. Good defensive pressure by centre Harold Vorster led to a poor pass by Cardiff, Tambwe was quickly up to kick the ball through and then showed searing pace to get there first, and then great control to gather the bouncing ball and score.

This gave the Bulls the lead for the first time and the excellent boot of Smith, who succeeded with all seven of his kicks at goal, ensured this advantage was never surrendered.

Scorers

Cardiff Blues: Try – Matthew Screech. Conversion – Rhys Priestland. Penalties – Priestland (4).

Bulls: Tries – Elrigh Louw, Madosh Tambwe. Conversions – Chris Smith (2). Penalties – Smith (5).