Ken Borland

The frustrating injury to ace fast bowler Anrich Nortje has led to left-arm quick Marco Jansen getting his first call-up to the Proteas ODI squad, but whatever starting XI South Africa choose against India, there are bound to be some disgruntled bowlers.

South Africa and India meet in three ODIs from January 19, following the end of the Test series. With two of the matches being played in Paarl and one at Newlands, conditions should suit the Proteas’ new-found enthusiasm for a strong spin-bowling contingent, with both Tabraiz Shamsi, their leading ODI wicket-taker in 2021, and Keshav Maharaj, the vice-captain, playing.

But India’s batsmen relish taking on spin bowling and there may be a desire to target them with pace. In which case, who do you leave out: Maharaj or Shamsi?

There are also three out-and-out all-rounders in the squad in Andile Phehlukwayo, who bashed a superb 48 not out off just 22 balls against the Netherlands in his last match, T20 World Cup star Dwaine Pretorius and the resurgent Wayne Parnell. But unless one of them bats in the top six, or plays as a frontline quick instead of Lungi Ngidi, there is unlikely to be room for more than one of them at a time.

South Africa’s top six is pretty settled though, with Janneman Malan establishing himself as Quinton de Kock’s opening partner, Aiden Markram slotting into the middle-order alongside Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen, and David Miller continuing as an evergreen finisher.

India announced their squad on December 31 and even though they are without injured players Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, and Mohammed Shami will be rested, it is going to be an exacting task for the Proteas.

As ever, much focus will be on their batsmen and Kyle Verreynne and Zubayr Hamza are waiting in the wings. Hamza seems to have leapfrogged Reeza Hendricks in the pecking order, the national selectors demanding more than an average of 25.68 and a strike-rate of 76.76 in 24 ODIs.

Other players who are out in the cold at present are left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks, spinner George Linde and Test all-rounder Wiaan Mulder.

Of the second-string squad that was selected for the ill-fated ODI series against the Netherlands at the end of November, fast bowlers Daryn Dupavillon and Junior Dala, and batsmen Ryan Rickelton and Khaya Zondo have also been omitted. Paceman Lizaad Williams is still out injured.

Proteas squad: Quinton de Kock, Kyle Verreynne, Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Zubayr Hamza, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi, Sisanda Magala, Marco Jansen.

Fast bowling great Allan Donald is looking forward to the Indian batsmen, who prefer the ball not getting higher than hip-height, being bombarded by the Proteas pace attack as Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Duanne Olivier share the enforcer duties in the Test series later this month.

The South African Test squad was announced on Tuesday and Olivier, whose 48 wickets in 10 Tests were largely blasted out by sheer aggression, makes a return for the first time since February 2019 following the end of the Kolpak system.

Donald told The Citizen on Tuesday that he was savouring the prospect of Olivier bowling in tandem with Rabada and Nortje.

“It’s awesome to have Duanne back and he gives our attack real substance. There will be no escape from those three, there will be pressure and pace from both ends, which is a great asset in our conditions,” Donald said.

“I think Duanne has lost a wee bit of pace, but he still has a helluva bumper. And I don’t think Mark Boucher will go away from the role Duanne had when he last played for the Proteas.

“Duanne will be the battering ram, the enforcer, bowling short and full. Anrich Nortje can do that too and it will be interesting to see if he bowls with Duanne or with KG Rabada.

“It’s a great squad because there is so much bowling back-up – Marco Jansen, Sisanda Magala, Glenton Stuurman and Lungi Ngidi too, that’s a strong bowling attack,” Donald said.

Jansen is one of the most exciting young pups in South African cricket, aged just 21 but making big waves.

“I love a left-arm seamer and Marco has everything. He’s a 6’5 giant who bowls at lively pace, gets good bounce and has control.

“He’s a very good flat-wicket bowler because he gets extra bounce that no-one else can. He’s another guy who gives the batsmen no escape,” Donald said.

Speaking of control, the current Free State Knights coach said although the trio of Olivier, Nortje and Rabada are fiery and aggressive, they can also still be tight.

“I think they have both – pace and control, aggression and control. KG and Anrich have shown that they can properly go back into the red zone when they need to.

“It’s a pace attack that can provide proper leadership for the team, something we haven’t seen in a long time. They are certainly going to give India something to think about,” Donald said.

What should have been a great summer of cricket, golf and rugby in South Africa is being threatened by the Omicron variant of Covid, which is an annoyance us sports lovers are getting used to, but what really angers me is the superior, hypocritical attitude of many overseas administrators and professionals.

The bio-secure bubbles that South African sporting bodies have put in place have proven to be exceptionally safe, a credit to the outstanding scientists and doctors we have in the medical sphere. But for many of those in the West, we are in Africa and therefore all the old stereotypes of being backward and unadvanced apply. It is an insulting and bigoted attitude.

Plus South African society is probably safer than many in Europe and America, where most people are ignoring preventative measures like masks, hand sanitising and social distancing. In America, there has also been a sizeable section of the population who have refused to get vaccinated.

