Ken Borland

Kagiso Rabada and Quinton de Kock, who have dominated the CSA Men’s Cricketer of the Year award in recent years, have both missed out on being nominated for any of the major honours for the last season as the list of nominees for the CSA Awards was announced on Monday.

Fast bowler Rabada, named the Cricketer of the Year in both 2016 and 2018, played just two Tests and two ODIs in the last season and took five wickets at an average of 39.40 in the longer format and two wickets in 50-over cricket. In two T20s, he claimed just one wicket.

2017 and 2020 Cricketer of the Year De Kock, who endured a torrid time with the captaincy, scored just 74 runs in six Test innings, while he only played two ODIs and three T20s last season.

The fact that it was a deeply troubled season for the Proteas is reflected in the fact that the four nominees for the award – Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Anrich Nortje and Rassie van der Dussen – have all never won the main prize before.

Markram (Test & T20), Nortje (Test & ODI) and Van der Dussen (ODI & T20) have all been nominated for two of the other main awards, while Bavuma is on the shortlist for Test Cricketer of the Year, having averaged 50.40 last season.

Markram was the second-highest run-scorer in the four Tests the Proteas played, scoring 36 less than Dean Elgar and averaging 56, while Nortje took twice as many wickets as anyone else – 20 in four matches at an average of 24.85.

Van der Dussen only played two ODIs, but was the leading run-scorer with 183, including a brilliant unbeaten 123 against Pakistan. The three-match series against Pakistan was the only ODI action South Africa saw last season, with their series against England being cancelled due to Covid.

The Proteas Women had a season they could be proud of, however, and fast bowler Shabnim Ismail and batters Lizelle Lee, Sune Luus and Laura Wolvaardt will battle it out for the Women’s Cricketer of the Year title.

The last season was a disrupted one due to Covid-19, but in the coming year the Proteas management are going to be much more answerable for results, starting with the tour to the West Indies next month, CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith said on Thursday.

Head coach Mark Boucher has been coming under fire for the Proteas record of losing five of their eight Tests and winning just four of their 16 T20 internationals since he was appointed in December 2019. South Africa’s ODI record in that time is decent, however, with five victories against three losses.

Boucher made no secret of the fact that the Test team needed a lot of work when he took over, with the retirements of half-a-dozen world-class performers in recent years, and he has often had to field weakened teams in white-ball cricket.

“We’re heading into a crucial period for both players and management. Previously we were just trying to get as much cricket played as possible and we used more than 30 players. We have lost a number of key players and then the cancellation of domestic four-day cricket in December didn’t help the team either. So it was a bit of an exploratory period.

“Mark Boucher was able to identify players going forward and I think this period now is crucial in terms of results. We need to get our best team playing together, we have two Tests and five T20s from the beginning of June in the West Indies and then the white-ball squad goes directly to Ireland. There’s a small break in August and then we have T20 series in Sri Lanka and India and then the T20 World Cup,” Smith said.

The former Proteas captain also praised the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for their handling of the Covid crisis that has led to the suspension of the IPL. Smith said all the South African players he had spoken to had enjoyed their Indian ‘adventure’ and felt safe in their bio-bubble.

Smith mentioned that India will play three Tests, three T20s and three ODIs in South Africa next summer and the good working relationship between CSA and the IPL has certainly played a part in that tour coming to fruition.

“The BCCI has been exemplary in getting our players out of India, although it has been easier with us because our borders have not been closed and commercial flights are still available. Some of our players are already back here, but by Friday all of our IPL guys will be out. The players say they felt safe and it was a really good experience, they were happy with the duty of care the BCCI showed.

“With the unpredictable nature of Covid, a bio-secure bubble is never fool-proof and if the virus is raging in your country then there is always a risk. Once it gets inside then it becomes very difficult. CSA has run 15 BSBs and not enough has been made of our success. We need to give credit to our doctors and compliance officers, they have shown how successful our bubbles are,” Smith said.

The country’s top golfers are going to Killarney Country Club on Wednesday morning to restart the professional game with the Betway Championship, and Danie van Tonder, given the way he finished last season, is going to be one of the favourites to claim the Sunshine Tour’s first title after the Covid-19 Lockdown.

Van Tonder finished in the top-10 five times in January and February, lifting him to second place in the final order of merit. With winner JC Ritchie not playing this week, the 29-year-old from Boksburg is looking to maintain that sort of consistency. But he is going to have to rein in his usual aggressive play a little to succeed on a course like Killarney which requires more strategy than power.

