Ken Borland

Hashim Amla announced as South Africa's new Test captain

Cricket South Africa CEO Haroon Lorgat announced Hashim Amla as the new national Test captain yesterday and then reflected that he was in the same position as current convenor of selectors Andrew Hudson 12 years ago when Graeme Smith was named as Proteas skipper.

While Lorgat suggested there weren’t many “quality captaincy choices” around when he was the selection convenor, things have changed dramatically in South African cricket in those dozen years and Amla, as universally respected and well-liked as any player, should have much more popular support behind him than Smith did in those tough initial years after the 2003 World Cup disaster and the shock of Hansie Cronje’s fall from grace.

Amla, the first player of colour to be appointed as full-time skipper, beat off strong challenges from AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis for the Test captaincy but such is the camaraderie and culture amongst the senior Proteas that both men have assured management that they are fully behind their new Test leader.

If Amla had the same sort of strong jaw as Smith did it would be hidden beneath his luxurious beard, which is also an apt metaphor for the differences in their captaincy styles.

While Smith’s brand of leadership was highly visible (and vital for the rebuilding of a demoralised team), Amla will be a calming influence, providing continuity and building on the strong systems already in place.

He may be softly-spoken, but Amla is certainly a strong character and the leadership he has shown in the changeroom will now become more obvious out in the middle of the action.

“This is a very exciting time. Hashim has been contributing in a big way and has had a massive impact as a senior player, and the captaincy will be an extension of what he already quietly does behind the scenes. His style will be different, but that will be refreshing,” national coach Russell Domingo said.

While promising to be his own man, Amla himself recognises that he doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel now that he’s in charge of the Test side.

“Graeme’s leadership added a lot of value and we can take that with us and carry it on. A lot of us have played together for many years now and I won’t forget about the other senior players – it will be a collective effort. The team has gelled extremely well and has been managed brilliantly. We’re a high-performing Test team, we’ve been the best in the world, so not too much needs to change.

“I’m not going to try and copy anybody, generally you’re not as successful if you do. It’s difficult to say what style of captain I’ll be, I want to just let it come out naturally. I’ll just be as natural as possible, use what intrinsically works for me,” Amla said.

Even Castle Lager will get in behind Amla, according to Lorgat, even though the devout Muslim does not wear any branding or associate himself with any alcohol sponsorship.

“Castle have been very supportive, they sponsor the team not any individual. We all know Hashim’s views very well and we will meet the obligations of our commercial partners, although we are happy that they are respectful of individual views,” Lorgat said.

Russell Domingo joked yesterday that he would have given away his children if offered beforehand a score of 172 for four in the ICC World T20 semi-final and, even though that tournament once again ended in disappointment for South Africa, the coach is confident that the Proteas will become world champions one day soon.

“It’s an important year ahead for South African cricket, we start planning for that dreaded competition that all South Africans hate – the World Cup – but like the New Zealand rugby team after years of heartache, our team is not far away from becoming world champions in one of the limited-overs formats,” Domingo told a gathering yesterday of the sport’s major stakeholders at the Repucom Breakfast to announce their marketing research results.

South Africa coach Russell Domingo

“I can assure you that we have got the players, we just need to support them. The players believe that they are under more scrutiny than anyone else in these tournaments, which is probably fair, but there is a maturity in the side now and they deal with pressure so much better. I know we didn’t win the World T20 semi-final, but if someone had offered me a score of 172 for four beforehand, I would have almost given away my children for it!,” Domingo added.

South Africa are also going to have to find a new Test captain and fill the gaps created by the retirements of Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith, but Domingo said there are capable replacements in the system, although they will need to be given time to find their feet.

“The biggest thing the South African public must come to terms with is that whoever replaces them needs to be given time, like Jacques was at the start of his career. They need to be allowed to develop, but the game moves on and it will be a new and exciting team taking a different direction. We’ve got to be patient.

“As far as the captaincy goes, there are three or four good candidates that I would feel comfortable with, so there’s a lot of good leadership in the team,” Domingo said.

Cricket South Africa CEO Haroon Lorgat said the panel set up to choose the new Test captain are still doing their work.

“The selectors met earlier this week, but I still want to talk to the candidate as well. It’s a board appointment on the back of that panel’s recommendation and we will finalise our thoughts on June 3,” Lorgat said.

Despite the disappointment of having to host a curtailed tour by India, Lorgat said CSA are on track to only narrowly miss their financial targets for 2013/14.

“We targeted R280 million profit for this financial year and I reckon we’ll be less than R20 million short despite not having the full India tour. This is partly due to the exchange rate, we don’t mind the dollar rate and the weakening of the rand because that has cushioned the knock, but we’ve also stripped a lot of the costs out of the system,” Lorgat said.

Haroon Lorgat pointed out the positive

Comparisons are often made between cricket and the two other major sports in South Africa – football and rugby – but, according to Repucom, CSA are doing well.

