Ken Borland

Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher and Enoch Nkwe are all in place for the next two years so the Proteas will at least enjoy some stability after the turmoil they have been through over the last couple of years, but there is still reason to fear that Cricket South Africa could still be captured.

Smith was on Friday confirmed as the full-time Director of Cricket through until April 2022, which should take care of all the on-field issues as he has already struck up a good working relationship with Proteas head coach Boucher and assistant Nkwe, as well as with the South African Cricketers Association and the players.

But it is in the boardroom, where all the vital decisions are made, where tremendous uncertainty still exists. Most notably because acting chief executive Jacques Faul is not a permanent appointment.

At the moment his contract runs through to June, and there have apparently been moves to give him a three-month extension. But the board, who appoint the CEO, have their hands tied legally because of the elephant still in the room – Thabang Moroe.

The former CEO was suspended on December 6 for misconduct and a permanent chief executive cannot be appointed until Moroe’s disciplinary process has been completed. The forensic audit that is so crucial to that process apparently only began a week or two before Lockdown i.e. in early March, four months after he was suspended!

The audit itself has been allocated three months so justice is most certainly going to be delayed for Mr Moroe. Not that he is probably too concerned because he is on full pay in the interim!

Given that the CSA board still comprises largely the same incompetents who firstly appointed Moroe and then enabled his malfeasance, plus the certainty that the former CEO knows exactly where the board members have buried their own skeletons, there is reasonable anxiety that Faul may yet be told “Thank you very much for fixing our mess” and shown the door.

There has also been talk among those who keep an eye on cricket politics that Moroe has offered to go, no-contest, if he is paid R25 million. If that happens it should really set the cat among the pigeons because it will be seen as rewarding poor governance, will surely further alienate the stakeholders Faul has worked so hard to woo back into the fold and will merely add to the money splurged on Moroe, who has shown an appetite for siphoning up gravy like an elephant with its trunk in a desert waterhole.

Not only is the concept of accountability totally foreign to the current CSA Board, but they are also operating with only eight of the prescribed 12 directors in place. After the spate of resignations at the end of 2019, only two independent directors (Professor Steve Cornelius and Marius Schoeman) remain, and of the six non-independents, five of them have been supporters of Moroe.

And the lead director, who needs to come from the independents, also has not been appointed for two years.

There was a time when Ghanaian-born Naasei Appiah was Moroe’s right-hand man at CSA, rising to the rank of chief operations manager. But Appiah was one of the staff suspended by Moroe last December before his own fall from grace. Appiah’s disciplinary process has also not yet been completed, with commercial manager Clive Eksteen also in the same state of limbo.

It seems Moroe’s other chief ally was company secretary and head of legal Welsh Gwaza. Things like disciplinary hearings and the appointment of new directors fall under his ambit.

So it is surely in the national interest for Gwaza to be asked “Why the delay”?

Unfortunately, CSA’s head of communication, Thami Mthembu, did not reply to a request on Friday to ease the perception many South African cricket fans have that certain people are being protected from accountability.

Graeme Smith is now the full-time Director of Cricket for Cricket South Africa for the next two years and one of the first decisions he announced after his permanent capacity was confirmed on Friday is that Quinton de Kock will not be the Proteas Test captain.

Wicketkeeper De Kock is currently South Africa’s captain for ODIs and T20 Internationals, as well as being a key batsman across all three formats. There are few other realistic contenders who are certain of their place in the five-day team. The Proteas are scheduled to play two Tests in the West Indies in July/August.

Smith, the Proteas’ record-breaking captain from 2003 to 2014, said there was the threat of burnout if De Kock was also made Test captain, as well as keeping wicket and being arguably their most important batsman. The 27-year-old De Kock has made it clear that he does not want to give up the gloves.

“There’s no one person right now that we are looking at but I can tell you that the Test captain is not going to be Quinton. So it will be who escalates themselves as a consistent performer, who steps forward and has the respect of the team. Quinton is our white-ball captain but he won’t be doing the job in Test cricket as well.

“We want to keep Quinton fresh and playing well, and to be the captain in all three formats is very challenging. It probably won’t work. Just in terms of workload and mental capacity, being captain in all three formats probably isn’t going to be beneficial. We also have to consider the style of personality and player that Quinton is, and keep him as free and fresh as possible,” Smith said on Friday.

