Ken Borland

Any minute now Cricket South Africa are set to announce their winter tours with director of cricket Graeme Smith saying on Monday morning that he was hoping for a “very busy” year of international action. But he also called on the International Cricket Council (ICC) to show more leadership to ensure teams outside of the Big Three continue to have decent fixtures lined up.

While Australia pulling out of the Test tour scheduled for next month clearly still hurts CSA, Pakistan will help fill the void by coming over for a white-ball series in April, and CSA are expected to announce tours to the West Indies and Sri Lanka over our winter, as well as a series in India before the T20 World Cup in October/November.

“Our relationship with Cricket Australia is definitely now strained and the ICC needs strong leadership because Covid is just amplifying the Haves and the Have-Nots. The FTP [Future Tours Programme] is going to be hugely challenging with eight ICC events in the next eight years, an extended IPL and the calendar being dominated by England, Australia and India [the Big Three]. That just amplifies the stress on us and the other countries looking for good content.

“Fortunately there has been the opportunity to manoeuvre a bit in the FTP and add some tours. This Pakistan tour coming up was meant to happen last October and we were meant to go to the West Indies last year, there’s also a Sri Lanka tour, India before the World Cup and they’re also meant to be coming here at the end of the year. But it takes time to finalise these – it’s a bit of a bun fight because every nation is trying to fill gaps,” Smith said on Monday.

“So I think the men’s team is going to be very busy. But the game as a whole needs leadership right now because I don’t think we want to see only three teams competing at the top in 10 years time. Their leagues are just getting bigger and bigger and the rest will be left with no content. Covid has really fast-tracked this issue and I think the ICC has been caught a bit off-guard,” the former Proteas captain added.

Because of the uncertain global stage at the moment, Smith announced a new drive by CSA to uplift the domestic game. The T20 Challenge will start on Friday and is being played in a bio-bubble in Durban, with all the Proteas being obliged to play. The conclusion of the four-day competition will then happen in March and Smith is hopeful the national team players will also feature in that.

“Because Australia are no longer coming in March, we’ve decided it is important to invest in our domestic competitions and we are making all the national players available. Those guys coming from Pakistan will go straight into the bubble in Durban. We’re also trying to make sure the four-day competition will be televised and there will be national player involved too.

“South African cricket needs to come first and it is open season now in terms of national contracts. There have been some good performances by the Proteas, but there are a lot of places up for grabs and we want to see a lot of competition and people performing domestically. The goal is to see all our players stepping up because it is now contracting season. Everyone in the Proteas has been really positive and they want to play,” Smith said.

The mental well-being of players will need to be carefully managed though especially as some of the Proteas were already showing signs of bubble fatigue in Pakistan.

“It is a challenging space being in these bubbles, but some of the Proteas have only played seven games the whole season so the workload issues are not there. Being in Pakistan, with security around you all the time, may have caused some additional stress, but all the players were extremely happy with how they were looked after by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

“We are trying our best to manage the mental health of the players, there is a psychologist involved and SACA [the players’ union] are also helping. For the IPL the players will have to spend two months in a bubble and I don’t see our four-day competition happening in a bubble. We want to do as much as we can for the local competitions and we want to see players putting their hands up there,” Smith said.

Kagiso Rabada and Aiden Markram were team-mates when South Africa won the U19 World Cup in 2014 and the fast bowler’s career took off immediately as he made his international debut for the Proteas nine months later in a T20 in Australia and has maintained a stratospheric altitude ever since. Markram has looked like a jet fighter pilot at home, but in Asia he has scratched around like the person who cleans the rubbish bins at the airport.

But there was joy for them both in Karachi on Thursday on the third day of the first Test against Pakistan as Rabada claimed his 200^th Test wicket and Markram made his first half-century on the subcontinent.

Rabada (27-7-70-3) was the shining light in a bowling attack that travelled far and wide on the third morning as Pakistan’s tail thrashed 70 runs in 12.2 overs to stretch their lead to a commanding 158. He is the eighth South African to reach the landmark, and in terms of balls bowled (8154) he is the third fastest overall, behind only Pakistani Waqar Younis (7730) and compatriot Dale Steyn (7848).

Markram then showed great composure and shot-selection as he scored a five-hour 74; with Rassie van der Dussen (64) they erased the deficit with a courageous second-wicket stand of 129. But the day ended as badly for South Africa as it had begun, with Pakistan claiming three wickets for 12 runs to reduce them to 187 for four at stumps, a lead of just 29 with both set batsmen out.

“We definitely believe the match is still winnable. If anything the pitch is going to deteriorate more and the variable bounce will play more of a role. Wickets can fall in clusters on the subcontinent, but we will be tested first in our batting tomorrow [Friday], but we are up for the challenge,” Rabada said.

“Personally, it’s a massive feat to be included in a list of such names as Waqar and Dale, when you start playing you never think of such stats, you just try to be the best you can. There’s no magic answer as to why I’ve been so consistent, it’s just hard work and spending a lot of time on my craft. It’s not easy, you’re trying for perfection and it takes constant repetition and hours of work, just trying to be relentless in seeing how much better you can get.”

While Rabada’s wicket-taking graph has just climbed steadily upwards, Markram’s career has been interspersed with troughs. His 74 on Thursday was his eighth half-century in 23 Tests, while he has also scored four centuries, for a tidy average of 39.51. But in Asia he had scored just 97 runs in nine innings before Thursday’s defiant effort.

