Ken Borland

Travelling to the inner city of Johannesburg to play at Ellis Park has never been easy for any visiting team, whether international or domestic, and Bulls coach Jake White was certainly not shocked when his team were upset 34-33 by the Lions in their Rainbow Cup match there at the weekend.

While the Lions were winless and at the bottom of the log, they had been extremely competitive and could easily have won a couple of games already before they hosted the Bulls. It was a potential banana peel and White was wary, with good cause as the Lions rode a superb scrummaging display and the Bulls’ own mistakes to inflict the first loss on the Currie Cup champions since March 26.

“The Lions are always difficult to play against and they had a really good scrum today. It’s not something we can’t fix and we’re learning as coaches as well, what resources we have. But you don’t know how they are going to react under pressure unless they are put in those situations. When you’re winning, you take the good; now we have to take this knock on the chin and learn from it.

“Playing under pressure is the only way you learn how to handle it and we were able to see certain players under pressure today. A lot of our youngsters were under that pressure for the first time and some of the decision-making was a bit wrong. Full credit to the Lions, but it’s not as if we need to reassess everything, this is an opportunity for the team to grow,” White said.

The Bulls actually played well to take a 33-20 lead but then fell asleep and made a host of costly errors.

“We were leading 33-20 with 15 minutes left but then shot ourselves in the foot by things like dropping kick-offs and not finding touch, and then there were the scrums as well. If you can’t get your set-piece right then every penalty just puts you under more pressure. I have to stress how small the margins are in this competition and you can’t afford to drop your guard.

“Although the Lions played really well, we probably lost the game because at 33-20 we did enough to win it. We scored five tries so our attack was not too bad and Nollis Marais has worked really hard on our breakdown work, which has become a point of difference for us. You don’t have to say much about Johan Grobbelaar, Duane Vermeulen and Marco van Staden, but a lot of other guys are also making the right decisions at the rucks,” White said.

The players of Australia, England and India are probably the fat cats of the cricketing world, given the riches of their respective boards and the hefty contracts they enjoy. While I have no problem with top international sportsmen being handsomely paid, it would be nice now and then to see them display some perspective and gratitude for living the dream.

The Indian Premier League of course offers the biggest payday of them all, which is why player power has ensured no major international cricket is staged during that tournament. Again, that is the economics of the game and I don’t mind that.

But the players should just be honest about the fact that the IPL is their biggest priority and, as the players of Australia and England have shown, the riches on offer there are often more important to them than any ethical considerations or obligations to grow the game as a whole.

The self-same Australian and England players who turned their noses up at playing in South Africa and possibly coming into contact with the Covid-19 pandemic that was recording about 3000 cases a day in December and 1000 in March were happy to go to India for the IPL when cases were already at more than 80 000 a day. It was a staggering display of hypocrisy and double standards.

And it got worse because as soon as the IPL itself was put under threat, it was the Australian players who began bleating about the government having an obligation to organise special flights out of India for them and change the law that applied to everyone else that the borders were closed for people who had recently been to India.

It’s ironic, but these are people who have been living in a bubble since way before Covid-19 arrived. They live in their own mollycoddled world where everything is taken care of for them, they are treated as demi-gods and too many of them seem totally out of touch with the common person. It’s why things like Sandpapergate happened because pampered stars like Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are out of touch with reality.

It was absolutely infuriating the way the Australian players dumped the South African tour at the last moment as soon as it meant they might have some difficulties getting to India thereafter for the IPL, which was always going to be a much harder bubble to manage than the one here.

Likewise the English players, who used a couple of positive tests outside of their squad to hightail it home, doing great damage to Cricket South Africa’s reputation and coffers.

No wonder cricket fans around the world get so angry when talk of the Big Three dictating the game comes up.

The bad vibrations of karma will no doubt follow these selfish cricketers and it was hard to feel any sympathy for the Aussie players who were stuck in India for a while; they did after all land up slumming it in the Maldives. Even the England players have now shown their true colours and they have not only been criticised by former captains like Mike Atherton and Michael Vaughan for what they did in South Africa, but their own England and Wales Cricket Board CEO Tom Harrison, who has been very helpful to CSA, now knows what they are like when it comes to negotiating new contracts.

