Ken Borland

A trio of exciting talents topped the leaderboard after the second round of the African Bank Championship at Glendower Golf Club on Thursday, with Jayden Schaper, Danie van Tonder and Martin Rohwer all tied on seven-under-par as the second event in the Rise Up Series heads into the final round on Friday.

Jaco Ahlers is obviously also very much in contention after he fired the round of the day, a four-under-par 68, to climb into fourth place on six-under, just one stroke behind. And the experience and skills of Darren Fichardt (-5), the winner last week at Killarney, Neil Schietekat (-5), Jake Roos (-4) and George Coetzee (-4) also cannot be discounted.

The combination of a top-class course with slick winter greens and the vagaries of a blustery wind made for a particularly tough test in Edenvale on Thursday, and overnight leader Rohwer could only follow up his brilliant 65 on the first day with a level-par 72. That allowed Van Tonder and Schaper, who both shot two-under 70s, to catch him.

“It got tough out there with the wind blowing at about 30km/h and the greens are slick too. You’ve got to pick your lines carefully and not always go for the flags otherwise you open yourself up for three-putts. It’s about hitting fairways and greens, you’ve got to stick with your selection of club, hit it as hard as you can and just hope it goes on. With the gusts you’ve got to time it correctly,” Van Tonder said after roaring out of the blocks with four birdies on the front nine but then coming home in 38.

Rohwer regained the lead with an eagle at the par-five 15^th, but then three-putted the last to slip back to seven-under. Nevertheless, the 27-year-old from Kloof Country Club was pleased with a day of solid ball-striking.

“I was really solid today from tee-to-green, I felt like I had control of the ball all through the round, but I just struggled on the greens. That three-putt on the last leaves a sour taste, but to be level-par with the conditions we were playing in, that’s not too bad. You were just not sure what the wind was doing so it was difficult to hit your numbers,” Rohwer said.

The winner of the Royal Swazi Open last year says he is up to the challenge posed by both the conditions and the likes of playing partner Van Tonder, who was on the charge early on in the second round.

“Sometimes you just have to play more conservatively, but there is still a fair share of opportunity out there. The wind is mostly across though and, with where the pins are located, it’s difficult to get close. It’s supposed to be windy again tomorrow, but I look forward to a third round in a row with Danie. I knew I was playing well today so I wasn’t too concerned about falling behind,” Rohwer said.

The 19-year-old Schaper showed enormous maturity as he held his round together after an up-and-down start in which he had two bogeys, a birdie and an eagle in the first five holes, before dropping successive shots around the turn.

“There was a lot more wind today, so it was a bit tougher, and the pins were all tucked in on the front nine, so I didn’t make a good start. I only hit three fairways in my first 12 holes and made a couple of three-putts, so I really put myself under pressure. But the back nine is much more accessible, I pulled myself together and finished well,” Schaper said.

But the hulking figure of Ahlers, who has won nine times on the Sunshine Tour, looms large, especially with the way he simply overpowered the par-fives on Thursday, collecting eagles on both the eighth and 15^th holes, and birdieing the 13^th.

Cricket South Africa was plunged into monumental chaos on Monday as acting chief executive Jacques Faul resigned with immediate effect, hot on the heels of long-term president Chris Nenzani standing down.

The departure of Nenzani, who has been the longest-ever serving president, having been elected for the first time in 2013 and extending his term twice through constitutional amendments, was confirmed by CSA in a statement released on Monday morning.

But, according to CSA sources, Faul also tendered his immediate resignation on Monday. He had announced at the end of last month that he would step down from his role as acting CEO on September 15, his initial appointment from December 2019 to June having been extended on a month-to-month basis.

It is believed the CSA Board has stripped Faul of his powers, which is why he has decided to leave the embattled organisation immediately.

Faul was thrust into the role of acting CEO after Thabang Moroe was suspended nine months ago, triggering a forensic audit and a disciplinary process which to this day has still not been finalised, even though the Board have been sitting with the report for weeks.

Last December, CSA were facing deficits of close to a billion rand, fighting the players’ association in court, had alienated major sponsors and cancelled the accreditation of five journalists who had been critical of Moroe and the organisation. And the Proteas were seemingly in freefall just before the arrival of the England team.

Since then, Faul has ensured there have been no retrenchments through the Covid-19 pandemic and mended relationships with the players’ association, sponsors and media. The appointment of Graeme Smith as Director of Cricket and then Mark Boucher as Proteas head coach saw the team rally somewhat, beating a powerful Australian side 3-0 in an ODI series at the end of the summer.

It is believed company secretary Welsh Gwaza, a strong supporter of Moroe, will now be the acting CEO.

Gwaza is emerging as a powerful new figure within the organisation and he is also the current acting president until the CSA Members Council elect a temporary replacement for Nenzani, who stepped down just three weeks before the AGM to elect a new president on September 5.

