Ken Borland

Northerns Titans CEO Jacques Faul likes to spring a surprise on the opposition and, on face value, the franchise’s decision to sign Beyers Swanepoel for the coming season will be a shock to some, given the controversial fashion in which the all-rounder’s stint down the road at the Central Gauteng Lions ended.

The final match of last season was the One-Day Cup final between the two Gauteng archrivals and a tightly-contested thriller went the Titans’ way, thanks mostly to the heroics of Keegan Petersen and Duan Jansen.

But Swanepoel’s bizarre decision to leave the field of play in the 43^rd over of the Titans chase, having bowled his ration of 10 overs, also played a major part in the visitors to the Wanderers shifting the momentum of the game. Because Swanepoel had not suffered any injury, the Lions were not allowed to substitute him and were left with 10 fielders for the tense finale’, which they lost by three wickets on the penultimate ball of the match.

Swanepoel had chosen to leave early so he could catch a flight to England, where he was due to join Worcestershire for the county season. Astonishingly, he also did not have a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from his local franchise or Cricket South Africa to play overseas, an incredible oversight by his agents, Tridon Sports Management.

His team-mates were left in a strange state of heartbreak and fury after the game and it did not take long, less than two weeks later, for the Lions to terminate his contract. That did, however, make Swanepoel a free agent and CSA agreed to give him an NOC to play for Worcestershire. The mother body did, however, lay a Level 4 charge of bringing the game into disrepute against him.

That can carry a ban of 10 matches, which would be a sizeable part of next season. The CSA disciplinary hearing has still not been held, however, due to the unavailability of the disciplinary commissioner.

That means there is still a lot of uncertainty over Swanepoel: Not only in terms of his mental state but how much of next season he is going to be missing due to a ban. For Faul and the Titans, however, it is not an outside-the-box signing and the CEO confirmed that he did not even need Board approval to offer the talented 28-year-old a contract.

“Professional sport is cut-throat and we have to sign people who can help us to win. Our information was that four franchises wanted to sign him. He’s 28 years old, so he probably has seven years left as a top cricketer, and he has no track record of this sort of behaviour before,” Faul told kenborland.com.

“I think he just got the date of his flight wrong and to not allow him to play here would be a severe punishment. Everyone’s entitled to one mistake, he has apologised and he has been sanctioned by the Lions.

“He is still a very capable player and it would be wrong to scapegoat a quality cricketer like him. We had to sign him before the CSA disciplinary because the contracting window was closing. But hopefully emotions have died down a bit and he’s not painted into a corner.

“He thought no-one else would want him, but I hope he can redeem himself, I think he will. To be remembered for that one incident would be the saddest thing. And he is the right profile cricketer for us – at this stage he doesn’t play for SA A or the Proteas. And he was schooled here in Titans territory at Garsfontein,” Faul said.

It is believed that the Lions players and coaches did not want to lose a cricketer of Swanepoel’s ability and were willing to forgive him, but the Lions board were adamant that he had to go.

The whole incident will be even more galling for the Wanderers-based team now that Swanepoel has gone across the Hennops River to their great rivals, the same team that snatched the one-day trophy from them after his inexplicable departure. A swing bowler who can be quite phenomenal on his day, both with the red and the white ball, Swanepoel is also a very handy batsman down the order, capable of scoring very quickly.

Our domestic cricket would be the loser without Swanepoel playing and hopefully CSA can sort out his disciplinary hearing soon and therefore finally draw a line under a most unfortunate incident.

SUN CITY – Werner Deyzel holds a one-stroke lead after the second round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City on Thursday and the Sunshine Tour rookie said he really likes the Gary Player Country Club course – but only when he hits the ball well off the tee.

Deyzel shot a one-under-par 71 on Thursday to go to five-under-par overall, which was enough to claim the lead going into Friday’s final round as the wind picked up around the Pilanesberg.

The 24-year-old graduated from the Blue Label Development Tour this year and on both of the first two days he has had to feel his way into his round. On the first day, he was three-over after his first two holes, making bogey on the first and then a double on the par-five second. Deyzel then played some remarkable golf to post a 68, which left him one stroke behind leader Martin Rohwer.

On Thursday, he began his round on the 10^th and dropped shots on the par-four 11^th and on the par-three 12^th hole. He then birdied the 13^th but bogeyed the 15^th, before consecutive birdies at 16 and 17 were followed by another drop on the 18^th.

Deyzel seemingly had had his fill of this rollercoaster golf as he started the front nine, birdieing the first, second and sixth holes, with just one bogey coming home, on the par-four third.

“If I hit a good tee-shot then I like the course,” Deyzel joked. “But if you don’t hit a good drive, then this course will really punish you. But the Gary Player Country Club is stunning and I definitely enjoy playing here. I don’t know why I’ve started badly both days, but then it’s just been about keeping my head down and coming out the other end.

“I hit the ball very well and my putter was very hot. Most of my bogeys came from poor tee-shots that weren’t in play, and some of those holes I actually scrambled well to make bogey. But if I can be more consistent off the tee, then the way my irons are, and with my putting, I just need to hit the greens and I can make a really low score in the final round,” Deyzel said.

Playing in just his third Sunshine Tour event, Deyzel has the lead going into the final round, albeit a small one. But he doesn’t believe he needs to approach things any differently than he did when excelling on the Blue Label Development Tour.

“I’m extremely happy with how things went last week at Irene [he finished tied-25^th in the KitKat Cash & Carry Pro-Am] and this tournament has been good too. Hopefully tomorrow I can produce another good round, but I will approach it the same as every round. I just have to stick to my game-plan and not get ahead of myself. And I will try to enjoy it,” Deyzel said.

