Ken Borland

The Proteas Women’s team began their tour of England five weeks ago and their brave draw in the one-off Test seemingly gave them a toe-hold in the multi-format series. But since then it has been a mass of bad fortune and a litany of defeats, which does not augur well for their chances in the Commonwealth Games starting this weekend in Birmingham.

South Africa arrived in England with talk of competing on all fronts, having beaten their hosts in the T20 World Cup earlier in the year before the tables were turned on them in the semifinals. Sadly, there is little doubt that the Proteas have regressed since then, while England have powered on to new heights with a rejuvenated team introducing exciting new blood.

The Proteas have lost both the ODI and T20 series 3-0 since then, but there have been mitigating factors.

Regular captain Dane van Niekerk has still not returned to play since November last year, and key players like fast bowler Shabnim Ismail and all-rounder Chloe Tryon have also struggled with injuries. The shock retirement of Lizelle Lee, on the eve of the ODI series, must have been a damaging mental blow for the team and it is doubtful that it does not speak to some sort of cultural issues within the squad.

And now Marizanne Kapp, who has been turning in massive performances game-after-game, is back home, ruled out of the Commonwealth Games, due to a family emergency in which her brother-in-law suffered serious burns.

While it would be unwise to make a meal of the recent results given these setbacks, questions need to be asked about whether the pipeline is delivering the quality that is needed for South Africa to remain one of the top sides.

It has not helped that senior players like stand-in captain Sune Luus, stalwart batter Mignon du Preez and 33-year-old bowling spearhead Ismail have not enjoyed good tours.

It is turning into a very long tour for the Proteas Women and they need to pull things together with haste to ensure the wheels don’t come off properly in the Commonwealth Games. Coach Hilton Moreeng will need all his powers of inspiration to put this squad back together again.

Bongi Mbonambi has been a key figure in the rampant Springbok pack that has spearheaded their hold on the No.1 ranking in world rugby, and Sharks coach Sean Everitt says the hooker is raring to go for his new team, his presence rubbing off on the rest of the squad.

Mbonambi will play his first game for the Sharks since leaving the Stormers in the rousing United Rugby Championship clash with the Bulls on Friday night at Kings Park and the veteran of 48 Tests has been roaring out encouragement to his team-mates all week .

“Bongi has a lot of experience and he sets a really good example,” Everitt said on Thursday. “He was fully prepared when he came to training and hit the ground running.

“As an all-round hooker, he’s one of the best in the world and certainly brings a competitive edge to our team. He really motivates and encourages the youngsters.

“Our scrums and lineouts have gone well this week and Bongi brings a lot of confidence which rubs off on the others, so he adds a lot of value,” Everitt said.

Although the frustration of having so little control over the rugby calendar is very real for Everitt, he has been a happy man this week with his Springboks back and a small crowd allowed to support the KwaZulu-Natal team at Kings Park on Friday night.

“A lot of preparation goes into games, so it has been frustrating to have all those cancellations, but we control what we can control and we are just happy to be playing.

“What is even more exciting is that spectators are going to be able to watch, it’s the first crowd we will have at Kings Park in a very long time.

“I was very confident that our Springboks would play this week too, especially after last week’s match was postponed, and we are very happy to have them. We’ve picked a formidable team, even though not all of our strongest side are available,” Everitt said.

Amongst the other key performers on Friday night will be Siya Kolisi, who Everitt described as “probably the form loose forward in world rugby at the moment”, and Lukhanyo Am.

Am has exuded immense composure and skill at outside centre for the Springboks this year, but he will be playing at inside centre against the Bulls. Everitt believes the captain will display some of his other many qualities.

“Lukhanyo is playing at 12 because we believe Jeremy Ward plays his best rugby at 13. Lukhanyo did a really good job for us in the 2017 Currie Cup at inside centre, he excelled in terms of his playmaking ability and he can still lead the defence from 12. He will also be alongside a young flyhalf in Boeta Chamberlain,” Everitt said.

Johan Grobbelaar is not exactly a seasoned hooker at just 23 years old, but he is a Springbok tourist now and is looking forward to his new-found experience rubbing off on the young pups at the Bulls who have had to hold the fort in the United Rugby Championship.