CSA acting chief executive Jacques Faul on Friday hailed Smith for the top-class leadership skills he has shown as the director of cricket in an interim capacity and announced that he had now received a two-year contract.

“It gives me great pleasure to contract Graeme permanently through to March 31, 2022 and I thank him for the willingness he showed to come on board and all the hard work he has done so far. I’m not sure anyone’s administrative career has started off with so many challenges, but he has looked at cricket administration in a different way in a very difficult time.

“We wanted to appoint him permanently from the word go in December, but there was a lot of uncertainty and we both wanted to see if the partnership worked. It has definitely worked well and Graeme’s leadership is vital to us, we’re extremely happy with his performance and he has also played a big role in this Covid-19 crisis,” Faul said.

Smith said he had agreed to become Director of Cricket on a fulltime basis because he wanted to make a difference for the sport in South Africa and get the Proteas back to the top of the world game.

“I would be lying if I said there was 100% certainty when I took on the job because there was so much doubt on all fronts. But operationally I’ve now got to know the staff and there are a lot of hardworking people who are passionate about the game. I feel more invested now, I care about the national team and the business side more than I used to now as well.

“I want to get stuck in and make a difference. We need to make good, consistent decisions over a period of time when it comes to the Proteas and grow our pool of players. We need to maximise our strategies, although our financial position will play a role. The players feel a lot more settled now and we’re having good feedback and conversations with them,” Smith said.

Graeme Smith has agreed to a two-year contract to continue as full-time Director of Cricket, Cricket South Africa are set to announce on Friday.

South Africa’s most successful captain was appointed to the post of interim director of cricket in December to see the Proteas out of the crisis – caused by the fall of former chief executive Thabang Moroe and numerous staff suspensions at CSA – and through the summer.

Smith has managed to get on-field operations on to something of an even keel and said at the end of last month that he was keen to sink his teeth into making the structural changes necessary to restore the national team’s reputation as one of the world’s best teams and fix CSA’s pipeline at all levels.

“I feel we have a really strong and exciting season coming up and now it’s about looking at the seasons to follow. I’m busier now than I was before the Lockdown – looking at new content, but it needs to be financially viable; trying to improve our women’s team even more and looking at them in exactly the same light as the men’s game; advertising for both women’s and U19 coaches, as well as the convenor of selectors, and just trying to ensure effective, high-quality cricket bearing in mind the sponsorship situation and the TV rights market.

“I’ve been in the job for such a short space of time but there have been important learnings. I’m probably in a good place now to implement the ideas I have in terms of contracting and getting all our teams to perform well across the board. Hopefully we’ll have a really successful team at the 20/20 world cup. We’re also going into a new financial year so I hope to improve some of those aspects as well,” Smith said.

One of the most important issues Smith will have to deal with ahead of the 2020/21 season is what to do with the 17 Kolpak players who have signed to play in England this year.

Because of Brexit, all Kolpak contracts will be terminated at the end of the year. Judging by the news coming out of England earlier this year, it is probable that the counties will, however, be allowed to play two overseas players, which would make some of those Kolpaks eligible for new contracts. Whether the counties will be able to afford two overseas players though remains to be seen after the crippling effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Either way, England are going to ‘deport’ several players back to South Africa and Smith needs to strategise how best to get them back into the system.

Once Kolpak is scrapped on January 1, 2021, those players also all become eligible for the Proteas again and Smith will have to handle the hot potato of balancing the renewed availability of some elite cricketers who would certainly add value to the national team with the undeniable ill-will that exists towards players who have ‘deserted’ their homeland by taking the skills that were honed locally to foreign shores for great riches.

Cape Cobras coach Ashwell Prince said on Monday that he would prefer to attack the reasons for players going overseas at the next Cricket South Africa Coaches’ Conference but he was happy to firmly back the expansion of premier domestic competitions to 12 teams, saying this would provide more playing opportunity.

The Cobras had already lost talented young batsman David Bedingham to a Kolpak deal mid-season, but the end of the summer has brought the confirmation that senior bowlers Dane Paterson and Dane Piedt are also no longer going to be based at Newlands but will be plying their trade overseas.

