Ken Borland

Despite Cricket South Africa and government currently being at loggerheads over the refusal of their Board to step down, England’s tour next month looks set to go ahead following a magnanimous gesture by government.

England is one of the designated high-risk countries when it comes to Covid-19, but reports overseas on Tuesday suggested the South African government have not only allowed their contingent of more than 40 people to enter the country but have also waived the usual quarantine requirements as long as the 50-over world champions remain in a biosecure bubble.

That means England will be allowed to train at the Western Province Cricket Club for the 10 days between their arrival on November 17 and the first match against the Proteas. The tourists are apparently going to stay at The Vineyard Hotel, along with the South African squad.

Three ODIs and three T20 internationals are on the schedule for England, with all the matches on tour being played either at Newlands in Cape Town or Boland Park in Paarl, without spectators.

The series will follow hot on the heels of the Indian Premier League, but both England captain Eoin Morgan and Proteas skipper Quinton de Kock expressed their enthusiasm for the series on Monday night when they spoke at a Chance to Shine charity event.

“There is a huge responsibility not just to get your home country’s fixtures underway, but a huge responsibility to facilitate other countries around the world. We will do what we can to try and get cricket back on, because it means a huge amount for people in Lockdown in their own countries, and also for Cricket South Africa financially.

“I know the worry we had about potentially not bowling a ball all summer and the detrimental impact that would have, probably to grassroots cricket more than any other part of the game. If the tour goes ahead, we’d love to come down, as the series we played last time was incredible,” Morgan said.

“If the boys do come over I’m sure it’ll be a good series once again,” De Kock said. “The world saw the last series between us, even though we lost, we still played unbelievable cricket, so did England. We are hoping it will go on, but with the pandemic, who knows?”

Having attended a private school in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, I’m as used to the accusations of my alma mater being stuck-up as I am to the reality that in national terms, we are pretty low down the pecking order in terms of schoolboy rugby.

Barring the odd golden periods, the private schools generally struggle to compete with the likes of your Grey College, Paul Roos, Paarl Gym, Affies and Paarl Boys’ High. But where their contribution is proportionally greater is in providing Black players for the pipeline.

And perhaps this is one of the key reasons a thriving schoolboy scene does not translate into greater success for our Junior Springboks side. There has been a lot of angst expressed in the last week over their performances on their tour of the United Kingdom – they were hammered by England and could only snatch a last-minute win over Wales.

The displays did not engender much confidence that South Africa can compete for the honours in the World Rugby U20 Championship that starts in Argentina early next month. It’s a tournament which the Junior Springboks have not won since 2012 and they have not appeared in the final since 2014.

It’s not as if they’re finishing at the bottom of the log either, though, with South Africa having finished third three times in the last four years and fourth once. But given the widely-held belief that we have the strongest schools rugby system in the world, there’s the lingering feeling that we should be doing better.

The problem is the advantages our schoolboy behemoths have in terms of strength, power and pace don’t last through into the senior ranks. Winning at all costs in the highly competitive schools scene means physical characteristics are relied upon and developed, to the detriment of skills. At senior professional level, everyone is pretty much on a par physically thanks to the scientific advances in conditioning, and South Africa loses its advantage.

This mentality also means South Africa’s great rugby schools have been ignoring their responsibility towards the pipeline of our rugby through their reluctance to embrace the need to develop more Black talent. It is time those top-10 schools become more transformed in their recruitment and in the teams they put out on to the field week in, week out.

Quotas or targets have been in place in our national teams for a long time now, and our top rugby schools really need to get with the program. That’s if they really have the national interest at heart and are truly preparing their pupils for the real South Africa outside their secluded cloisters.

Most of the Black players in the Junior Springboks system come from private schools, but I would love to see those great establishments mentioned above push more previously disadvantaged players through their outstanding rugby systems, which can only see better players being produced. I am pleased to hear that Grey College are planning big changes in this regard.

Quotas are obviously controversial and are not a perfect tool. Personally I don’t like them, but I liken them to elephant culling.

Elephants are my favourite animal and I cannot stand the thought of them being killed. But I also recognise the need for culling because if their populations in game reserves are left unchecked, elephants destroy their environment leading to the deaths of both themselves and many other creatures.

The fact that elephants are confined to game reserves is a man-made problem, therefore man has the responsibility to find a solution. Likewise, Apartheid was a man-made problem and quotas seem to be the best solution on the table right now to undo the damage.

