Ken Borland

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.

Cricket South Africa are fighting lots of legal battles at the moment, but possibly the most damaging to their reputation has just been made public as former England captain Karen Smithies has served the embattled organisation legal papers alleging discrimination during last year’s interview process for the position of Proteas Women’s team manager.

Smithies, who led England to the World Cup title in 1993, has been a highly-respected administrator and manager of the Titans team for the last 20 years and played a key role in the growth of the women’s game in this country in the early 2000s.

But Smithies has now made the shock claim that CSA rejected her application to be Proteas Women’s manager due to her being “bisexual or lesbian”, according to the organisation’s disgraced former head of HR, Chantal Moon. And Smithies has the recordings to prove it.

For an organisation that is trumpeting diversity as a core value and riding the wave of the tremendous recent success of the national women’s team, the revelations are deeply embarrassing and disturbing.

The online interview was held on June 9 last year via Teams before a panel comprising Moon, who has subsequently been dismissed as she was not properly qualified for her job, director of cricket Graeme Smith, head of player pathways Eddie Khoza and high performance manager Vincent Barnes.

Smith left the meeting after the interview, but the other three then discussed Smithies without realising that their conversation was still being recorded.

The legal papers allege that Moon pointed out that Smithies is “bisexual or lesbian”, to which Khoza responded that she “is in a life partnership with a previous South African women’s captain”. Moon then said there was a risk that Smithies would get “involved in some darling-darling relationship with one of the players”.

Barnes pointed out that it would not be right to appoint a “White Pommie instead of a Black African Male [current manager Sedibu Mohlaba].

The comments are an obvious case of discrimination against Smithies personally because national women’s captain Dane van Niekerk is married to team-mate Marizanne Kapp and there are other relationships within the squad. Coach Hilton Moreeng is a man but nobody has ever raised any concerns about him having a relationship with one of the players.

Smithies told The Citizen on Saturday that the initial hurt of the comments has been exacerbated by CSA’s steadfast refusal to respond to any of her complaints, forcing her to go the legal route.

“I felt so hurt and very disappointed that my career and achievements all came down to that one thing [her sexuality]. These are people I know well and I just wanted an apology and an acknowledgement that what happened was wrong. I’ve tried everything possible to avoid going to court, sent so many letters, but CSA have not had the decency to reply to one of them,” Smithies said.

South Africa’s ODI series against world champions England was officially called off on Monday afternoon, a victim of a sudden rash of Covid-19 cases at the supposedly bio-secure hotel the two teams have been staying at – The Vineyard in Cape Town.

The cancellation of the three-match series will result in a shortfall of around $2 million [R30.3 million] in broadcast revenue for a cash-strapped Cricket South Africa. The series is a part of the ICC Super League, a new qualification system for the 2023 World Cup, so both boards termed Monday’s decisions a “postponement” rather than a total cancellation.

But with England much in demand – they are due to tour Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia and the West Indies next year, on top of the T20 World Cup in India – it is difficult to see where the series can be fitted into the schedule.

And a dearth of top-class cricket action could possibly get worse. Sri Lanka, who have had relatively few Covid cases on their island, are due to play the Boxing Day and New Years Tests in South Africa. They are due to be accommodated in a bio-bubble in Gauteng, but the failure of the same system in Cape Town will certainly give them a pause for thought.

Pakistan and Australia are scheduled to tour early next year, and they will also be casting a worried eye towards the southern tip of Africa.

The Western Cape has seen a recent spike in Covid-19 cases and areas of the province have been declared hotspots.

While the three-match T20 series between South Africa and England went off smoothly, the problems started on the morning of the first ODI last Friday when a Proteas player tested positive for Covid, despite having been in the bio-secure bubble.

After the rest of the South African squad were re-tested and were all negative for the virus, the match was rescheduled for Sunday morning.

But on Saturday night two members of The Vineyard staff tested positive, causing great alarm in the England squad. The tourists were all tested again on Saturday night and then Sunday’s game was called off less than an hour before the start when two members of the England squad returned positive tests.

Allegations from Newlands management that England had broken protocol by using the practice nets next to the construction site at the ground were countered on Monday by an England Cricket statement that the practice facilities provided on the main field were sub-standard and unacceptable, forcing them to use the other nets. But not before they had advised CSA of the problem and had set up a security cordon to ensure the safety of their players and coaching staff.

Just who messed up the bio-secure bubble for the Proteas and England teams at The Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town has become the subject of some dispute between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

The ODI series between South Africa and England is in grave danger of not being played at all after two English players tested positive for Covid-19 at the weekend, following positive tests for two Vineyard staff members. The touring squad were all re-tested after the first ODI, due to be played on Friday, had to be postponed due to a positive test in the Proteas camp.

It was rescheduled for Sunday, but that match, as well as a game at Newlands on Monday, was also called off after England’s positive tests. Those results are now being scrutinised by independent medical experts, and if the positive outcome is confirmed, then the series will almost certainly be cancelled. The results are expected to be known on Monday evening.

This would cost cash-strapped CSA millions of Rands, but several England players have lucrative Big Bash contracts in Australia to fulfil and the others just want to get home for Christmas, so having to spend time in isolation is something they are desperately trying to avoid.

And the ECB on Monday countered an allegation made by Newlands stadium manager Clifford Dodgen that they had broken protocol at the ground on Thursday.

In an e-mail sent to representatives of the ECB, CSA, the Claremont South African Police Services station commander and the visible policing commander, and seen by The Citizen, Dodgen reveals a breach by the England team.

“Please be advised that the England cricket team has not adhered to the arrangements as agreed by all in the ESSPC [Event Safety and Security Planning Committee] meetings. The practice nets next to the construction site is not allowed to be used on practice days. Three cages of nets was set up on the square on the field.

“This serves to inform you that the England cricket team has accessed and used the nets today (3 December) at their own risk. Western Province Cricket Association and the ESSPC will not be held liable or responsible for the safety and health of the England cricket team,” Dodgen wrote.

But an England Cricket spokesperson told The Citizen on Monday: “On arrival at Newlands on 3 December, we advised the venue that the three nets provided on the main pitch were not of a standard for conducive practice, as per the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the respective boards. Batsmen were unable to face seam bowlers on the nets on the main pitch as the surfaces were rendered and unacceptable.

“We requested with CSA that we would like to use the practice nets and that we would create a security cordon to ensure the players and coaches could enter the facility safely, as done previously on 28 November. This was confirmed by England’s Security Team, the Team Operations Manager and the Team Doctor. We were satisfied with this outcome and we were able to practice in the net facility safely.

“As far as the England touring party are concerned, the safety and health of our players and coaches was not compromised.”

The nets in question are the ones usually used by teams playing at Newlands, but the area now sees foot traffic from workers on the construction site.

Members of both teams have also been exposed to people outside of the bubble by being allowed to play golf at Boschenmeer in Paarl.