“I had three months off which gave me time to work on things, try and fix some things to make me more consistent. When you’re playing week-after-week, you can’t really change things and it takes like 21 days to teach your body something new. But we start over again now, I’ve lost some weight and I’m stronger, so I’m really looking forward to getting out there again.

“Killarney has lots of doglegs, water hazards and ditches, so it might not be a long course, but it is difficult. You’ve got to get your lay-ups right and pitch-and-putt very well. I’m normally very attacking, but you can’t be too aggressive going over the trees, and there are so many of them. Plus the greens are firm, so if you’re pitching from the rough you’re going to be in trouble,” Van Tonder told The Citizen on Tuesday.

For Sunshine Tour stalwart Jaco Ahlers it will be business as usual though, as the 37-year-old veteran of 268 tournaments looks to build on one of his most successful seasons ever, finishing third on the order of merit for 2019/20.

“I’m really looking forward to playing competitive golf again after the longest layoff in my career. We’ve had time to get ready and the game is pretty decent. It was in a good space when we stopped playing and I’ve just worked on a little swing feeling. But I’m very surprised how good the game feels, I don’t feel I’ve lost a lot. But it’s just the mentality of competitive golf that has to come back.

“It’s a different mindset to the little money games you have at home, you need to get those tournament golf feelings back and sometimes it comes quickly and sometimes it doesn’t. And Killarney is always a really good, demanding layout on which you’ve got to place the ball in certain positions to have a shot in. You’ve really got to think your way around and you can’t just bomb Driver,” Ahlers said.

The Titans bowling attack might have been figuratively armed with water pistols for most of last season, but Dayyaan Galiem and his swing bowling was the exception as the all-rounder brought an exciting new dimension to the team in his first season after moving from the Cape.

Galiem was their leading four-day wicket-taker last season with 21 scalps, while he also took 11 Momentum One-Day Cup wickets, second only to spinner Imraan Manack. Add in 310 four-day runs at an average of 25.83 with two half-centuries and the 23-year-old was a worthy recipient of the Titans’ First-Class Player of the Season, Newcomer, and Player of the Year awards on Thursday night.

“I was very surprised to be given the new ball and to become one of the leaders of the attack, but I loved the challenge. I prefer the new ball because it moves around a bit more, although there is pressure that comes with that. I learnt how to control the ball better and the more confidence you have, the more you can show your skill. I do regard myself as a swing bowler, but I would also like to improve my pace.

“I was working on getting more energy on the ball and trying to get it to swing later, and I found that once I got my speed up and hit the deck hard then I was getting late swing, which makes it more challenging for the batsmen. When you’re not confident and not sure where the ball is going, then you tend to just stick to one thing, but the more situations I’m in, the more I learn and the better I can deal with them,” Galiem told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

Nobody can be sure who first coined the phrase that partnerships win matches, but in terms of his batting, Galiem is not satisfied to have merely contributed to some crucial lower-order stands and next season he wants to go big.

“Batting was more of a challenge, just adapting to the level of cricket because I played just the one four-day game for the Cobras before coming to the Titans. I had a lot of starts, some good partnerships, a couple of big ones. But I would like to kick on and get hundreds, going into next season I want to improve my batting a lot and score big hundreds.

“I’m happy with how my first season went, but I was not satisfied with my batting and I know I can do better. I want to be more consistent with the bat and score bigger runs. I was really happy with my bowling but I also want to have more consistency of intensity with the ball, bowl better spells and trouble the batsmen for longer periods,” Galiem said.

It is hard to believe that the youngster who arrived at Centurion as a highly-rated all-rounder but with little franchise experience behind him, is now the collector of three Titans awards including the biggest of the lot. But Galiem clearly has the talent and belief to make sure his move to the Titans continues to be a huge success.

“When I came into the side I was a bit worried about performing, I had the pressure of coming from a different province and wanting to do well. I felt I had a lot to prove, but the guys were very welcoming, they made it a lot easier and I felt part of the team immediately, so big thanks to them. Obviously it was still nervewracking though and hopefully I will just get better and better now.

“I feel like my game has improved a lot. But when I arrived I just hoped for an opportunity. I believed in myself and I learnt patience from playing three-day cricket. I was very nervous at the start and I felt nervous every game. But I just tried to keep things simple, do the basics for a long period of time and it worked out. Cricket seems so complicated but the team that does the simple things best usually comes out on top,” Galiem said.