Ken Borland

The postponement of the ICC T20 World Cup and the cascading effect it has had on all the other world cups will give a rebuilding Proteas side some breathing space, but it is probably a blow to the hopes of veterans such as Dale Steyn, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers and Imran Tahir of playing in them.

The ICC have announced that the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia this October has been postponed by a year to October/November 2021, with another edition of the shortest-format world cup to be held at the same time in 2022.

The next 50-over World Cup will still be held in India in 2023, but it has also been pushed back, from February/March of that year to October/November.

But delaying the T20 World Cup by a year is probably good news for a new-look Proteas side that has battled to hit its straps in the format, winning just seven of their 14 matches since February 2019.

South Africa used 27 players in those matches, so their T20 unit is far from settled. With key player JP Duminy having retired, Faf du Plessis having scored just 65 runs in his last four innings and AB de Villiers not playing in nearly three years, there are plenty of questions to be answered in the batting department.

But De Villiers will be 37 by the next T20 World Cup and how willing he is to be seriously involved in the build-up to that competition will probably determine whether he gets one last hurrah.

Du Plessis will also be 37 and there is a chance that the Proteas selectors will just focus on building a settled, younger batting order with a middle-order built around the likes of David Miller, Rassie van der Dussen and Heinrich Klaasen.

Steyn has bowled 19 overs for 166 runs and taken six wickets since last February and he will be 38 in October 2021, while champion leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who has played just once in the same period, will be 42.

The T20 squad needs to be using the extra 12 months of preparation they have been given to develop into a slick, tight unit, especially given how dismally South Africa performed in the previous world cup, the 50-over event in England last year. Integrating these veterans, given their various commitments all over the world, into that side is going to be a challenge for coach Mark Boucher.

And now the pieces are starting to fall into place.

Many people were taken by surprise when CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith, totally unprompted, announced his support for Indian cricket chief Sourav Ganguly to become the new ICC chairman. It was an opinion which was backed by CSA chief executive Jacques Faul.

It was a development that certainly took CSA president Chris Nenzani by surprise, wherever he has been hiding out from the justice that surely deserves to be meted out to him for all but destroying our cricket. He has been silent about all the important matters that have been going on in the game in 2020, such as the efforts to rebuild South African cricket, all the disciplinary hearings that are going on, the resignations of board directors and even the Covid-19 crisis.

But Nenzani poked his head above the parapet to put Smith and Faul right, talking about things like “due process” when it comes to Board matters. What he was really saying was “Graeme and Jacques, you look after the onfield matters and leave the politics to me”.

The reason Nenzani suddenly saw fit to do something presidential was, of course, that he has designs on being the next ICC chairman himself. Which is an absolutely laughable proposition because the rest of the world knows how thoroughly self-serving and incompetent he has been in running the South African game.

It would seem, however, that Smith and Faul have a better grasp of global cricket politics than Nenzani does. In fact I am certain of this because I remember Nenzani telling the media in December 2017 in Port Elizabeth that they would force India to release players for the T20 Global League by refusing South African players permission to play in the IPL!

And now this week we have the news that the ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia in October/November, is likely to be postponed.

That would allow India to fill that gap with the IPL, which is massively important for them as the richest event in world cricket. India, largely on the back of the success of the IPL, bring in around 65% of global cricket revenue and are also the most lucrative team to host because of the massive broadcast rights fees their national team demands. That is why other countries are quite understandably eager to keep in India’s good books.

India are scheduled to make a full tour of Australia from October which is critical for the finances of the game Down Under. But they will need to abide by Australian government public health protocols which are likely to include lengthy quarantine periods and lockdowns, which will not be very pleasant for them.

And that is why Cricket Australia, who stand to make A$300 million from the tour, are falling over backwards to appease India. As a reward for the BCCI agreeing to tour, Australia look set to accept the postponement of the ICC T20 World Cup (it wasn’t even on the summer schedule they announced this week) thereby creating a window for the IPL to be held.

From a South African viewpoint, it seems that Smith and Faul, who travelled to India before Lockdown for very constructive meetings with Ganguly and the BCCI, are in on the game and have said they would be comfortable with the ICC T20 World Cup being shifted to February/March next year. And they have also publicly backed Ganguly.

The pay-off for South African cricket is that India seem committed to coming here at the end of August for three T20s that could add some $50 million to CSA’s depleted coffers.

The importance of India as a global roleplayer in cricket should not be underestimated and the vitriol they are often subjected to is also unwarranted. The fact is they bring the most money into the game because Indians love cricket more than any other nation, and so they should have one of the loudest voices in the ICC boardroom.

The key, of course, is for them to use that power responsibly, and Smith and Faul certainly seem assured that Ganguly, who started India’s blossoming as a global power as captain back in 2000, understands what is best for the modern game as a whole.