CSA gave no reasons for Nenzani’s resignation, but an insider told The Citizen that they were told Nenzani had resigned “because of the cloud over CSA, too much is pointing back to the organisation and he wants to help clear the path for a new leader”.

Another insider pointed to the increasing influence of independent director and chairperson of the Transformation Committee, Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, who “is now running the whole show”.

A new power struggle is emerging with long-time Nenzani and Moroe supporters Beresford Williams, the current vice-president, and controversial Eastern Province Cricket Union head Donovan May believed to be mounting campaigns to succeed Nenzani.

KwaZulu-Natal president Ben Dladla, who has helped rebuild a strong Dolphins franchise, is also rumoured to be in the running, although he has not been a member of the CSA Board. Northerns Cricket Union president Tebogo Siko, a Board member since last September, is also perhaps in contention.

But in the shadowy world of secret CSA meetings and internal politics, credible leadership has been in short supply.

South African cricket was plunged into more uncertainty on Wednesday with the news that Cricket South Africa acting chief executive Jacques Faul will stand down on September 15.

The beleaguered organisation was already facing losses of close to a billion rand before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, it has still to make any meaningful progress on the charges laid against former CEO Thabang Moroe after a forensic audit – the contents of which are long overdue – and it is trying to douse the flames of allegations of past racism and criticism that their transformation programmes are a failure.

Faul was appointed by the CSA Board last December following Moroe’s suspension, the second time he has filled in as acting CEO, having stood in for Gerald Majola in 2012/13 after the bonus scandal. Since then he has mended the dysfunctional relationships CSA had with the players’ union and sponsors, ensured there has been no cost-cutting or retrenchments since the pandemic struck South Africa, and got high-profile figures like Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt back involved with the Proteas as the national team looks to rebound from a dismal 2019.

Faul’s initial contract ran through until June, but the CSA Board hired him for an additional three months.

While Faul said he could not comment on his resignation, a CSA Executive told The Citizen on Wednesday that the Doctor of Economic Management Science had e-mailed the Board to say that he will be standing down on September 15 and that he would inform CSA staff on Thursday.

A source close to Faul said the acting CEO was discouraged by the uncooperative relationship he had with some CSA Exco and Board members in trying to secure the financial future of the organisation and ensure that the Proteas remained competitive on the global stage.

Faul will not be lost to cricket, however, and will go back to his previous full-time position as chief executive of the Titans franchise and the Northerns Cricket Union.

Lungi Ngidi is not just simply a fitter bowler these days, but a more skilful and canny one as well, and he said on Monday that he will go into the new season with confidence based on how he ended the 2019/20 campaign.

Having burst on to the scene in 2017, Ngidi has endured some frustrating injuries over the last couple of years. He has played just two Tests in the last two years and was only able to play four World Cup matches last year before breaking down again. But the 24-year-old came storming back in limited-overs cricket this year, taking 12 wickets in four ODIs and 13 wickets in six T20 Internationals, winning both the 50-over and 20-over Cricketer of the Year honours at the CSA Awards at the weekend.

“I put a lot of hard work in and I felt I had a point to prove. In ODI cricket I really backed myself and in white-ball cricket I was used as an impact player, trying to take wickets or defend runs, just be versatile and able to bowl in any situation. That has given me a lot of confidence. I know some guys are quicker than me, so I look to produce other skills at certain stages of the game.

“But I was very disappointed not to play more Test cricket and I definitely want to get back into that team. I believe I’ve improved my skills and the mental side of the game. I’m always striving to do well in all three formats, so doing well in Test cricket again is definitely a personal goal of mine. You have to be much more patient in Test cricket though,” Ngidi said in a teleconference on Monday.

While the towering, well-built Durbanite has always been an impressive physical specimen, there have been times when Ngidi has not exactly been a finely-honed athlete, which has also made him more injury-prone and more of a risk for five-day cricket. But he spent much of the second half of 2019 getting into peak physical shape and is certain that his conditioning will now stay at that level, the enforced Covid-19 break helping him to solidify that work over the last three months.

“I just need to continue the work we started last year, it’s about being consistent in training and eating healthily, it’s nothing extraordinary. Going forward, I feel like I’m now in a better position to do well in Test cricket. I feel now that with the conditioning block I’ve done, injury is something that’s now right at the back of the mind, it’s no longer a big deal. If I do happen to get injured again then so be it, I’ll just have to come back again,” Ngidi said.

In the meantime, Ngidi admits that it has been difficult to get his head around some of the protocols required for the return to training.

“It’s been different and difficult. You have to book sessions, train in small groups of no more than five and the bowlers have their own net and balls, gyms have to be sanitized before and after use. It feels weird as a team sport to be doing everything by yourself. We’re being tested regularly, temperatures taken, hand sanitizers everywhere and we have to fill out forms. It’s a whole process before you even bowl a ball but very necessary.”