Given how long we have waited for the Springboks to comprise just 50% players of colour, I shudder to think what would have happened if quotas were not in force.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20190504/282467120320394

Cricket South Africa was plunged into monumental chaos on Monday as acting chief executive Jacques Faul resigned with immediate effect, hot on the heels of long-term president Chris Nenzani standing down.

The departure of Nenzani, who has been the longest-ever serving president, having been elected for the first time in 2013 and extending his term twice through constitutional amendments, was confirmed by CSA in a statement released on Monday morning.

But, according to CSA sources, Faul also tendered his immediate resignation on Monday. He had announced at the end of last month that he would step down from his role as acting CEO on September 15, his initial appointment from December 2019 to June having been extended on a month-to-month basis.

It is believed the CSA Board has stripped Faul of his powers, which is why he has decided to leave the embattled organisation immediately.

Faul was thrust into the role of acting CEO after Thabang Moroe was suspended nine months ago, triggering a forensic audit and a disciplinary process which to this day has still not been finalised, even though the Board have been sitting with the report for weeks.

Last December, CSA were facing deficits of close to a billion rand, fighting the players’ association in court, had alienated major sponsors and cancelled the accreditation of five journalists who had been critical of Moroe and the organisation. And the Proteas were seemingly in freefall just before the arrival of the England team.

Since then, Faul has ensured there have been no retrenchments through the Covid-19 pandemic and mended relationships with the players’ association, sponsors and media. The appointment of Graeme Smith as Director of Cricket and then Mark Boucher as Proteas head coach saw the team rally somewhat, beating a powerful Australian side 3-0 in an ODI series at the end of the summer.

It is believed company secretary Welsh Gwaza, a strong supporter of Moroe, will now be the acting CEO.

Gwaza is emerging as a powerful new figure within the organisation and he is also the current acting president until the CSA Members Council elect a temporary replacement for Nenzani, who stepped down just three weeks before the AGM to elect a new president on September 5.

CSA gave no reasons for Nenzani’s resignation, but an insider told The Citizen that they were told Nenzani had resigned “because of the cloud over CSA, too much is pointing back to the organisation and he wants to help clear the path for a new leader”.

Another insider pointed to the increasing influence of independent director and chairperson of the Transformation Committee, Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, who “is now running the whole show”.

A new power struggle is emerging with long-time Nenzani and Moroe supporters Beresford Williams, the current vice-president, and controversial Eastern Province Cricket Union head Donovan May believed to be mounting campaigns to succeed Nenzani.

KwaZulu-Natal president Ben Dladla, who has helped rebuild a strong Dolphins franchise, is also rumoured to be in the running, although he has not been a member of the CSA Board. Northerns Cricket Union president Tebogo Siko, a Board member since last September, is also perhaps in contention.

But in the shadowy world of secret CSA meetings and internal politics, credible leadership has been in short supply.

South African cricket was plunged into more uncertainty on Wednesday with the news that Cricket South Africa acting chief executive Jacques Faul will stand down on September 15.

The beleaguered organisation was already facing losses of close to a billion rand before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, it has still to make any meaningful progress on the charges laid against former CEO Thabang Moroe after a forensic audit – the contents of which are long overdue – and it is trying to douse the flames of allegations of past racism and criticism that their transformation programmes are a failure.

Faul was appointed by the CSA Board last December following Moroe’s suspension, the second time he has filled in as acting CEO, having stood in for Gerald Majola in 2012/13 after the bonus scandal. Since then he has mended the dysfunctional relationships CSA had with the players’ union and sponsors, ensured there has been no cost-cutting or retrenchments since the pandemic struck South Africa, and got high-profile figures like Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt back involved with the Proteas as the national team looks to rebound from a dismal 2019.

Faul’s initial contract ran through until June, but the CSA Board hired him for an additional three months.

While Faul said he could not comment on his resignation, a CSA Executive told The Citizen on Wednesday that the Doctor of Economic Management Science had e-mailed the Board to say that he will be standing down on September 15 and that he would inform CSA staff on Thursday.

A source close to Faul said the acting CEO was discouraged by the uncooperative relationship he had with some CSA Exco and Board members in trying to secure the financial future of the organisation and ensure that the Proteas remained competitive on the global stage.

Faul will not be lost to cricket, however, and will go back to his previous full-time position as chief executive of the Titans franchise and the Northerns Cricket Union.