Ken Borland

South Africa will be playing in the evening again in Lahore on Saturday as they look to stay alive in their T20 series against Pakistan and opening batsman Janneman Malan said they will be better prepared having now experienced the interesting weather conditions in the ancient city and centre of culture.

Given it is winter in Pakistan and dew is prevalent in the evenings, the Proteas did the right thing after winning the toss and choosing to bat second in the first match of the series, but there was even more moisture than expected but it strangely had less impact than the visitors thought it would. They were hoping it would make a dry, slow surface more slick, allowing the ball to come on to the bat better and negating some of the turn. But that didn’t happen according to Malan.

“It was interesting weather, especially when the fog came in. Credit to Pakistan for taking two important catches in the closing stages in those conditions. There was a wet outfield, the ball was wet, but it still didn’t skid on as much as we expected, so it was quite a challenge against the spinners at the start. So we just tried to capitalise on the seamers while they tried to figure out what to do.

“But now that we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work, we’ll have better plans for the second game. Some deliveries were more difficult to hit and it wasn’t so much about execution as having the right plans. So there’s room for improvement – we probably need to commit harder and have clearer, better plans. But as a batting unit, we’re not far off where we want to be,” Malan said after blasting 44 off 29 balls in the first T20.

But after Malan’s opening stand of 53 off 42 balls with Reeza Hendricks, South Africa’s next biggest partnership was 32 for the fourth wicket between Hendricks (54 off 42) and skipper Heinrich Klaasen (12) as wickets fell regularly after Pakistan made the initial breakthrough via exciting leg-spinner Usman Qadir. Just one more sizeable partnership would have made the Proteas’ chase so much easier.

“As a batting unit, we want to win games and we’re not far off clicking. Just one more big partnership and we would have won the game. We just need to come up with the best options for each batsman. Experience is important and we’re obviously missing some of that, but it’s more important that every player focuses on doing their job, we can all add value.

“Reeza was in a difficult position when I got out because he had not faced a lot of balls, but he kept a cool head and got the strike-rate up again. He was obviously upset that he didn’t finish the game, but his dismissal was unlucky and he played a very good innings. The second game is a good opportunity for us to bounce back hard and hopefully change the momentum so we can take that into the final game on Sunday,” Malan said.

South African bowling great Vernon Philander said on Wednesday that he experienced no racism during his time in the Proteas team but his support for the Black Lives Matter movement is based on what he classifieds as “inequality” in the cricket system.

Philander was one of 30 former Proteas to last week sign a letter supporting BLM and calling on Cricket South Africa to confront the problem of racial division in the sport. The 35-year-old retired from international cricket at the end of the Test series against England in January, with outstanding figures of 224 wickets in 64 matches, at an average of just 22.32.

“BLM has a totally different meaning in South Africa than abroad, here it stands for equality and respecting peoples’ views, everyone’s, regardless of the colour of their skin. Those questions of inequality are still relevant today if not worse. I support other causes like White farmers being murdered just as much, we’re not discounting one cause to support the other.

“We need to provide a lot more opportunities, we need to start building communities again. For me, transformation has been done completely wrong because we have taken Black cricketers out of their safety zones, out of their own clubs and schools. We need to restore dignity to these communities, give them facilities and coaches, provide the people with opportunities to enhance their lives with job creation,” Philander told The Citizen on Wednesday.

Philander comes from the humble Cape Town suburb of Ravensmead and has had to fight tremendously hard for every bit of the considerable success he has enjoyed. He was initially chosen for South Africa in limited-overs cricket in 2007, but in spite of being the dominant bowler in South African domestic cricket, spearheading the Cape Cobras’ drive to successive four-day titles in 2009/10 and 2010/11, he had to wait until November 2011 to make his return, in the Test side.

His impact was immediate and stunning, but not a surprise to those who had seen him make up for a lack of sheer pace with extraordinary skill and accuracy in franchise cricket.

“When I started playing, things were more chilled although there were one or two incidents in club cricket that caused a lot of upset people, mostly involving players of the older generation. I cannot vouch for any racism in the Proteas although being left out after 2007 without explanation was pretty hard. And my experience in the 2015 World Cup showed me that they need to protect the players much better. The whole team lost, we need to move past this business of blaming transformation or two or three players,” Philander said.

The key for Philander is the huge inequality that makes it much harder for Black players to reach the heights he did.

“We need to see the injustices and understand that they are still happening today. We want this to be a country for everyone but then there needs to be opportunity for everyone. My background was very poor and the time is now to speak up, without hatred but acknowledging that inequality is the big thing. We need to change mindsets and perceptions.

