Ken Borland

Spin bowler Keshav Maharaj was acknowledged as being at the heart of the Proteas team in all formats as he was named the 2021/22 SA Men’s Cricketer of the Year at Cricket South Africa’s virtual awards on Sunday evening.

Seamer Ayabonga Khaka claimed the SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year award, and both her and Maharaj were voted by their team-mates as the Players’ Player of the Year.

In the year’s action up to the end of the Test series against Bangladesh on April 11, Maharaj shone with the ball in all three formats. In eight Tests, the left-arm spinner took 30 wickets at an average of just 18.20; in 14 ODIs, he claimed 18 wickets at 31.77 and an economy rate of only 4.61, while he conceded just 5.84 runs per over in eight T20s, also taking six wickets while captaining the side on occasion.

Khaka has become an extremely consistent member of the effective Proteas Women’s attack, especially in ODIs, where she took 28 wickets in 15 matches.

Kagiso Rabada was named the Test Player of the Year, Aiden Markram the T20 International Player of the Year,and Janneman Malan was One-Day International Player of the Year.

Marco Jansen was named the International Newcomer of the Year, while other notable winners from the women’s categories were Lizelle Lee (T20 International Player of the Year)and Laura Wolvaardt (One-Day International Player of the Year).

Central Gauteng Lions paceman Sisanda Magala will continue to remind the national selectors of his abilities as he was the biggest winner on the domestic front, claiming the One-Day Cup Player of the Season, Domestic Players’ Player of the Season, and the SACA Most Valuable Player Award.

Mandla Mashimbyi of the Titans will go into the new season basking in the glow of his Coach of the Year award, while SuperSport Park’s Bryan Bloy was named Groundsman of the Year.

CSA AWARD WINNERS 2021/22

AMATEUR AWARDS

1. KFC MINI-CRICKET COACH OF THE YEAR – Jerry Thulo(CGL)
2. KFC MINI-CRICKET BUCKET LOADS OF GOOD AWARD – Joseph Ngqasa (Kei)
3. CSA BOYS U16 PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT – Riley Norton (Boland)
4. CSA GIRLS U16 PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT – Mpumelelo Mashiloane (Easterns)
5. CSA GIRLS U19 PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT – Elandri Janse van Rensburg (NW)
6. KHAYA MAJOLA CRICKET WEEK PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT – Ronan Hermann (CGL)
7. CSA U19 PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Dewald Brevis (Titans)
8. CSA BLIND CRICKET PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Buhle Bhidla (CGL)
9. CSA DEAF CRICKET PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Arthur McGee (Titans)
10. CSA RURAL CRICKET PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Nathan Engelbrecht (Boland)
11. T20 COMMUNITY CUP PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT – Nathan Engelbrecht (Boland)
12. CSA STUDENT PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Donovan Ferreira (Tuks)
13. WOMEN’S PROVINCIAL COACH OF THE YEAR – Wynand Schmitt (NW)
14. KEMACH EQUIPMENT GROUNDSMAN OF THE YEAR – Bryan Bloy – SuperSport Park, Centurion
15. CSA FAIRPLAY AWARD – EP Warriors
16. CSA WOMEN’S PROVINCIAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Tazmin Brits (NW)

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS – DOMESTIC

1. CSA UMPIRES’ UMPIRE OF THE YEAR – Allahudien Paleker
2. CSA UMPIRE OF THE YEAR – Allahudien Paleker
3. DOMESTIC NEWCOMER OF THE SEASON – Mitchell van Buuren (CGL)
4. SACA MOST VALUABLE PLAYER AWARD – Sisanda Magala (CGL)
5. DIVISION 1 COACH OF THE SEASON – Mandla Mashimbyi (Titans)
6. DIVISION 2 COACH OF THE SEASON – Mark Charlton (NC)
7. T20 KNOCK OUT COMPETITION PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT – Rilee Rossouw (FS Knights)
8. T20 CHALLENGE PLAYER OF THE SEASON – Pieter Malan (Boland Rocks)
9. DIVISION 1 4-DAY DOMESTIC SERIES PLAYER OF THE SEASON – Ryan Rickelton (CGL)
10. DIVISION 2 4-DAY DOMESTIC SERIES PLAYER OF THE SEASON – Thomas Kaber (Border Iinyathi)
11. DIVISION 1 ONE-DAY CUP PLAYER OF THE SEASON – Sisanda Magala (CGL)
12. DIVISION 2 ONE-DAY CUP PLAYER OF THE SEASON – Michael Erlank (KZN Inland Tuskers)
13. DOMESTIC PLAYERS’ PLAYER OF THE SEASON – Sisanda Magala (CGL)