With the international season now over, national call-ups will no longer be a factor, although it is likely someone like Trevor Nyakane will be having a few weeks’ rest before joining the URC fray. But the Bulls should be strengthened for their match against the Sharks in Durban on Friday night by the return of Grobbelaar.

The Paarl Gym product did not make it on to the field for the Springboks, but the experience gained from just being in the set-up for the Rugby Championship in Australia will have made him an even better player.

“The thing about the Bulls is that the knowledge is passed from player to player, maybe that’s why people say Loftus is a locks factory and now it seems to be a bit of a hooker factory too,” Grobbelaar says.

“We have good hookers here now and we are putting pressure on each other as well as helping one another.

“Being with the Springboks was a very good experience, I was surprised and excited to be called up and it was very nice to see how the system works. But now I’m looking forward to playing with the Bulls and getting some game time after a long time off the field.

“The lessons I can pass on are about how small the margins are because there were three Tests we could have won, and how to vasbyt and keep your composure at the end,” Grobbelaar, whose last on-field action came on July 30 in a Currie Cup match against Western Province, said.

No-one would expect Ox Nche, Siya Kolisi, Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi or Bongi Mbonambi to turn out for the Sharks following their heroics with the Springboks, but the KwaZulu-Natal outfit could well be boosted by the inclusion of prop Thomas du Toit, scrumhalf Grant Williams and outside backs Aphelele Fassi and Sbu Nkosi, all of whom saw no action in Europe.

Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa has already accepted that there is no way Cricket South Africa will be able to hold their AGM on December 5, but that does not mean the new interim board of directors he announced on Friday are there for a holiday.

Mthethwa tasked the interim board with completing their mandate within three months, although he did leave the door open for their term of office to be extended.

“The interim board need to hit the ground running and deal with the current governance and structural issues. They should aim to implement the Nicholson Commission recommendations, consider the Fundudzi Forensic Report and take the recommended action or whatever action they deem to be appropriate, review all board decisions made since 2019 and restore the integrity and reputation of CSA.

“They have three months to do this, but that may be extended based on their progress. We hope they will deliver because this group knows exactly what it has to do and the Members Council still has an obligation to ensure their work is moving well. But there is no way December 5 can remain as the date for their AGM, which could have been avoided if certain people had listened earlier,” Mthethwa said on Friday.

The new interim board of directors is chaired by Judge Zak Yacoob, a former justice of the Constitutional Court, and includes other ‘independent’ figures in Caroline Mampuru, the deputy head of the Special Investigative Unit, Stavros Nicolaou, a senior executive for a major pharmaceutical company, and Andile Dawn Mbatha, the chief financial officer of the Independent Electoral Commission.

But a trio of passionate cricket-lovers who have gone to town in recent times in their criticism of the organisation and the recently-resigned board have also found accommodation on the interim board.

The most astonishing appointment is that of Haroon Lorgat, who has been at the forefront of CSA’s critics and was the federation’s chief executive as recently as September 2017, before being deposed by the power bloc that included Thabang Moroe, whose tenure and subsequent suspension and firing have been central to CSA’s governance crisis. But Lorgat is an internationally-respected administrator who is a former CEO of the International Cricket Council and CSA was a stable organisation during his watch.

Omphile Ramela, the president of the South African Cricketers Association, has also been a strident critic of CSA on behalf of the players, while Judith February is a lawyer and governance expert for the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Institute for Security Studies, as well as a respected columnist who has also expressed her dismay over the administration of a sport she is clearly passionate about.

Andre Odendaal, the former CEO of the Western Province Cricket Association and the Cape Cobras, is another appointee, who has had a long history in the game as a first-class player, administrator and historian.

There is also a member of the old guard on the interim board in Xolani Vonya, the recently-resigned Easterns president who has been a strong supporter of both Moroe and company secretary Welsh Gwaza, who has been seen as a stumbling block to change at the organisation.

Vonya has been a controversial figure because the Easterns union have been wanting to get rid of him for many months, including holding a vote of no confidence against him, but Moroe and Gwaza gave him legal support to fight his removal.