Ken Borland

Kagiso Rabada has won accolades all over the world but he has not smiled more broadly as when the Imperial Lions beat the Dolphins by four wickets with an over to spare in the T20 Challenge final at Kingsmead, the fast bowler playing a pivotal role in the victory and another trophy for his franchise.

After the Dolphins won the toss and elected to bat on their home ground, Rabada played a leading role as the KZN side could only post 107 for seven in their 20 overs. Rabada, who gave a superb demonstration of all his wonderful skills, removed key batsman David Miller for two, beat Mangaliso Mosehle for pace and bowled him middle stump for 18 just when the wicketkeeper/batsman was threatening to revive the Dolphins innings, and finished with superb figures of three for 12 in four overs.

He was ably supported by left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin, who bowled a sweeping Sarel Erwee for a duck in the first over and finished with one for 19 in his four overs, and paceman Sisanda Magala who was outstanding again with two for 19.

Opener Grant Roelofsen scored 20 for the Dolphins and Khaya Zondo scored a determined 24, but Robbie Frylinck, who has had a fine all-round tournament, scored 30 not out off 26 balls to post a total that proved challenging for the Lions with all the pressure of a final and a Dolphins side who showed an admirable never-say-die attitude in the field.

The Lions also struggled with the bat with the Dolphins’ key bowler, Keshav Maharaj, also showing his class. The left-arm spinner took one for 22 in four overs, and troubled all of the batsmen, having Temba Bavuma dropped first ball by Khaya Zondo at slip, who was diving and just failed to take a tough chance.

Opner Reeza Hendricks, the leading run-scorer in the tournament, held the innings together with his run-a-ball 39 and his 36-run partnership with Bavuma (22) almost took the Lions to victory. Wiaan Mulder showed his abilities with the bat as he steered the Lions to victory with his 24 not out off 23 balls.

Apart from Maharaj, the Dolphins seamers – Ottneil Baartman (4-0-20-2), Robbie Frylinck (4-0-16-1) and Kerwin Mungroo (3-0-14-1) also showed great determination.

Boland and North-West are the two teams that will join the six franchise centres in the new eight-team provincial-based Division I that will be introduced as part of the restructuring of the domestic game, Cricket South Africa announced on Monday.

Eastern Province (Port Elizabeth), Free State (Bloemfontein), Central Gauteng Lions (Johannesburg), KwaZulu-Natal Coastal (Durban), Northerns (Centurion) and Western Province (Cape Town) will be the other teams in Division I, while Limpopo and Mpumalanga gain first-class status and join South-Western Districts, Easterns, Border, KZN Inland and Northern Cape in Division II. The new system features automatic promotion/relegation between the divisions, but this will only kick in after the 2022/23 season.

The changes are based on the recommendations of the independent task team chaired by former Protea and ICC chief executive David Richardson, who explained the reasons for the ‘promotion’ of Boland and North-West to the top table.

“Boland have a tremendous fan base, especially amongst the coloured community, and there is a true love for the game and cricket culture around Paarl. Their stadium is of very good quality and they are very ambitious. They have excellent development pathways and they have contributed several players to the franchise system, while their provincial team has done consistently well.

“North-West are well-administered, they have done some tremendous infrastructure development in Potchefstroom and the university provides them with a huge opportunity to attract, develop and retain players. What I like the most about the new system is that there is no room for complacency; one of the biggest challenges of the franchise system was that there were no consequences for finishing sixth,” Richardson said on Monday.

Dr Stavros Nicolaou, the chairman of the CSA Interim Board, said the directors were confident the new structure would result in a stronger Proteas team out on the park.

“The recommendations of the Dave Richardson task team have been fully supported and endorsed by the board. We need domestic cricket to be a springboard for international excellence, that was a key consideration. We believe the new structure will give us a cutting edge in terms of competitiveness and more sustainability. It will optimise our potential in terms of the development of players and talent,” Nicolaou said.

Andrew Breetzke, the CEO of SACA, said it was a relief that the players could now have some certainty and they could move on from the restructuring issue.

“There’s almost been restructuring fatigue in our offices because we have been speaking abut this for five years, we just needed to get it done and move on. The positive is that we now have some finality because the uncertainty is not good for the game. We respect CSA have the right to make changes to the structure, and we have had extensive consultations with them,” Breetzke said.

“The move has triggered a number of issues with our current Memorandum of Understanding in terms of contracting of players. And 75 players are now out of the system. The end of the franchises will require new contracts and different allocations, and if teams are relegated then there needs to be a way for players to exit their contract. We’ve been focused on the cricket imperatives.”

Richardson said they had learnt from the past when the number of teams in South Africa’s premier domestic competitions had almost doubled from five to nine during his playing days in the 1980s and 90s.