“It will take a massive effort, including from our White counterparts, but if we give all cricketers the same opportunity then we can take the best out of that and the team will really be chosen on merit. This is not about dropping standards, but we need to rebuild communities in order for them to compete on equal ground. We need to close the gaps in terms of facilities and coaching,” Philander said.

Heyneke Meyer returned to Loftus Versfeld on Thursday and bemoaned the irony that former Springbok coaches, who can be considered close to the finished article, are excluded from the local game at a time when South African rugby is in crisis and needs as much experienced help as it can get.

Meyer was at his former stamping ground to launch the Beachcomber World Club 10s to be played in Mauritius next month, but his passion for top-level rugby is still there.

“Ex national coaches learn so much, they’re at their best, and then they get moved sideways. The perception here is that I’m in the rugby wilderness, but I’m getting offers from all over the world. But I want to be in South Africa, I believe I can make a difference, even though I’m currently very happy working for Carinat.

“You look at Eddie Jones, who lost eight-in-a-row with Australia and was fired, but then he helped the Springboks and now with England you can see how much he has learnt. Most South African coaches are just gone, though; Rassie Erasmus and Jake White have been really successful overseas and someone like John Plumtree was not seen as a great coach here, but I always rated him, and now he’s won SuperRugby in New Zealand. So it’s not the lack of coaches that is our problem, it’s the system,” Meyer said.

The coach of the first South African team to win Super Rugby, back in 2007, said local franchises were severely hampered by the overseas exodus, fitness issues and the push to play like New Zealand teams.

“You know we’re in trouble when we want to follow New Zealand, if you do that then you’ll never be the best in the world. There’s an over-fixation to play like the All Blacks, it will take us 10 years to get there and then they’ll be another 10 years ahead! We have to find out what we stand for and play the South African way.

“It’s very concerning all the players going to Japan because they can’t play for 12 months and players need to be uninjured and fresh in order to do proper fitness work. And if you’re tired you can’t execute your skills, you can’t press in defence, or scrum or drive. Teams win because of superior fitness and with guys going overseas it’s very difficult.

“Plus it’s impossible to keep the same side together for five years, you just start building and guys leave by the time they’re 25. We’ve got the right coaches and players but we need a better system to keep the players,” Meyer said.

The picture looks rosy for Northerns women’s hockey as their young side triumphed in the Senior Interprovincial Nationals at the weekend, showing impressive self-belief as they beat a star-studded, more experienced Southern Gauteng team in a shootout at the Randburg Hockey Stadium.

“We were definitely underdogs if you looked at the names on paper, Southern Gauteng are a powerhouse who have won many IPTs. But we took each game as it comes and we played very good hockey to get through the semi-finals. To beat North-West 4-0 was a very good performance and I was a bit concerned that we wouldn’t be able to reach that peak again.

“We were very nervous in the first half of the final, we showed our inexperience, but I knew if we could just keep them out then we could claw our way back. The players began to believe in themselves and put more pressure on. It was actually a blessing that we went 1-0 down because I told them ‘now we have to chase the game’.

“You can’t do all that work to get to the final and then just not play, so we began to pass the ball, be positive, and it felt like we shifted the momentum. We were winning more 50/50s, winning those one-on-one battles and we had more shots at goal,” coach Lindsay Wright told The Citizen.

“It’s very exciting and I believe it was some of the best hockey Northerns have ever played, the girls really stood up, which was wonderful. Northerns have tended to not play good hockey in the right moments, they tended to not get through semi-finals, although they were always recognised for their doggedness, their never-say-die attitude.

“We’re basically a university-based team, 90% of our players come through Tuks, so they’re all inexperienced and youthful and we rely heavily on the more experienced players. Tuks will attract more players and we have good schools, but we need to produce more locally-based players and keep them in the province, and then we will potentially build a powerhouse team,” Wright added.

Northerns are likely to lose KZN product Jacinta Jubb, their leading goalscorer, but it is certainly not doom and gloom for them. Player of the Tournament Celia Evans, in particular, is a phenomenal talent.

“Celia is one of the best players in the country right now and she is a real all-rounder, not just in terms of her hockey talent but in terms of what she gives to the team and her fellow players. She’s like Nicolene Terblanche and Kim Hubach, who have been there and done that and who constantly give to those who have less experience, which is the true sign of a very talented player,” Wright said.

Any champion side learns from their mistakes and Wright admitted that their failure to defend their title last year, when Southern Gauteng won the IPT, had been taken on board and thoroughly analysed.

Northens hockey is on the rise and the traditional powerhouses have been warned.

“The girls never gave up and their energy was fantastic. We took the lessons from last year and changed things round,” Wright said.