To end on a positive note though: Cricket South Africa, chief medical officer Dr Shuaib Manjra and his doctors, and the compliance officers, all deserve enormous credit for how well-run our bubbles were last summer. There were only negligible issues and they have proven how safe it will be for any touring teams to come here.

Johnny Grave is the CEO of Cricket West Indies so it is perhaps fitting that Cricket South Africa will on Thursday confirm that their tour to the Caribbean starting next month has been resurrected. And now that the threats to suspend the Proteas from international cricket have died down, a full tour by India at the end of the year is also likely to be announced soon.

South Africa were originally scheduled to tour the West Indies in July and August last year, but that trip was flushed down the toilet by the Covid-19 pandemic. Now the Proteas are set to return to the Caribbean for the first time since 2010 and will play two Tests and five T20s, all on the tropical island of Trinidad.

CSA Director of Cricket Graeme Smith is holding a media “engagement” on Thursday in which he will provide an update on upcoming international tours. The fixtures for the Caribbean trip will surely be a part of that.

But what Smith probably won’t mention is how well talks have been going with India and specifically the BCCI president Saurav Ganguly. There is certainly a rapport between the two former international captains and releasing all the Proteas involved in the IPL from the last ODI and the T20 series against Pakistan now seems to have been an excellent decision because India look set to undertake a full tour of South Africa next summer.

Starting in December, India will play Tests, ODIs and T20s against the Proteas, which will not only provide a welcome boost to CSA’s finances but also provide massive entertainment.

South Africa are also scheduled to tour India for a T20 series in September as part of the T20 World Cup preparations, but there has been speculation that the currently suspended IPL could be moved into that window. Whether that happens or not will be an excellent test of how strong the relationship between Smith and Ganguly is.

The Proteas’ other confirmed fixtures are three ODIs and three T20s in Ireland in July as part of the World Cup Super League.

Sisanda Magala says he is proud of himself for the perseverance he has shown and is enjoying his journey as a professional cricketer now turned international, but warned what he has shown so far in a Proteas shirt is not the best he can do.

Magala showed glimpses of his superb death-bowling skill in the four T20s against Pakistan, but ended with just three wickets and conceded 9.85 runs-per-over. Some of his overs went seriously off the rails, including when he twice bowled back-to-back no-balls during the series, but he showed impressive ability during the 15^th and 17^th overs and the first four balls of the penultimate over in the fourth T20; the 14^th, 18^th and last overs in the second T20 and his second over in the first T20.

The softly-spoken 30-year-old said nerves were a major factor in his performance.

“I’ve been through lots of obstacles before and I just tried to block out all the noise and control what I could control. But my emotions were really up-and-down and on that day I made my debut, I just didn’t know how to react. Normally when you get told you’re playing it’s a bit of a surprise, but the coach told me 24 hours before. During the game I just told myself to never forget that I’ve wanted to play at the top level since I was young.

“It’s my greatest achievement even though I did not perform the way I wanted. But the intensity at international level is very harsh, it’s make-or-break, and I definitely made mistakes. But I’ve enjoyed the journey and to play for my country was reward for all my hard work and because I did not give up regardless. I stayed true to myself and kept persevering,” Magala told Saturday Citizen on Thursday night when he was named the Imperial Lions’ player of the season.

Magala, who was the leading wicket-taker in the domestic T20 tournament which the Lions won, said he struggled to fulfil the different roles he was given in the Proteas attack.

“I definitely learnt to trust my skills more, some things are out of your hands, sometimes you can’t control getting punished by the batsman. It’s a mental challenge as much as anything out on the field and it’s very important to develop a strong mind. The way I bowled my first couple of overs doesn’t really compare to how I bowl at the death.

“At the death I know what to do. Normally at domestic level you have time to get into your spell. But the great thing about the experience is that I can see where I am as a player.”

As one of the most skilful, heavy-ball bowling players in the country, there’s little doubt Magala will be better for his experience in the T20 series. The man who left his comfort zone in the Eastern Cape and fought his way through fitness issues, will surely be seen in the Green and Gold again.