Jonathan Broomhead produced inspired golf on the front nine, with an eagle on the par-five second and two birdies leading him to a 69, which left him tied for second on four-under-par with Lyle Rowe (72).

Rohwer was among six golfers tied for fourth on three-under-par, as he came home in 40 to post a 74.

Tristin Galant also eagled the second and produced some special golf in his 67 to go to three-under, while Yurav Premlall and Jaco Ahlers both fired 68s. Neil Schietekat (69) and Luke Brown (70) are the other golfers tied for fourth.

No real Proteas fan likes it when they lose and it gets even more frustrating when it seems like the obvious best available XI is not out on the field, but what’s even more infuriating is when people rage against the coach with all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories about personal grudges and the like.

The latest thing that Mark Boucher has done to enrage the critics – most of whom seem to reside in the Cape – is to not choose Kyle Verreynne, Western Province’s exciting wicketkeeper/batsman, for the T20 starting XI against Pakistan.

The cricketing reason behind that decision – which is not just made by Boucher on his own but in consultation with three other selectors – is that South Africa have decided to follow the example set by the high-flying English team and play a much more aggressive brand of T20 cricket.

So of the batsmen in the squad for the Pakistan series, Verreynne has the lowest strike-rate in terms of his T20 career – 123.18 – which is why he was chosen as back-up wicketkeeper to captain Heinrich Klaasen. The only other batsman with a career strike-rate below what is now considered the benchmark of 130 is Aiden Markram on 126.76. Which is why he was not originally chosen, but only played because of injuries to Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen. And Markram has since been scoring at a rate of 180.64 in the series, looking a batsman transformed.

Hopefully these facts will act as a plunger to unblock the pipes of the current commentary around the team, the discourse being clogged up by execrable suggestions that Boucher is somehow anti Cape Cobras players and is deliberately favouring those from the Titans, the team he coached up until December 2019.

Verreynne has not been chosen because there are better options to bring the sort of long-handled hitting the Proteas require in the middle-order, it’s as simple as that. No, it has nothing to do with some grudge Boucher is alleged to have against Cobras coach Ashwell Prince, as one particularly obsequious Cape Town hack suggested this week.

It seems the fact that the Cobras last won a trophy in 2014/15 and have not beaten the Titans in any format since April 2019 has made some people ugly.

While I would personally give Verreynne a go in place of Pite van Biljon, given how well he batted in the last ODI, there is another change that needs to be made if the current Proteas XI is to meet its full potential.

The race targets in place for the national side were meant to help the development pipeline, but instead they seem to have tarred Andile Phehlukwayo with the disgraceful tag of being a quota player. He is way too good a cricketer for that to be acceptable, but when he bats seven and does not bowl, one can see why the whispers emerge.

Phehlukwayo is a talented all-rounder who began to find some form with the bat in the ODI series, while also being a stalwart of the white-ball attack. What is he doing in the team now though if he is not bowling? This is when selection starts to become a box-ticking, target-pleasing exercise.

And it’s not Boucher nor the selectors who should take the blame for this. Knowing the Cricket South Africa Members Council, they are way more likely to fire people over missed targets than actual results on the field of play, so one can’t blame the Proteas for sticking to those quotas even when it doesn’t make cricketing sense.

So when Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, the ombudsman of the new Social Justice and Nation-Building Commission, said last week that he would like to see CSA hold a transformation conference in July to discuss some of his findings, I immediately thought that would be a good time for the whole targets/quotas issue to be discussed.

And it is not the White former beneficiaries of Apartheid who should be involved in that conversation, but the Black players and coaches who have to deal with targets now that should plot the way forward.

*All stats from before the last T20 International on Friday evening.

The country’s wing stocks look very exciting at the moment what with Aphiwe Dyantyi’s heroics in Green and Gold and the likes of Makazole Mapimpi and Sbu Nkosi just waiting to recover from their injuries before exploding on to the international stage once again. But there is another hugely talented winger coming through in Aphelele Fassi, who just happens to be a team-mate of Nkosi and Mapimpi at the Sharks.

The 20-year-old Fassi has burst on to the scene in this year’s Currie Cup and he says the key to his breakthrough has been learning from more experienced players like Nkosi, Lwazi Mvovo and Mapimpi, all of whom are Springboks.

“It’s been a great year for me and the one thing I keep telling myself is that I need to learn more. The likes of Sbu have been there at the highest level and playing with guys like him, Lwazi and Makazole, they have guided me as seniors. It’s all about learning and I’m here now because of that.

“So I plan to learn even more and the coaching staff have given me all the support I need, they back me and I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given. As a player you intend to improve every time you run on the field and the Currie Cup is no different to the SuperSport Rugby Challenge in terms of speed and physicality, so I’ve set my game there, I’ve reached those levels,” Fassi said.

Perhaps the key to the great industry Fassi has shown out on the wing is that he actually prefers playing at fullback and he also excelled at flyhalf for his school, Dale College in King William’s Town.

“I prefer fullback more, but it’s about where the coach needs you. And obviously coming out of high school rugby, it’s not the same speed and physicality. So I’m working on my tackles, taking the high balls and my long clearance kicks,” Fassi, who also captained Dale at cricket and was a good enough all-rounder to earn junior provincial colours for Border, said.

Saturday’s game against the Golden Lions at Kings Park will provide another good measure of just how exciting a future Fassi has in rugby though, as he comes up against a stellar backline featuring the experienced Courtnall Skosan, Howard Mnisi, Lionel Mapoe and Andries Coetzee.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/sa-rugby-sport/2011792/exciting-future-ahead-for-sharks-fassi/