Ken Borland

The umpires insisting that South Africa only use slow bowlers at the start of the Bangladesh second innings due to bad light turned out to be a most welcome development as Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer sent the tourists crashing to 11/3 on the fourth day of the first Test at Kingsmead on Sunday.

Bangladesh are chasing 274 for victory after the Proteas crashed from 116/1 to 204 all out, but the spinners have done terrible damage to their cause. There were some mutters about the South African quicks not being able to use the new ball as late afternoon sun shone brightly over the pitch, but only six overs were able to be bowled anyway before bad light was declared.

Harmer made the first incision when he removed Shadman Islam (0) with his second ball, Keegan Petersen taking a sharp catch at slip, and then Maharaj struck two devastating blows in the fifth over.

First-innings centurion Mahmudul Hasan Joy (4) played down the wrong line and was late in closing the gate as Maharaj speared a delivery into his stumps, and four balls later, captain Mominul Haque (2) got into an awful tangle trying to play the left-arm spinner off the back foot. The left-handed batsman actually got his bat stuck behind his left leg as the ball turned into his right pad and he was given out lbw.

South Africa’s innings was a wobbly affair as they resumed on 6/0 with a 69-run first-innings lead.

Openers Dean Elgar and Sarel Erwee (8) survived a testing first hour and put on 48 for the first wicket before Erwee was trapped lbw by the fast bowler Ebadot Hossain, jagging the ball back into the left-hander.

Elgar and Keegan Petersen added a further 68 for the second wicket and South Africa had built a wonderful platform when they reached 116/1. But Taskin Ahmed, who was struggling with a shoulder injury, trapped Elgar lbw in similar fashion on 64, and Petersen (36) fell to spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz soon afterwards, a lack of pace off the pitch may have been why he gave short-leg a catch.

Amazing catches by Yasir Ali at slip and Shadman Islam at silly point accounted for Temba Bavuma (4) and Kyle Verreynne (6) and gave Ebadot and Mehidy another wicket each.

Although Ryan Rickelton scored a well-disciplined 39 not out, the rest of the batting fell away, including two runs outs. Substitute Nurul Hasan’s direct hit from the cover boundary to catch Simon Harmer (11) short was also a wonderful piece of fielding.

Mehidy took 3/85 in 35 overs, while the feisty Ebadot finished with 3/40 in 13 overs.

In a very important development for South African hockey, the FIH Women’s Junior World Cup will be hosted by the North-West University in Potchefstroom from December 5-16.

But this is not just an historic landmark for South Africa but Africa as a whole, because it is the first hockey world cup at any level to played on the continent.

As hosts, South Africa’s U21 team gets to play in the tournament, joining 15 other countries in the biennial event that brings together sides from every continent.

Sheldon Rostron, the former head coach of the South African senior women’s side, is the chairman of the local organising committee in his capacity as the director of sport at North-West University.

“This is a very important honour for South African hockey,” Rostron said. “It will have several spinoffs like establishing that we can host more events like this in South Africa.

“We can build a foundation of trust with the FIH and hopefully they will see us as a prime destination for future events. The country is hungry for hockey and hopefully corporates will see this global event, identify it as being exciting and invest more in hockey.

“It also gives our South African hockey players more international exposure, which is always great, and because we are in as hosts, it means Zimbabwe will be a second African team in the competition, which is also a first,” Rostron said.

North-West University is known for its world-class sporting facilities and leading teams and athletes from all over the world have held camps in Potchefstroom. Rostron said they are well-equipped to host such an important event.

“The good thing about Potchefstroom for sportspeople is that you are in close proximity to all the resources you need. It has always been the focus of the university to assist athletes and federations, and they come from across the world to come train here.

“With our high-performance institute and local businesses all being accustomed to events like this, it’s really easy to host tournaments in Potchefstroom,” Rostron said.

It is going to be tough though for the South African team to make it through to the quarterfinals from their pool: Germany, Spain and the United States are their opponents and all of them are women’s hockey powerhouses.

Australia and New Zealand were not able to play due to Covid travel restrictions in their countries.

Pools

Pool A – Ireland, Korea, Netherlands, Zimbabwe.

Pool B – Belgium, Canada, England, Uruguay.

Pool C – Argentina, India, Japan, Russia.

Pool D – Germany, South Africa, Spain, United States.

The last time I was fortunate enough to attend the KFC Mini-Cricket National Seminar was five years ago in Kruger Park, so it was wonderful to see CSA’s flagship development programme has lost none of its energy or passion when I was invited to this year’s annual gathering, held at Zebula Golf Estate outside BelaBela last week.

