Ken Borland

A dismal year of batting has come to an end for the Proteas, in which they reached previous lows achieved before only by the Bangladesh team as it first made its way in Test cricket, and Cricket South Africa urgently needs to implement some crisis planning that includes current players and coaches, and those who have recently retired.

South Africa were bowled out for less than 200 in seven successive Test innings, that dismal run only coming to an end in the second innings in Melbourne as a last-wicket stand of 27 between Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje saw them stagger to 204 all out.

Only one team has had worse runs: Bangladesh with 12 scores of less than 200 in a row in 2001/02, just a year after they played their first Test, and eight in a row in 2018.

There were other unwanted statistics: South Africa’s batting average of 24.1 runs-per-wicket in the calendar year is the fourth-worst ever and scoring just two centuries and 19 fifties in 2022 is also amongst the top-three of meagre returns.*

The declining quality of domestic cricket has been fingered by many as being to blame for the poor quality of the Proteas batting, but the only people who will really know if this is true or not are those intimately involved with the local game. Coaches like Robin Peterson and Vinnie Barnes, current players like Dean Elgar, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram, former greats like Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, even a youngster like Kyle Verreynne who has just come through the domestic system, should all be in the room and canvassed for their opinions.

It is with reluctance that I say the bean counters at CSA will also have to be involved because financial constraints have undoubtedly caused some of the problems.

We also need to have an urgent look at the standard of our pitches. Surfaces that favour pace bowlers have been pretty stock-standard in South African cricket for a long time and traditionally the country has produced some great fast bowlers.

But our depth is not as good as many believe – the pickings are fairly slim once you go past the fabulous foursome currently playing for the Proteas. One of the reasons for this is that our domestic pitches offer too much assistance – whether through excessive seam movement or inconsistent bounce – and our bowlers don’t learn the skills and game-plans required to do well on the better batting surfaces generally found at international level.

Australia have probably the deepest stocks of quality pace bowlers because they grow up learning their trade on good batting wickets, with pace and bounce that reward good bowling.

And that helps their batsmen, because they are always facing quality attacks at home as they come through the system.

The lack of depth in quality in our domestic attacks also affects the development of our batsmen – they are not tested for long enough periods and dodgy technique is not exposed and punished as it should be. Being able to build an innings and withstand pressure bowling from both ends for long periods are weaknesses we are currently seeing at Test level.

Unfortunately, when it comes to systemic issues, there are no quick fixes. The kneejerk reaction of getting an entirely new top six in is unlikely to work because that removes what little experience there is and the Proteas will start at zero again.

Unless CSA really look after, nurture and prioritise the level below the Proteas, then these unusually low batting returns, which are happening in all three international formats, will become the norm.

It is also going to require CSA undoing some of the policy decisions made in recent years that have weakened the domestic game.

*Stats courtesy of Sampath Bandarupalli of CricInfo

South Africa’s batting is now certifiably in crisis as they could only manage a miserable 106/8 and were beaten by eight wickets with 20 balls to spare in their first T20 against India in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

That dismal score actually represented a recovery as, having been sent in to bat, the top-order were decimated by brilliant Indian swing bowling, crashing to a catastrophic 9/5.

Captain Temba Bavuma fell for a duck, bowled by a surprise inswinger from Deepak Chahar, at the end of the first over.

Arshdeep Singh then produced an incredible second over of the innings, forcing Quinton de Kock (1) to chop on, having Rilee Rossouw caught behind for a first-ball duck and then bowling David Miller first ball with another wonderful delivery that zeroed in on middle-stump.

Tristan Stubbs became the third batsmen to be dismissed first ball when he edged a cut at Chahar, Arshdeep taking a fine catch at third man.

Aiden Markram (25) and Wayne Parnell (24) averted the immediate crisis of being bowled out for a record low, adding 33, but South Africa only just limped into three figures thanks to Keshav Maharaj, who showed great determination in scoring 41 off 35 balls. The way the Proteas top-order bats, he should be regarded as a bowling all-rounder these days.

South Africa’s bowlers gave perhaps some pause for thought as Kagiso Rabada had Rohit Sharma caught behind for a two-ball duck and Anrich Nortje dismissed the other big fish, Virat Kohli (3), in the same fashion.

But Suryakumar Yadav showed what a marvellous talent he is with his 50 not off 33 balls and opener Lokesh Rahul batted through to score 51 not out off 56 balls.

Rabada (4-1-16-1) and Parnell (4-0-14-0) were both impressive with the new ball.

To make matters worse, wicketkeeper De Kock may well have injured a finger as he required prolonged treatment midway through the innings after trying to stop a leg-side wide from fast bowler Nortje.