“Aiden played an extremely important innings and his partnership with Rassie got us back in the game. He’s a magnificent player and he really applied himself well. He’s been working hard on his game and he really wants to be here. We have been through some of the same challenges and I’m glad he got runs today, he gave us a real chance,” Rabada said of his former U19 captain.

It is certainly part of Proteas coach Mark Boucher’s mandate to ensure a steady flow of youngsters come through and perform at international level, but his No.1 priority is for South Africa to have a winning cricket team, hence his decision to stick with veteran former captain Faf du Plessis, a move which was thoroughly justified in the first Test against Sri Lanka.

The 36-year-old Du Plessis scored a magnificent, career-best 199, an innings which began under pressure with South Africa slipping from 200 for two when he came to the crease, to 220 for four. Thanks to the class and skill of Du Plessis, and the help of the lower-middle order, the Proteas were able to post 621, setting up an innings win that seemed most unlikely when Sri Lanka scored 396 batting first. It was the third highest first innings total South Africa have conceded in a Test they have gone on to win.

There is no doubt a rebuilding Proteas team thoroughly enjoy having the cool, calm wisdom of Du Plessis still around. Not least of all the new captain, Quinton de Kock.

“It’s important to have senior guys with experience. People always talk about youngsters coming through but you need a balance. Faf really showed his experience, you need that under pressure, he showed his leadership and how to handle the pressure because he’s been through those situations many times before,” De Kock said after the first Test.

“It helps me too to have good leaders in the team and although I’ve never captained a team before in first-class cricket, I have stood next to Faf for most of my Test career so I very much knew what the captaincy was about.”

Boucher, who has taken a lot of flak in the last year for sticking with his former captain, described the presence of Du Plessis as being like “gold dust”.

“I know what Faf is worth, I understand what he has done for South Africa. He’s a great player who went through a bit of a dip in form but his place was never under pressure for me. You need experience and he showed that in this game. He did very good work over the Covid Lockdown period on his technique and he looks very comfortable at the crease now.

“He really wanted to score big runs and he is gold dust to us. It’s nice to have him in such good form and good spirits. We’re going to need him in the big series coming up,” Boucher said after the Centurion triumph.

After the Test series loss to England at the start of 2020, I wrote a column [https://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-columnists/2236293/dont-savage-faf-yet-he-had-a-lot-of-external-issues-to-deal-with/] asking where Du Plessis fitted in in the future red-ball plans of the Proteas. I said the only question I would ask Faf before selecting him for the team would be “Are you still enjoying your cricket?”

The sheer hunger Du Plessis has shown in getting as fit as he has ever been over Lockdown and continuing to work on improving his game are all the proof one needs to know that South Africa’s ninth highest Test run-getter is still loving the sport.

“The Lockdown really helped, mentally it allowed me to freshen up, but I also knew I could control how fit I was. People say I’m at the end of my career but it depends on how good your body is, how fit you are is much more important than your age. So I really pushed myself, I may be 36 but I feel fitter than ever before, I’m moving better now than when I was 23/24. Now the younger guys must stay with me.

“I’ve definitely scored hundreds against better attacks and in hotter conditions and match situations, so this innings was not close to some of those. But from a timing and statement point of view it showed those who doubt my ability that nothing has changed and I am still trying to improve,” Du Plessis said after his 199.

The last part of that sentence – “I am still trying to improve” – is the clincher: the still-hungry Du Plessis should be part of the Test team for the foreseeable future and the often wonky South African batting line-up will definitely reap the benefits of having the man for all situations there.

Victor Matfield, South Africa’s most-capped international ever with 127 appearances, has supported SA Rugby’s decision to withdraw the Springboks from the Rugby Championship, explaining why it would amount to gross negligence to throw the players into battle in Australia with so little game-time under their belts.

The maximum amount of game-time any locally-based Springbok has enjoyed for the last six months is 240 minutes, way off the 400-500 minutes the medical specialists have said is safe before playing Test rugby. And the lack of match fitness is exacerbated by the fact that the players are coming off a six-month hard Lockdown, which for much of the time meant being restricted to being at home.

“It’s a difficult one because we all would have loved to see the defending champions take part, but it’s all about player welfare and there are so many unanswered questions about that and what will happen when they get to Australia. Plus it’s not as if they’re just going over there for one game. Our guys have never been in the situation before where they’re out of action for six months.

“It’s normal for players to get injured and maybe miss a few games, and even at the end of the season you probably only have one month out and then you go into pre-season. But six months without playing rugby is massive, especially when a team like New Zealand has been playing for practically the whole time. It would be really unfair on our players to throw them into that,” Matfield told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

While there has been speculation over whether SA Rugby will be able to organise some Test action for the Springboks before the British and Irish Lions arrive in June 2021, Matfield said playing in Europe and having plenty of time for training camps will let new national coach Jacques Nienaber prepare the team properly.

“It’s going to be interesting to see if they do organise some warm-up Tests, but if our local players are all involved in a proper Pro16 then they should be ready. The Springbok team for the Lions tour will be mostly made up of the World Cup squad – probably 80% of that. So they all know how they want to play and what Jacques wants them to do.

“I’m sure Jacques will also hold a few warm-up camps, so I’m sure the Springboks will be ready. They’ll have lots of rugby under their belts and they understand what the coach wants,” Matfield said.