This mass participation grassroots programme, which will celebrate its 40^th anniversary next year, is operated by the noble crew of 10 500 volunteer coaches, working closely with the sponsors and CSA’s development office.

Some of the bile that has been thrown around in cricket circles over the last couple of years has been difficult to stomach, but being able to share in an environment where everyone is just working for the love of the sport, where egos are put to the side because this is the grassroots game, is gratifying enough to cure the most severe indigestion.

Graeme Smith, as director of cricket, has had to deal with much of that bile, but he was happy and relaxed at Zebula, being asked for plenty of photographs by the delegates after his address on the first morning.

“I basically just gave them an update of where cricket is and then it was great to sit through the sessions with them,” Smith said.

“I feel like I’ve been starved of being on the ground with these sort of cricket-lovers. It’s so exciting to be here, this programme is nearly 40 years old and has been a massive investment in the game at all levels.

“All credit to the volunteer coaches and co-ordinators who grow their communities and are mentors for the youngsters. It’s so important that kids have the opportunity to be touched by the game and I know how important KFC Mini-Cricket is to CSA.

“These coaches are the life-blood of our game and I’ll be surprised if there are any other development programmes in this country that come close in terms of reach,” Smith said.

Unfortunately though, like everything else, the effectiveness of the KFC Mini-Cricket Programme does come down to how many Rand are in the bank for CSA.

The organisation held its AGM last weekend and the financial statements clearly showed the serious effects of Covid and how important it is for the Proteas to be a ‘box-office’ team on the global stage.

CSA still has total assets of R797 million, but they suffered a nett loss of R221 million in 2020/21, having budgeted for just a R177 million deficit.

This was largely due to broadcast revenue plummeting from R534 million to R161 million. Having made up almost half of CSA’s revenue the previous financial year, broadcast rights now only accounted for 31% of profit. Sponsorships also dropped from R186 million to R79 million, 15% of revenue.

Accordingly, in an environment of sometimes brutal cost-cutting (but pleasingly with no employees laid off because of Covid), investment in development dropped from R385 million to R273 million.

So anyone who wants to see the game in this country truly transform has to also acknowledge that the Proteas have to be one of the best teams internationally. That’s the only way the Big Three will want to tour here, generating the lucrative broadcast rights that are by far CSA’s biggest revenue-earner.

And KFC Mini-Cricket has certainly produced its fair share of Proteas – Beuran Hendricks and Sinalo Jafta were two in attendance at Zebula. But the programme also wants to empower the coaches, while bringing an estimated 118 000 kids from diverse schools and communities together this summer, introducing them to cricket and also getting them active.

Barring the development of further Covid infections in the next week, Sharks coach Sean Everitt said on Thursday that he will have a full squad to choose from for their Currie Cup semi-final against Western Province at Newlands next weekend.

The Sharks had their last round-robin match – also against Western Province in Cape Town – cancelled after several positive Covid tests in their camp, but the outbreak would now appear to be over as the whole squad tested negative this week.

“At the moment no-one is ruled out and as things stand we will have a full squad to choose from for the semi-final. And I’m extremely confident that it will stay that way because the players have really tried hard to isolate at home, and I believe the other three teams are the same. Nobody wants to miss out on a semi-final and potential final, and we control what we can.

“We have a good week’s training, although some guys still need to work through the Covid protocols and will only return to training later. The return-to-play is a different process for the number of guys that tested positive and some of them will only return to training on Saturday. The severity of symptoms vary, but we’re in a pretty good space at the moment,” Everitt said on Thursday.

The Sharks had just notched a highly-impressive win over the Bulls when the virus struck their camp, leading to weakened teams being well-beaten on the road by the Lions and Free State Cheetahs. But the KwaZulu-Natalians bounced back with a commanding 47-19 win over Griquas in their last outing on January 2, and Everitt believes they have the potential to carry that momentum all the way in this year’s Currie Cup if they can eliminate individual errors.

“Since those defeats we’ve been able to get the show on the road and prepare properly, and when we’ve been able to pick our best team, we’ve been able to deliver a performance. Obviously our rhythm has been disrupted, but we came back strongly after our last break to beat the Bulls, we have a full squad to select from and the guys are raring to go.

“It’s always easier going to Cape Town than playing on the Highveld and if we can eliminate the individual errors, then I’m not too concerned about whatever conditions we’ll face. We all know Western Province have a good set-piece, and I’m sure they’ll try and use their strengths to dominate us, but if we get that right then I’m sure we’ll have a very good chance of winning,” Everitt said.