“We started with five sides in the A Section and then teams were added so we went to nine in quite a short space of time. But there was no relegation so the teams at the bottom lose enthusiasm and focus and it just brings the whole quality of the competition down. Now there is opportunity across the board, but it depends on how well you play.

“Having promotion/relegation is probably the biggest lesson we learned from the past. The teams coming up to Division I will face a huge challenge because they will not be used to playing such high-quality cricket, but hopefully they will be able to best equip themselves for that. What I like most about the new system is that there is no room for complacency,” Richardson said.

Eduard Coetzee, the Sharks CEO, might rate Siya Kolisi as the best captain in world rugby, but he confirmed on Wednesday that Lukhanyo Am will retain the captaincy of the franchise team.

Am has been integral to the rise of the Sharks over the last year and is the sort of follow-my-example captain that is much-loved by the KwaZulu-Natal outfit and their fans, following in the footsteps of inspirational skippers like Gary Teichmann, John Smit, Wahl Baartman and Craig Jamieson, who were also men of few words.

While there is no doubting the pedigree and qualities of Kolisi, who led the Springboks to World Cup glory in 2019, the decision is a wise one by the Sharks because it avoids adding another complication to the life of the 29-year-old who seems utterly focused on regaining his best form following a miserable 2020 ruined by injury, Covid and the problems within Westen Province rugby.

“As a leader, Siya chooses himself, we know he’s the best leader in world rugby and he led the country to the World Cup. So yes, it would be easy to make him captain. But we don’t want to do that at the moment, we want to make an environment here that he can thrive in and put the least amount of pressure on him as necessary. And Lukhanyo has done an unbelievable job as captain so that makes the decision much easier.

“We love to treat our players well because that’s the way you get results. To add more pressure by making Siya captain is not going to help him. They get on well, by the way, and Lukhanyo has been in my ear as well about when Siya is coming here. Leaders earn the right to lead, they appoint themselves and both Siya and Lukhanyo have the qualities to be very successful captains,” Coetzee said at Kings Park on Wednesday when Kolisi was officially unveiled as a Sharks player.

Kolisi pointed to his ball-carrying ability as being an area where he can add to the growth of a Sharks game that he said he already very much admires, having been on the receiving end of it when they beat Western Province at Newlands in the Currie Cup semi-finals.

“The Sharks team is really strong, they have a good kicking game, they’re disciplined and they have the boot of Curwin Bosch. But I love their style when they do move the ball around, they have a strong attacking game. I am an openside flank but I don’t really fetch, although I do want to contribute to that aspect of the game.

“But with ball-in-hand, along with the other strong carriers, that’s where I hope I can add to the team. And I’m willing to do the hard work, clearing the rucks and that, too; I’m not scared to do the graft that is not seen,” Kolisi said.

While most of South Africa returned to the office on Monday, half of the country’s franchise cricketers left for Potchefstroom to enter a bio-bubble for the Momentum One-Day Cup.

Cricket South Africa announced at the weekend that the schedule for the 50-over competition has been revised, with the Momentum One-Day Cup now being held in just one venue, in a bio-secure environment and being reduced to just 15 matches. The franchises are still in their two pools of three teams each, but they will only play within their pool, two matches against each team.

The Dolphins, Titans and Knights will be in Pool A and will kick off the action from Saturday. The Imperial Lions, Cape Cobras and Warriors are in the other pool which will be in action from January 29.

The top two teams in each pool will then contest the semi-finals on February 11 and 12, with the final on Sunday, February 14.

Dr Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, said the official reason for the decision was as a precaution against the ever-rising tide of Covid-19’s second wave of infections.

“We have seen the number of cases rise significantly and the second peak is reaching new levels that are higher than the first wave. We have seen infection among our players as well, we had to cancel a four-day match, and we have a duty of care to the players. We also want to ensure the integrity of the competition, we don’t want to have to start cancelling games.

“So the best way to do that is by playing the whole competition in a bubble. There are risks associated with flying around the country for games because airports are one of the major sources of infection, they are high-risk. So we have decided on the precautionary option,” Manjra told The Citizen on Monday.

Cutting the number of fixtures down from seven round-robin games each to just four has been necessary so that the players only have to spend 11 days in the bio-bubble, which has increasingly been shown to be quite a tough environment to cope with mentally.

It is a big drawback for the teams in Pool A though that they will face a gap of more than three weeks between their last match and the semi-finals, giving the Pool B teams a definite advantage in that they finish their round-robin games on February 5, leaving a space of just six days before the semi-finals.

While CSA have well-publicised financial troubles, playing in a bio-bubble is not expected to cost them more money than if the tournament was staged normally, plus there is the added bonus that broadcasters SuperSport and the sponsors are unlikely to suffer reduced content due to games being cancelled.