Ken Borland

Pool A of the Momentum One-Day Cup in Potchefstroom effectively ended after just two matches, the rest being washed out, and the Imperial Lions will know the importance of their opening two games on Friday and Sunday with the currently good weather in the North-West set to turn next week.

The Lions play the Cape Cobras on Friday and then the Warriors on Sunday, and will be looking to follow the same route through to the semi-finals as the Dolphins did. The KwaZulu-Natalians won their first two matches against the Titans and Knights in convincing fashion and then sat back knowing they were safe as the rest of the fixtures could not be played due to regular showers and the outfield not being fit for play.

“It was a bit disappointing not to see a lot of cricket being played because of the weather, and hopefully the good weather now will hold out. Every game is important, bad weather or not, but it’s very important we hit the ground, up-and-running, from the start, we need a good performance from Game 1. We were fortunate we could play a couple of warm-up games at the Wanderers and we’re happy with the prep and where we are,” Lions captain Aaron Phangiso said on Thursday.

Pedigree alone suggests the Lions should join the defending champion Dolphins and Knights in the semi-finals. Phangiso’s men beat the Dolphins in their last round-robin fixture of last season’s Momentum One-Day Cup to finish second on the log. But the Natalians were awarded the trophy when the knockout rounds were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, because they finished first in the standings, two points ahead of the Lions.

“We had a good season, we beat the Dolphins in our last match, but that is last season. But then again there has not been much cricket played lately, so we will take some confidence from that and our warm-up games. Potchefstroom is a second home for us, we know the conditions well, even though the pitch played completely different to what we are used to for Pool A.

“But we just have to adjust. The pitch is normally true and the ball comes through, but now the slower bowlers will definitely play a big role. We do have that in our attack with Bjorn Fortuin, myself and Malusi Siboto, we can all deliver in those conditions. Plus Sisanda Magala played for the Warriors before so he is used to those conditions and has given us one or two tips.

“Sisanda is going to be a big weapon for us in terms of tactics. The conditions would seem to favour the coastal teams because they play more often on slower pitches than us, but it’s just a matter of us adjusting and having better tactics. We have good enough players to deliver, and we have all played big cricket so we are experienced enough,” Phangiso said.

Lions squad: Reeza Hendricks, Dominic Hendricks, Ryan Rickelton, Kagiso Rapulana, Wesley Marshall, Delano Potgieter, Bjorn Fortuin, Sisanda Magala, Malusi Siboto, Eldred Hawken, Aaron Phangiso (cpt), Nicky van den Bergh, Johannes Diseko, Mitchell van Buuren, Tladi Bokako, Nono Pongolo.

Kagiso Rabada is still not going to be there so the Proteas know the consistency of their inexperienced bowling attack is going to be their main area of focus in the second Test against Sri Lanka which starts at the Wanderers on Sunday.

Proteas management confirmed on Saturday that although they were happy with Rabada’s progress after recovering from a groin strain, they are still working on getting his bowling workloads up and they do not want to risk him with tough series against Pakistan and Australia still to come this summer.

It means South Africa will almost certainly go into the second Test with the same attack that played at Centurion and featured their least capped pace quartet since 1993. Given their rawness, it was not surprising that they struggled on the first day, getting carried away with the pace and bounce of the SuperSport Park pitch, struggling with their lines and not sticking to a full enough length. But they improved steadily and their bowling on the final day was spot-on.

“We have a very inexperienced bowling attack with KG not there to lead. Maybe they were trying too hard, they were nervous, and when the batsmen are scoring so quickly, it’s difficult to step back and take your time – that’s where the inexperience comes in. But from the second innings you could see the mindshift. In our language we also tried to give them more confidence.

“It’s all about the character they showed in that second innings. They bowled different lines and lengths and just tried to keep things as simple as possible. It was great to see them stand up and I can tell you that in the two days of practice we’ve had since then, it was some of the best bowling I’ve seen in the nets. The bowling has shown a massive improvement from that second innings,” senior player Dean Elgar said on Saturday.