Paceman Paterson, who played in South Africa’s final Test of the season, against England at the Wanderers, is also heading to England on a Kolpak deal, while off-spinner Piedt is breaking new ground in playing in the United States.

“They were key bowlers in our attack and we will miss them as leaders. Each case needs to be treated individually and when you’re over 30, especially as a bowler, I’m sure you calculate whether you have a realistic chance of playing for the Proteas.

“But other factors also play a role in guys leaving, but we always talk around them and we don’t deal with them,” Prince said on Monday.

When asked what these ‘other factors’ are, Prince said he would prefer to raise them at the Coaches’ Conference rather than elaborate to the media.

“I have mentioned them before at the Coaches’ Conference and CSA are well aware of them. I believe that’s my platform. We’ve got to get the system operating the best we can, if we can improve it it’s important we identify those areas. I tend to make my feelings heard and I hope the committees considered what I said,” the outspoken former Proteas batsman said.

Prince was more forthcoming when it came to his views on the present franchise system, with six teams still playing in the premier competitions next season but with a reduced number of fixtures.

“The sooner we get to a system that we can have for 10-20 years the better. I’m not convinced by this makeshift plan, although I know it’s based on finances. But we need to get the system fine-tuned so it can last for the next 10 years.

“I’m a firm believer in going to 12 teams, having played in England, where it works, and in South Africa before the franchise system.

“All the smaller provincial teams [barring North-West and Border] have won trophies, they produce talent and they can be competitive. It will get people playing more regularly; at the moment far too many cricketers don’t play regularly at the top level.

“I’m a big fan of opening up the system and more people getting opportunity. For example, a young batsman like Isma-eel Gafieldien, who made lots of runs for Boland, could play a full season with them rather than just having one or two matches for the Cobras. The game is the best teacher rather than just going to training. You learn far more in the heat of the moment.

“Places like Easterns produced Andre Nel, Andrew Hall and Zander de Bruyn, who all played for the Proteas. Border had Pieter Strydom, Steve Palframan, Makhaya Ntini and Mark Boucher. Boland has produced plenty of Proteas – guys like Henry Williams, Roger Telemachus, Henry Davids, Justin Ontong and Charl Langeveldt. These so-called ‘smaller’ provinces have talent and they will produce players for the country. And there’s nothing better for them than playing at a higher level,” Prince said.

Given the emergence of such quality talent as Kyle Verreynne, Janneman and Pieter Malan, Bedingham, Nandre Burger, Zubayr Hamza and George Linde, the 2019/20 season promised much for the Cobras.

But it ended in anticlimax with Prince’s charges finishing last in both the 4-Day Franchise Series and the Momentum One-Day Cup.

To add to the coach’s problems, he has lost nine of the 18 players contracted for last season as well as both nationally-contracted stars in the retired duo of Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander.

In terms of acquisitions, former Titans batsman Tony de Zorzi, who averaged over 45 in both competitions last season, is probably the most exciting.

The likes of Corbin Bosch, Tshepo Moreki, Onke Nyaku and Calvin Savage all have talent, but they all struggled to pin down regular places at their former franchises.

“I’m extremely excited about the players we have. In the bowling department we have more experience now in white-ball cricket which is obviously the area that needed strengthening. We’ve been more competitive in four-day cricket lately.

“The guys who have stayed are our core, they were predominantly starters in most competitions. We just had to make sure we secured good depth because we expect national call-ups. It’s obviously exciting to have those, but they hurt us last season – missing four key one-day players had a major effect.

“But to be honest this transfer window has been a bit of a nightmare with 100% of players’ contracts ending. It became a free-for-all with players just going to the highest bidder. And CSA have said that from May 1 we can give eight players two-year contracts, which means next year it’s going to be another free-for-all for the other 10 players. It will be even more of a bunfight if we go to 12 provinces,” Prince said.

Cobras 2020/21 squad – Ziyaad Abrahams, Jonathan Bird, Corbin Bosch, Nandre Burger, Tony de Zorzi, Isma-eel Gafieldien, Zubayr Hamza, George Linde, Pieter Malan, Janneman Malan, Imraan Manack, Aviwe Mgijima, Akhona Mnyaka, Tshepo Moreki, Onke Nyaku, Calvin Savage, Jason Smith, Kyle Verreynne.