Suryakumar became the record run-scorer in T20 Internationals in a calendar year for India, having now scored 732 runs at a brilliant average of 40.66 and a magnificent strike-rate of 180.29. He has cruised past the previous record of 689 runs by Shikhar Dhawan with ease, and still has the World Cup to come.

The 32-year-old hit the second and third deliveries he faced, from Nortje, for six, to immediately settle any nerves in the chase.

“As a batting unit, we failed to apply ourselves,” Bavuma said afterwards. “We weren’t able to adjust our plans. We saw what Rahul was able to do. We didn’t expect that pitch, we practised here  and we saw the wicket was spicy, but we didn’t expect it like that. You expected to hit through the line coming to India.”

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber was pleased to report after their second Rugby Championship match against Argentina that their injury problems at loose forward are easing, but he has fresh worries over the scrumhalf position, which was already in crisis before the 29-10 win at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
The Springboks were in complete control of proceedings for three-quarters of the game, but things began to go awry towards the end when they were forced to play with 14 men when replacement scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse suffered an unfortunate leg injury in a tackle.

The 21-year-old Hendrikse was himself brought into the squad due to injuries to Faf de Klerk and Herschel Jantjies, and Nienaber admitted he was probably going to have to call up another scrumhalf. Sanele Nohamba, also a Sharks player, is potentially in line for a recall having been part of the squad for the British and Irish Lions series and playing for SA A.

“I spoke quickly with the doctor and he said Jaden had everything of his weight on the leg so it might not be a ligament injury, it might actually be bone. It takes us four weeks to get a player abroad – counting backwards, we would like that player to have one week of training, there’s two weeks of quarantine before that and they also have to go through the protocol of multiple tests before that at home.

“It’s why we need a minimum of four scrumhalves. The severity of Jaden’s injury will be the big thing, but I think he’s in trouble. We had four scrumhalves but only two were standing in the build-up to this game. At least Faf de Klerk is running well again. And fortunately I think three out of four of our injured flanks should be right to play our next game,” Nienaber said.

Duane Vermeulen is taking contact again in training, Jean-Luc du Preez has recovered from his medial ligament strain and Rynhardt Elstadt is almost back to full fitness, according to the coach.

As if injuries were not complicating their planning enough, the Springboks, who were meant to fly to Australia on Sunday, don’t even know who they are playing next in the Rugby Championship or where, after New Zealand’s amazingly late decision not to play in Perth this coming weekend or host their scheduled matches against South Africa after that.

Nienaber said hosting the rest of the tournament on the Highveld would be ideal for the Springboks, but they have become used to changes being sprung on them at the last moment.

“Things change rapidly with Covid so we have five plans loaded. We will be staying in Gqeberha until Tuesday/Wednesday, by then we will hopefully know if we’re staying in South Africa. If we have to travel, there are different plans for Brisbane, France, the UK or America. We have to be adaptable but I honestly don’t know where we will be going.

“We would love to host the rest of the competition, South Africa showed we can do it in the Lions series, which is the next biggest thing in the Southern Hemisphere after the World Cup. Everything is lined up and ready and I wold prefer to play in Gauteng at altitude. That would be nice for us,” Nienaber said.

It took the most gruelling of meetings, but after 11 hours of intense wrangling, the Cricket South Africa Members Council on Sunday night finally agreed to the new constitution proposed by the Interim Board, marking the end of the crisis in cricket that would have led to Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa withdrawing their recognition at the end of the week.

The Members Council met on Saturday afternoon and then went into a meeting with the Interim Board from 10am on Sunday. The initial attitude of the Members Council seemed to be that CSA should “defend” their autonomy against the Minister’s looming action, especially since Sascoc issued a strong rejection of having a majority independent board in a statement on Saturday.

But with the threat of irreparable harm being done to the game if they were suspended by the minister, agreement was eventually reached on all the outstanding issues that prevented the Members Council from approving the MoI last weekend.

Sascoc, who have warned CSA that they could have their membership of the mother body suspended if they agree to an majority independent board and an independent chair, will obviously still be an obstacle, but it is believed Mthethwa will be handling that side of the conflict.

CSA issued a communique half-an-hour before midnight on Sunday night, the headline of which included the gorgeous words “Joint Statement” indicating agreement had finally been reached and a catastrophe averted. In terms of Section 60 of the Companies Act, an expedited process has now been triggered which will see the MoI being adopted in the next 48 hours.

“By reaching this agreement, cricket in South Africa has adopted a governance mode which is best practice both in South Africa and internationally,” the statement said. Both Members Council president Rihan Richards and Interim Board chair Dr Stavros Nicolaou were then quoted expressing their delight at the cessation of hostilities.