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS  – NATIONAL

GENERAL CATEGORIES

14. THE BEST DELIVERY FUELLED BY KFC – Simon Harmer to Najmul Hossain Shanto (Bangladesh)
15. MAKHAYA NTINI POWER OF CRICKET AWARD – Nonkululeko Mlaba
16. SA FANS’ PLAYER OF THE YEAR – David Miller

MEN’S CATEGORIES

17. INTERNATIONAL MEN’S NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR – Marco Jansen
18. T20 INTERNATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Aiden Markram
19. ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Janneman Malan
20. TEST PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Kagiso Rabada
21. SA MEN’S PLAYERS’ PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Keshav Maharaj
22. SA MEN’S PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Keshav Maharaj

WOMEN’S CATEGORIES

23. MOMENTUM WOMEN’S T20 INTERNATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Lizelle Lee
24. MOMENTUM WOMEN’S ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Laura Wolvaardt
25. SA WOMEN’S PLAYERS PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Ayabonga Khaka
26. SA WOMEN’S PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Ayabonga Khaka

Cricket South Africa’s decision to take action against Lizelle Lee had more to do with her dishonesty surrounding her fitness tests than her actual weight, CSA insiders have claimed.

Lee shocked the global game on July 8 when she suddenly announced her retirement from international cricket on the eve of the ODI series in England. Her joint statement with CSA, which also had input from the players’ association and her agent, said she felt she had “given everything I could to the Proteas” and “I feel that I am ready for the next phase in my career and will continue to play domestic T20 cricket around the world.”

It subsequently emerged that Lee had retired because CSA had withdrawn her from the tour of England and threatened to not give her a No Objection Certificate (NOC), which allows contracted players to ply their trade in overseas leagues. The 30-year-old claimed this was because she had failed a fitness test and, in a BBC podcast last week, she said the only aspect of the test she had failed was her weight.

But CSA insiders have told The Citizen that her misrepresentation of her weight was the major issue, and that the organisation was fed up with their continued struggles to get Lee fit.

The Citizen has seen correspondence between CSA and Lee which indicates that, before the tour to England, Lee was meant to go to Potchefstroom for fitness tests. She said, however, that she “wasn’t able” to go and Proteas strength and conditioning coach Zane Webster allowed her to do the testing in Ermelo, with the provision that she would then be retested in England.

Lee did the test with a biokineticist in Ermelo, but did not have her weight done because she said she had already measured it in the morning and passed on the number to Webster.

On July 5, between the two tour games before the ODI series, Proteas manager Sedibu Mohlaba sends Lee an urgent e-mail requesting clarity on what exactly happened with her Ermelo test.

Lee explains and says she was “afraid that it might … result in me not being selected. I know now that that was wrong and that I should have done it there.” 

On July 6, CSA’s Head of Cricket Pathways, Edward Khoza, emails Lee to tell her she has been immediately withdrawn from the tour for her “failure to meet the workload and fitness standards”, a contravention of her employment contract. He says they will not grant her an NOC until she has met and maintained the requirements.

“We tried corrective action, we were willing to bend over backwards for her,” a CSA insider said. “We were prepared to take her through a fitness programme like we did for Sisanda Magala and others.

“We then tried to protect her and not speak about these things, we did not want to demonise her in the statement she was part of. But now what she is saying is different to the statement which she, SACA and her agent were involved in.

“She was not honest with us, her fitness tests were fraudulently done. She is now trying to embarrass us and has gone rogue.”

Lee’s retirement has robbed the Proteas of one of their few truly world-class players, although she has been in poor form lately, not passing 40 in any of her nine innings for South Africa since September 2021.

Lee has also frustrated the team management with what has been described as her negative energy in the changeroom.

With teams like the Chennai Super Kings and the owners of the Mumbai Indians investing in South Africa’s new T20 league, sources say Cricket South Africa and SuperSport could not turn down the millions of dollars they stand to make and have awarded all six franchises to IPL bidders with deep pockets and plenty of experience in operating professional sport franchises.