The Proteas produced a top-class batting performance at Centurion, but Elgar acknowledged that it was against a depleted Sri Lankan attack and Sunday will bring a fresh start at the Wanderers.

“We scored more than 600 and you can’t take that hard work for granted, it was a good effort, but we have to be mindful that their bowling attack was hit by quite a few injuries. Still, we’ll take a lot of confidence from that performance and it was nice that a lot of batsmen got good starts. Scoring more than 600 has been a bit foreign to us of late, but we’ve put a stake in the ground now.

“We’ve been batting well domestically but it was great to do it at international level. A guy like Aiden Markram, who has been away from the team, brought his form of domestic cricket and proved that he’s not just a batsman who can score runs at domestic level, he can do it at this level too. And then it was very important that Faf du Plessis and I put in big performances as leaders and it was lovely to see Kesh Maharaj get runs too,” Elgar said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt is realistic enough to know that medical reasons could force him to make numerous changes to his team from week-to-week, but for now he is delighted to name just one change to his starting line-up – especially when that is the return of Sbu Nkosi – for their SuperRugby Unlocked match against the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday.

Nkosi, part of the Springboks 2019 World Cup winning squad, replaces 2007 World Cup winner JP Pietersen on the right wing, having recovered from the sternum injury that has kept him out of the season thus far.

“You never know when Covid is going to strike someone down, so you have to prepare for it and have a good squad. We’ve been fortunate to have a clean slate for six weeks. It’s not inevitable that someone will get it, but there’s a good chance. You accept it could be the case, you be proactive and prepare in advance. And it helps that our juniors have now finished their U21 competition.

“So we have not made too many changes, but it is notable that Sbu is back, he will bring a lot of energy and the experience he gained at the World Cup. We’re very excited to have another World Cup winning Springbok in the team, he comes with lots of credentials and experience, he’s good under the high ball, dangerous on attack, has good feet and can beat the opposition one-on-one,” Everitt said in announcing his team on Thursday.

Three changes on the bench – the return from injury of hooker Kerron van Vuuren and flank Henco Venter, as well as wing Yaw Penxe’s first call-up – would also appear to strengthen the Sharks and Everitt said he has not had to massage their confidence much after the beating they took on their last visit to Loftus Versfeld, a month ago for SuperFan Saturday, when the Bulls beat them 49-28.

“We’re going with a totally different mindset. We took a squad of 30 that day and we wanted to look at combinations and youngsters who had shown progress to measure where they were. But it’s back to business now, we have a settled squad and a much more experienced team, with lessons learnt on that SuperFan day.

“It will certainly be a different ball game, getting one’s rhythm back sometimes takes time and we were unfortunate that after SuperFan Saturday we had a bye with the Green and Gold game, we played the Lions and then we had another bye. It did not help our continuity, but we are smiling because it meant players came back from injury,” Everitt said.

Sharks team: Manie Libbok, Sbu Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am (c), Marius Louw, Werner Kok, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Sikumbuzo Notshe, Phendulani Buthelezi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Thomas du Toit, Dylan Richardson, Ox Nche. Replacements – Kerron van Vuuren, Mzamo Majola, John-Hubert Meyer, JJ van der Mescht, Henco Venter, Grant Williams, Jeremy Ward, Yaw Penxe.

One of the key features to come out of the discussions around racism in cricket has been the acknowledgement that it has to be okay for stakeholders who feel discriminated against or marginalised to speak out. Without that freedom, the status quo merely continues and we won’t know that the system is broken until there is something akin to an explosion of anger.

And there are certainly a lot of angry people in the cricket community at the moment, many with good reason because the leadership of the game has failed them so thoroughly. Many people are thoroughly disgruntled by how mediocre the returns have been after millions of rand have been spent on transformation over more than 20 years.

It is not okay, however, for people to spread division, blatant lies or push agendas designed to further the interests of only a select few. Unfortunately many of those divisive voices have been given prominence in the last few weeks.

