Ken Borland

The Central Gauteng Lions paid for a poor display in the field as they were beaten by just two runs by Western Province in the opening game of the CSA Provincial T20 Cup at the Diamond Oval in Kimberley on Friday.

Having sent Western Province in to bat, the Lions were loose up front and wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton, seemingly losing the white ball against quite a pale-coloured pitch, dropped opener Tony de Zorzi in the first over off Sisanda Magala.

De Zorzi and Zubayr Hamza went on to add 58 for the first wicket in 7.5 overs as the Lions added sloppy ground fielding and missed half-chances to their woes.

Hamza, who has struggled in T20 cricket before this year, went on to score a brilliant century, only being dismissed in the final over after he had stroked a dazzling 106 off just 63 balls.

With the able support of De Zorzi (26 off 22), Kyle Verreynne (35 off 23) and Wayne Parnell (18 off 8), Hamza led the Cobras to 197 for seven.

Malusi Siboto rescued an even worse situation for the Lions as he was economical at the death and took wickets to finish with a brilliant four for 30 in his four overs. Magala finished with one for 32, but the rest of the Lions bowling was poor.

Young openers Josh Richards (28 off 22) and Rickelton (53 off 31), as well as Shane Dadswell (32 off 14) in the middle overs, were good advertisers for the hitting ability off the Lions, but they fell just short despite the valiant efforts of Magala (23* off 15) with the bat.

Parnell, after his cameo with the bat, produced an outstanding display of skill with the ball, conceding just nine runs in the final over and 29 runs overall in his four overs.

Left-arm spinner Kyle Simmonds took crucial wickets in the 13^th and 17^th overs.

In the other match on Friday, South-Western Districts consigned Northern Cape to a 24-run loss on their home turf.

Yaseen Valli (60 off 49) and captain Jean du Plessis (69 off 39) added 113 in 12 overs to give SWD a great start after they were sent in to bat. Heath Richards then took them to 192 for four with a destructive 41 off just 14 deliveries.

Pacemen Hershell America then took crucial wickets, finishing with a superb three for 23 in his four overs, as Northern Cape were restricted to 168 for nine.

Onke Nyaku supported well with two for 30.

On Saturday, South-Western Districts play neighbours Western Province and Northern Cape take on the Central Gauteng Lions.

Jasper Wiese had big boots to fill standing in for the injured Duane Vermeulen but he says he is settling in at No.8 in the Springbok team and he certainly looked most comfy there in his barnstorming display against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium at the weekend.

The Leicester Tigers star was playing his fourth Test, having made his debut against Georgia at the beginning of last month and then starting the second and third Tests against the British and Irish Lions, which the Springboks won to take the series. Wiese carried the ball superbly against Argentina and was involved in almost aspects of play.

“I’m definitely settling in and the players around me give me confidence. Although I got man of the match, it was really a team performance. The guys are all so positive and lifting each other up, it’s an amazing squad. The first thing we have to do is put the team first and as individuals we must know our role. You put yourself behind the team’s interests.

“You are playing for something bigger than yourself; playing for yourself is the worst thing you can do, you can’t try to shine by yourself. It’s difficult to put into words how it felt coming into the team, I was half star-struck. There are players that you look up to so much and it is so special to share a field with them. A good individual game does not happen without the 14 other players around you,” Wiese said.

Hailing from Upington, Wiese played most of his senior rugby in the Free State before joining Leicester last year, and he has also looked at home doing Vermeulen’s trademark job of fielding the kickoffs and charging back at the opposition, establishing a bulkhead for the Springboks. Now that Vermeulen is back in the squad, the 25-year-old says he is delighted to have the World Cup hero around.

“Nobody else can be Duane Vermeulen. But I have taken confidence from him helping me at training sessions, the experience he brings, the way he puts the team first. He might not be playing but he’s really helping the guys. I really respect him and he helps you to reach into yourself and find something special. I’m sure he will be massive when he plays again. He’s such a unit,” Wiese said.

Despite a highly-encouraging first-half display by the SA A team before they understandably depleted their energy reserves, Springbok director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said he remains concerned about how he is going to manage his squad ahead of the first Test against the British and Irish Lions on July 24.

