Ken Borland

Kagiso Rabada and Quinton de Kock, who have dominated the CSA Men’s Cricketer of the Year award in recent years, have both missed out on being nominated for any of the major honours for the last season as the list of nominees for the CSA Awards was announced on Monday.

Fast bowler Rabada, named the Cricketer of the Year in both 2016 and 2018, played just two Tests and two ODIs in the last season and took five wickets at an average of 39.40 in the longer format and two wickets in 50-over cricket. In two T20s, he claimed just one wicket.

2017 and 2020 Cricketer of the Year De Kock, who endured a torrid time with the captaincy, scored just 74 runs in six Test innings, while he only played two ODIs and three T20s last season.

The fact that it was a deeply troubled season for the Proteas is reflected in the fact that the four nominees for the award – Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Anrich Nortje and Rassie van der Dussen – have all never won the main prize before.

Markram (Test & T20), Nortje (Test & ODI) and Van der Dussen (ODI & T20) have all been nominated for two of the other main awards, while Bavuma is on the shortlist for Test Cricketer of the Year, having averaged 50.40 last season.

Markram was the second-highest run-scorer in the four Tests the Proteas played, scoring 36 less than Dean Elgar and averaging 56, while Nortje took twice as many wickets as anyone else – 20 in four matches at an average of 24.85.

Van der Dussen only played two ODIs, but was the leading run-scorer with 183, including a brilliant unbeaten 123 against Pakistan. The three-match series against Pakistan was the only ODI action South Africa saw last season, with their series against England being cancelled due to Covid.

The Proteas Women had a season they could be proud of, however, and fast bowler Shabnim Ismail and batters Lizelle Lee, Sune Luus and Laura Wolvaardt will battle it out for the Women’s Cricketer of the Year title.

The thrilling Kagiso Rabada stole the show at the CSA Awards this week by claiming most of the trophies for himself with the same ruthlessness he displays in targeting the batsman’s wicket, but the most memorable performance by a fast bowler, for me, came the night before at the 25 Years of Unity celebration when Vincent Barnes spoke movingly about the challenges he had to face as a cricketer whose career was ruined by Apartheid.

Barnes is currently the high performance manager for Cricket South Africa, having previously served for many years as the national team’s bowling coach. But he was also arguably the greatest cricketer in the non-racial ranks during the decade before 1991’s formation of the United Cricket Board and the return to international cricket.

The pitches were notoriously poor on their side of the divide – the Apartheid government certainly wasn’t bothered with providing facilities for the majority back then – but Barnes’ figures stand head and shoulders above everyone else in his generation: 323 wickets at an average of just 11.95!

The injustices of Apartheid meant Barnes had to work doubly hard just to play cricket and the passion he has for the game overcame the fact that there was no higher outlet for his talents. But the 56-year-old has seldom spoken of those frustrations – unlike some of the privileged set who were denied international cricket due to isolation – and instead focused on passing on his knowledge to the new, unified generation of South African cricketers.

The greats of White cricket were also acknowledged at the celebration, but it was Barnes’ story of overcoming the odds which was the most poignant for me.

As good as the awards dinner was the next evening, the shadow of sports minister Fikile Mbalula’s enormous ego and Donald Trump-like “leadership” did hang over it a bit for me. I am sad that Cricket South Africa’s response to the increase in pressure from the sports minister for a faster transformation pace, purely intended to put the spotlight on himself in this election year, has been to kowtow to a man who is all bluster and no positive action.

First we had HD Ackerman shamefully removed from the hosting duties because he is taking up a job in Australia (Derek Alberts did a fine job standing in), and then the announcement that quotas will be formally introduced at national level. At least that ends the dishonest sham that resulted in disasters like last year’s World Cup semifinal.

As if to really drive home the point that CSA have worked harder on transformation than any other code, Rabada then takes home half-a-dozen awards.

What was miserable Mbalula’s response? – a tweet that read “Congratulatons! Kagiso Rabada, I sincerely believe you not gonna disappear after being used like all others who came bfo”.