It was the United Kingdom who began all the trouble by rushing to implement travel bans before they had even received all the scientific information about Omicron. The fact that the boorish Boris Johnson and his ill-informed medical advisors, who have grossly mishandled Britain’s Covid response over the last couple of years, are setting the tone for the global response is infuriating. We have someone who has presided over a country that now has more than 50 000 cases a day declaring South Africa, with 11 500 cases a day, a pariah.

And it’s not just those three major sports that have been affected: The U21 Women’s Junior Hockey World Cup was set to be held in Potchefstroom, the first time the sport would have staged a world cup in Africa, but that has been called off, and the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships, to be held this weekend in Pretoria, have also been deferred indefinitely.

The United Rugby Championship and the Sunshine Tour golf organisation have already seen their December events grossly disrupted by the Omicron panic, while Cricket South Africa will be hoping against hopes that the Indian tour, which is worth $100 million to the financially-strained organisation, will go ahead as scheduled.

The problem for all local sports bodies is that overseas competitors will now start using Covid fears as an excuse not to fulfil their commitments. India’s cricket players, safe in the knowledge that no-one in world cricket dares to ruffle the feathers of the BCCI, will do whatever they want, and we can only hope captain Virat Kohli’s love of Test cricket and desire to win a series in South Africa sways the day.

As we have seen in previous waves of Covid, things will happen quickly as the number of cases rises exponentially. But will overseas sportsmen be safer back home, where this variant almost certainly originated, or in a bio-bubble in South Africa?

Will the travel bans be lifted now that there is compelling evidence that Omicron did not originate in Southern Africa but was merely detected here first? One day the identities of the overseas diplomats who brought it into Botswana at the beginning of November will be revealed. The fact that the Munster rugby team had 14 positive cases by the start of this week, having been in a bubble since their arrival in South Africa, suggests they probably arrived with Covid, possibly catching it on the plane coming over, and have now been spreading it amongst themselves.

Of course it will always be the African countries that are at fault in the eyes of many of our Western visitors.

Cardiff rugby player Matthew Morgan ranted on social media about being dragged to South Africa in the middle of a pandemic and called the whole situation a “shambles”. Instead of being so privileged, perhaps he should be reading more of what leading scientists are saying.

The Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings resumed this week with those implicated in the earlier sittings getting the chance to answer their accusers and it seems the first half of the commission had several charlatans giving evidence.

It just goes to show the importance of hearing both sides of the story before jumping to sensational conclusions.

Clear problems have been identified like the Dolphins’ handling of Aya Myoli’s assault by Robbie Frylinck, the millions of rand which Easterns have been given to uplift development clubs but which have not been distributed to them and Khaya Zondo’s non-selection in 2015.

Myoli’s treatment is particularly shocking: because Frylinck negotiated a plea bargain that included confidentiality, Myoli, despite being the victim, was never informed of the outcome of the disciplinary hearing back in 2016 and had no idea some form of justice had been done.

But there has also been much evidence that previous testimony has come from embittered former players, especially those convicted of matchfixing offences.

We heard stories of players who had a history of creating divisions within their team, players who complained of being underpaid in comparison to White players when the facts showed that for eight of their seasons with a franchise they were within the top-four salary-earners, and international stars who complained about being discriminated against but failed 15 different fitness tests but were considered undroppable due to quotas.

While some of this has undoubtedly been mischievous, there have also been understandable misunderstandings and it has been good this week to see much of the air cleared up.

Enoch Nkwe’s demotion from interim head coach to assistant coach was controversial and sinister undertones were detected when then acting CSA chief executive Jacques Faul held a meeting with him over cappuccinos at Pearl Valley after Faul had met with SACA, the players’ association.

But Faul pointed out this week that he set up the meeting with Nkwe, along with director of cricket Graeme Smith, head coach Mark Boucher and captain Faf du Plessis in order to allow them to try and find common ground because he was desperately keen to keep Nkwe involved with the Proteas.

Empty vessels make the most noise, so the saying goes, but amidst all the loud cries of racial discrimination why hasn’t there been more noise over the fact that the Black-dominated previous CSA Board was seriously underpaying Nkwe as well as manager Khomotso Volvo Masubelele?

When Faul, who had been acting CEO before in 2012/13, returned to CSA in December 2019, he was shocked to find Nkwe and Masubelele were earning less than what their predecessors were getting in 2012. And this was approved by a CSA Board which only featured a couple of Whites and former CEO Thabang Moroe. The same people who appointed Smith as director of cricket and approved Boucher as the head coach.

Also giving evidence this week was former Proteas manager Mohammed Moosajee, a man who has contributed immensely to South African cricket and is as committed to transformation and excellence as anyone. He is a cricket man through and through.

As usual, he made perfect sense when he called for the Proteas to have a unified stance towards BLM, rather than the currently awkward situation where some people are kneeling, others are not; some fists are raised, others are not. As is so often the case in South Africa, it comes down to education.

Moosajee pointed out that it was himself and vilified former captain Smith who actually came up with the concepts around a more inclusive team with a greater appreciation for people from different backgrounds, races and religions.

As Moosajee pointed out, there is still work to be done to ensure the Proteas are a fully transformed and successful outfit, one which returns to the top table of world cricket. But much progress has been made in the last dozen years.