The SA A team raced into a 17-3 lead in the first half against the Lions at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night, but the second half saw them desperately clinging on in defence, eventually securing a 17-13 win. Getting the match fitness up and dealing with the numerous Covid cases within the squad will continue to require a delicate juggling act by Erasmus and head coach Jacques Nienaber, who is now out of quarantine and will retake the onfield reins.

“The guys put their hands up and showed their guts, and we do have a lot of players to come back into the mix. But there are guys I’m worried about – Malherbe, Mbonambi, De Jager, Snyman, Kolisi, Vermeulen, Pollard, Mapimpi and Frans Steyn – it’s about how we reintegrate those Covid cases because they are coming back in dribs and drabs as they get released from quarantine.

“So I’m 70-80% happy with the squad, but the other 20-30% are going to need really good management. We have two options to play on Saturday: the Bulls have gone into quarantine for us as back-up, but if there are cases in the Stormers camp then it would be safest for us to play the Lions again. If we don’t play them again, it definitely won’t be because they are afraid, it will because of their plans for the tour. It won’t be because we’re more physical than them,” Erasmus chirped.

As heartening as the SA A team’s display was, since it was basically a shadow Test team if all the players Erasmus mentioned don’t make it back for the first Test, the World Cup winning coach knows that courage and determination will only win the silverware if they are reflected on the scoreboard.

“We don’t want to run away with our emotions. We knew we would run out of steam and that made the match tighter in the end, but we played with a lot of heart. I’m proud of that, but we won’t win the series on that alone. There are a lot of technical and tactical things we need to get right,” Erasmus said.

The players of Australia, England and India are probably the fat cats of the cricketing world, given the riches of their respective boards and the hefty contracts they enjoy. While I have no problem with top international sportsmen being handsomely paid, it would be nice now and then to see them display some perspective and gratitude for living the dream.

The Indian Premier League of course offers the biggest payday of them all, which is why player power has ensured no major international cricket is staged during that tournament. Again, that is the economics of the game and I don’t mind that.

But the players should just be honest about the fact that the IPL is their biggest priority and, as the players of Australia and England have shown, the riches on offer there are often more important to them than any ethical considerations or obligations to grow the game as a whole.

The self-same Australian and England players who turned their noses up at playing in South Africa and possibly coming into contact with the Covid-19 pandemic that was recording about 3000 cases a day in December and 1000 in March were happy to go to India for the IPL when cases were already at more than 80 000 a day. It was a staggering display of hypocrisy and double standards.

And it got worse because as soon as the IPL itself was put under threat, it was the Australian players who began bleating about the government having an obligation to organise special flights out of India for them and change the law that applied to everyone else that the borders were closed for people who had recently been to India.

It’s ironic, but these are people who have been living in a bubble since way before Covid-19 arrived. They live in their own mollycoddled world where everything is taken care of for them, they are treated as demi-gods and too many of them seem totally out of touch with the common person. It’s why things like Sandpapergate happened because pampered stars like Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are out of touch with reality.

It was absolutely infuriating the way the Australian players dumped the South African tour at the last moment as soon as it meant they might have some difficulties getting to India thereafter for the IPL, which was always going to be a much harder bubble to manage than the one here.

Likewise the English players, who used a couple of positive tests outside of their squad to hightail it home, doing great damage to Cricket South Africa’s reputation and coffers.

No wonder cricket fans around the world get so angry when talk of the Big Three dictating the game comes up.

The bad vibrations of karma will no doubt follow these selfish cricketers and it was hard to feel any sympathy for the Aussie players who were stuck in India for a while; they did after all land up slumming it in the Maldives. Even the England players have now shown their true colours and they have not only been criticised by former captains like Mike Atherton and Michael Vaughan for what they did in South Africa, but their own England and Wales Cricket Board CEO Tom Harrison, who has been very helpful to CSA, now knows what they are like when it comes to negotiating new contracts.

To end on a positive note though: Cricket South Africa, chief medical officer Dr Shuaib Manjra and his doctors, and the compliance officers, all deserve enormous credit for how well-run our bubbles were last summer. There were only negligible issues and they have proven how safe it will be for any touring teams to come here.