CSA confirmed that the owners of the six franchises in the new league to start next January would be Mumbai Indians owners Reliance Industries (based at Newlands); RPSG Sports Private Limited, the owners of Lucknow Super Giants (Kingsmead); Sun TV Network Limited, the owners of Hyderabad Sunrisers (St George’s Park); Chennai Super Kings (Wanderers); Royals Sports Group, of Rajasthan (Boland Park) and JSW Sports, the co-owners of Delhi Capitals (SuperSport Park).

And, in keeping with the Indian Premier League being the richest cricket tournament in the world, those six investors’ bids reportedly far outstripped any other of the 20-odd Expressions of Interest CSA received. Sources say the average bid for a franchise amounted to $25 million, and nobody else could compete with those numbers.

The team owners will pay 10% of that figure per year, for 10 years. CSA get roughly half of that annual fee, amounting to $1.25 million per team, per year; and that amounts to $7.5 million per year, which, by today’s exchange rate, is a whopping R128 million per annum.

It is not exaggerating to say domestic cricket will die without that extra income allowing CSA to subsidise their vital pipeline.

Over the 10-year lifespan of these franchise deals, that will be an injection of more than a billion rand into South African cricket.

One South African cricket insider described it as “crazy money” and, with an appealing time zone in terms of the Indian market, the new T20 league should become an international brand in its own right.

It is believed the Chennai Super Kings put in an enormous $40 million bid for the Wanderers franchise, which is probably 10 times more than the leading local bidders could afford.

The compulsory local development initiatives that all bidders had to have as part of their submissions is also an appealing prospect for the domestic game. It is hoped that these IPL owners will allow the provincial structures based at the six venues to play an active role in the league, rather than just flying in and taking over the premises for a couple of months and then jetting off again.

With the Indian teams having made such a massive investment, could the South African league be the first to benefit from an allowance for current Indian players to compete in the tournament in the years to come?

It is a sign of the prudent financial belt-tightening that Cricket South Africa have been doing that the official press conference to introduce Enoch Nkwe as the new director of cricket on Friday was followed by food packs given to the media.

Five years ago, there would have been catered food on hand, but it was a jolly good food pack – potato chips, a chocolate bar, packet of biltong, sandwiches and wraps – and another sign that the new CSA administration are focusing on the basics of putting the game first and not on lavish displays that are more about camouflage than anything else.

The other sign that CSA are heading in the right direction was that Nkwe and CEO Pholetsi Moseki, as well as Sipho Rihlamvu, the acting head of communications and media and the program director, were all in place and ready to go at 10.59am, the conference starting as advertised at 11am sharp. The blend of in-person attendance and virtual participants also worked seamlessly.

These are the sort of small things that speak to an organisation’s culture and professionalism and CSA have lately been consistently getting them right.

Moseki made the point that “cricket is in good hands” and that certainly is the impression at the moment. The coming months will of course pose incredible challenges that are mostly due to the state of the country as a whole, especially the economy.

While Nkwe acknowledged the importance of the commercial side of cricket, his individual strengths are more directed towards the strategic side of the game itself and building structures and pipelines.

He succeeds Graeme Smith, such a major figure in world cricket, and someone who was more involved with international deal-making and making sure the Proteas remain in the top echelon of teams as far as the all-powerful broadcasters are concerned.

Nkwe will be more involved in domestic affairs, in the grassroots that are so desperately in need of revitalisation. He will be a different sort of director of cricket, but is certainly eminently qualified and skilled to be in that job.

The more financial side of running South African cricket will be handled in the boardroom, where there is now also ample ability.

In so many ways, this is a new era for South African cricket. Out of the horrors and scorched earth tactics of the last few years, have come new shoots of green and gold hope.

The last time there was a press conference at CSA’s Melrose Estate offices (which also started dead on time), it was to announce their partnership with Roc Nation that will bring a new emphasis on fans and their in-stadium experience, as well as the digital world that is now so important. This is also vital in this new age.

The Proteas are obviously CSA’s showpiece product and how they perform will be used to measure the efficiency of the organisation.

Even with a new leadership dynamic in place, head coach Mark Boucher now reporting to Nkwe, the initial signs are positive. There have even been reports of a new, more cordial relationship between the team and the CSA Board.

For the players to successfully ply their trade against the best in the world, they need stability and assurance. There needs to be clarity and communication between them and their management and their administrators.

Boucher is famous for being a straight-talker and anyone who has spoken to Nkwe will know that he is a great communicator.

It is heartening to hear that even the Board are no longer playing Broken Telephone or speaking with forked tongues.