The troubles in South African cricket seem to have given birth to an extreme version of Africanism that threatens to shut everyone else out of the game.

We now have a situation where White members of CSA management, specifically acting CEO Jacques Faul, director of cricket Graeme Smith and head coach Mark Boucher, are being pilloried, not for anything they have or have not done, but simply because they are White. No matter how often they express their support for BLM or for transformation, some people simply cannot get past their skin colour.

The corollary of this is the perception that Black Africans should not be held accountable for their actions. Suddenly suspended CEO Thabang Moroe, who left the game in such crisis last December that Faul and Smith had to be parachuted in, is the darling of certain sections of the media, who are pushing for his return. The irony that they are supporting someone who nine months ago took away the accreditation of journalists who were critical of him is totally lost on them. Are they are in favour of media freedom or do they support someone who has also looked to destroy the players’ trade union – the South African Cricketers Association?

Convicted matchfixers Thami Tsolekile and Ethy Mbhalati have also been given platforms that are far too exalted for the manner in which they betrayed the game. Tsolekile in particular spouted forth on a well-known radio talk show – with very little counter-interrogation – on how the whole matchfixing investigation of the 2015 T20 competition targeted Black players. He and his host conveniently failed to mention that the entire process was presided over by Bernard Ngoepe, one of the country’s most respected judges. Are they saying he is racist? Sounds like the typical protestations of the criminally guilty to me.

Equally appallingly, Tsolekile accused and named two White players of being involved in matchfixing without a shred of evidence. Their rights have been trampled on and I expect them to go to the courts to protect their names. CSA have subsequently released a statement saying the one player was one of their star witnesses because he immediately reported a corrupt approach and the other was just a name bandied about by arch-conspirator Gulam Bodi in order to get other people involved. They were both thoroughly investigated, by the ICC as well, and totally exonerated.

Even the legendary Makhaya Ntini seems to have been allowed to get away with a one-sided narrative. I’m sure in the early years of his international career there were days when he felt isolated and alone. But he has been unfair in his criticism of Cricket South Africa.

If it weren’t for Ali Bacher personally getting involved and organising proper legal representation for him, Ntini would have spent several years languishing in jail after being incorrectly found guilty of rape, and Proteas manager and team doctor Mohammed Moosajee has revealed the felicitations the great fast bowler received from CSA at the end of his career.

“What Makhaya said I think surprised every one of us because he was a beacon for every youngster. He was in the team with me for the last 8 years of his career and I never noticed him sitting alone. Many players ran from the ground back to the hotel. Many times when we went out to dinner, we would stick to our own, but there were also many other times when we would join the other guys.

“Even when his contract ended, he was paid an extra year of salary which had never happened before, and he was given a special benefit game at Moses Mabhida Stadium. He played his last game for South Africa in January 2011 and his CSA contract continued through to the next April and then he received another year after that,” Moosajee told an Ahmed Kathrada Foundation webinar on racism in cricket recently.

“I did not see him on his own, he always had other players around him, but we need to unpack the way he felt, we need like a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for cricket. I’m sure he felt isolated when he first came into the team because he was in the minority, international sport is very difficult and you feel nervous about where you fit in. It was probably the same for Hashim Amla, but once the colour of the team and the administration changed then a lot of that went away,” Moosajee added.

Doc Moosajee, who has been a great servant of the game, went on to slam those for whom power in cricket is like an aphrodisiac.

“It’s important to remember that a number of communities contributed to the struggle but unfortunately some selfish administrators are looking to create divisions now. We need to move away from the idea that you need to be Black African to have a role in transformation; all communities, including Whites, have a role. Driving only an Africanist agenda has become divisive.

“We can’t continue to pay lip-service to transformation after 26 years, we need tangible action. In terms of Affirmative Action, the question we need to ask is whether the policies have benefited us or promoted racism? There is no doubt it has become polarised. Grassroots is where the issue is and there’s no doubt that has not been addressed. The numbers game has created challenges,” Moosajee said.