Proteas coverage attracted a total unique TV audience, across both the SABC and SuperSport, of 14.02 million people, compared to 13.3 million for rugby and 19.61 million for soccer.

Domestic cricket received 290 hours of live coverage, compared to 65 hours for the Currie Cup, 236 hours for SuperRugby and 346 hours for the Absa Premiership.

CSA differs from rugby and football, however, in that the majority of their money comes from overseas.

“The model of cricket is based on international revenue, the vast majority of our money comes from offshore. Probably half our income is from broadcast rights and 80% of that is offshore,” Lorgat confirmed, which explains why CSA can afford to push the development and spread of the game on free-to-air TV.

Even the relationship with the Board of Control for Cricket in India is looking more rosy, according to Lorgat, whose arch-nemesis, Narayanaswami Srinivasan, the BCCI president, is in danger of being jailed for fraud and corruption.

“We’ve cleared some air with the BCCI and we’re in a better space with them. But the wheel has turned and now they have issues and are inward-looking,” Lorgat said.

Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat was yesterday not only able to deliver the good news that he has been exonerated of all wrongdoing surrounding his alleged involvement in the media statement criticising ICC governance by their former legal advisor David Becker, but also news of on-going negotiations with Australia and England for more Test cricket against those countries.

The International Cricket Council yesterday announced that they could find no evidence linking Lorgat to Becker’s damning statement and also cleared him of allegedly trying to bribe or threaten journalists in an attempt to withdraw the story.

“Being exonerated is no surprise to me because I knew exactly what I had done and what I had not done, and I knew that I would not fail myself nor cricket in South Africa,” Lorgat said at the Wanderers yesterday.

“But I am gravely disappointed that I was found guilty in the media and a lot of things were said about me even before the investigation began.”

Not much seems capable of taking the former ICC chief executive by surprise and Lorgat also brushed off the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s decision to not stage any of the IPL in South Africa while revealing the prospect of increased Tests against Australia and England.

“We weren’t surprised at all by the BCCI announcement, they want to play the tournament close to home. We were involved in discussions all along and we were informed of the decision before it went public. It made sense to have the first 16 games in the UAE, if they needed longer outside India then maybe we would have featured,” Lorgat said.

“But we never had any plans for the IPL in the financial forecasts. It would have been a windfall, but it’s something we hadn’t bargained for.”

With Lorgat and CSA having a well-publicised falling out with the BCCI last year and India, Australia and England staging a virtual coup to take control of the ICC, the fears that South African cricket would be sidelined don’t seem to be materialising.

Lorgat revealed the success of preliminary negotiations with other boards that would see more Test cricket being played in South Africa.

“We are very keen to play four-Test series against Australia and we’ve gone some way to agreeing to that, although it’s dependent on the calendar. And we are talking to England and have agreed in principle to play a five-Test series in 2015/16. So we’ve already achieved a lot working together since the original ICC proposal, which has already been changed considerably,” Lorgat said.

Chief executive Haroon Lorgat said on Thursday that hosting some of the 2014 Indian Premier League (IPL) would have been a “windfall” for Cricket South Africa, but the organisation had not catered for the tournament in their financial forecasts.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Wednesday that this year’s IPL would begin in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on April 16, before moving to India from May 1, with Bangladesh on standby should the elections in India not allow them to host it until later that month.

The announcement put to an end speculation that South Africa would host some of the tournament, having successfully staged the entire 2009 event.

“We weren’t surprised at all by the BCCI announcement, they want to play the tournament close to home. We were involved in discussions all along and we were informed of the decision before it went public. It made sense to have the first 16 games in the UAE, if they needed longer outside India then maybe we would have featured,” Lorgat said on Thursday.

“But we never had any plans for the IPL in our forecasts. It would have been a windfall, but it’s something we hadn’t bargained for. If it had come here, we would have embraced it, but equally we can deal with it not coming here. It’s their tournament and we respect their choice.”

With Lorgat and CSA having a well-publicised falling out with the BCCI last year and India, Australia and England staging a virtual coup to take control of the International Cricket Council (ICC), there have been fears that South African cricket would be sidelined.

But Lorgat revealed there has been a rush of activity in negotiations with other boards that would see more Test cricket being played here.

“We are very keen to play four-Test series against Australia and we’ve gone some way to agreeing to that, although it’s dependent on the calendar. If we can fit it in, then we will do that.

“And we are talking to England and have agreed in principle to play a five-Test series in 2015/16. So we’ve already achieved a lot working together since the original ICC proposal, which has already been changed considerably,” Lorgat said.

The CEO also denied reports from India that CSA had refused to stage only part of the IPL, wanting the whole tournament or nothing.

“To say we made demands like that is totally untrue and the amounts of money that we were reported to have wanted have also been exaggerated,” Lorgat said.