Ken Borland

The first week of the Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings have been a mere aperitif for what I sense many people are hoping are more sensational revelations from next week when former players start appearing before Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, the ombudsman appointed by Cricket South Africa.

But in many ways, this week’s “scene-setters”, as Ntsebeza has called them, have provided vital testimony because they have given a factual account of the transformation policies of CSA and how they have changed through the years. There have been successes, but there have been failures as well and surely no-one can question that the national team is not as transformed as it should be nearly 30 years after Unity.

The SJN commission did not have a promising start though. The first witness was Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, which was fair enough because the SJN was largely her idea. But the former CSA independent director produced a couple of hours of largely incoherent testimony riddled with factual errors. As a former Board member, how does she not know that the players’ association (SACA) don’t pay the players’ salaries?!

She then thought it would be appropriate to give Ntsebeza a cricket bat, signed by her, to commemorate the occasion. The ombudsman looked bemused and it was telling that he never mentioned Kula-Ameyaw’s presentation again during the week.

It was onwards and upwards from there though as Advocate Norman Arendse, former CSA president and current independent director, and Max Jordaan, CSA’s head of transformation, spoke of the steps taken to ensure equal opportunities for all before cricket was captured and the likes of Kula-Ameyaw took the reins.

Mary-Anne Dove, a doctor of sports and exercise science whose thesis was on the role of socio-ecological factors in talent development in sport, gave insights into how targets or quotas have to be accompanied by development and other interventions, and Zola Thamae, a former Board member and manager of the Proteas women’s team, gave shocking evidence of how the women’s national team was treated a decade ago.

Professor Richard Calland, an expert on sustainable governance and organisational culture, gave an interesting presentation too.

It is clear that CSA have made a meal of transformation, but it does not matter how many Black player quotas or targets they have, the failure of the Proteas to be truly representative of the country is firstly down to socio-economic issues.

Jordaan, who has been at CSA for 20 years, apart from the disingenuous comment that “nobody is missing out on selection because we are juggling numbers”, made the salient points that when the Proteas won the ICC mace for being top of the Test pile, targets were in place, and that transformation has to start at the many non-former-Model C and private schools and at clubs, but CSA runs into difficulties when they try and improve facilities in these areas due to recalcitrant city councils and the lack of support from the department of education.

Jordaan gave the example of a cricket facility in Welkom being taken over by the local council, who built a casino instead on the land, and buildings in townships “disappearing brick-by-brick”.

Instead of just congratulating themselves for having ticked the box of having a certain number of Black players in the Proteas and domestic teams (which is not a valid measure of transformation success because teams are forced to meet the racial targets), cricket needs to firstly make sure the pipeline at grassroots is working.

I believe CSA have actually done okay in this regard and have worked very hard to keep the pipeline flowing. But there is no doubt Black players still predominantly come from the former Model C and private schools – a much smaller pool.

This is due to structural, systemic problems that only national and local government can fix, especially with the currently constrained financial resources of CSA.

The frustration of Black African cricketers was evident in the presentations of Johannesburg coach David Mashiyi and former player Zonde Mbekeni.

The fact that Mbekeni feels as frustrated and angry about the lack of opportunities for Black Africans as he did in his playing days back in the 1970s is not okay.

But in many ways it boils down to a struggle for scant resources and opportunities.

Springbok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach says his move to playing in the French Top 14 has made him more alive to opportunities that present themselves on the field, which means his partnership with incisive flyhalf Handre Pollard against Georgia on Friday could be an exciting one.

Reinach left the Sharks in 2017 and played three seasons with Northampton before joining Montpellier last year. Pollard’s serious knee injury means they have not played together much as a halfback combination, but they have been training together.

“Playing overseas opens your eyes a bit, it takes you completely out of your comfort zone, which makes you grow as a player. The Top 14 is a bit different to the English Premiership, which is more structured, you’re playing to shapes and maps.

“But in the Top 14 you need to be more instinctive and therefore you are more alert, so you are able to deal with what happens in front of you. Cheslin Kolbe is such a good example of that with Toulouse. He can do anything, he’s able to create magic out of nothing,” Reinach said on Tuesday.

Since the now 31-year-old Reinach graduated from Grey College, he has been dealt an interesting deck of cards in his rugby career. After one year in Free State’s youth structures, he joined the Sharks Academy in 2009 and made his debut in the Vodacom Cup in 2011. He was in the Currie Cup squad before the end of that year, helping the Sharks win that trophy in 2013. From 2014 to 2017 he was pretty much the Sharks’ first-choice scrumhalf.

Injuries to Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar saw Reinach make his Springbok debut in September 2014. He was involved in the build-up to the 2015 World Cup but then was a surprise omission from the final squad, the uncapped Rudy Paige being preferred.

From then until the 2019 World Cup, Reinach was in the international wilderness. But then he enjoyed the elation of not only winning the biggest cup of them all in Japan, but he also broke a World Cup record with a hat-trick in 11 minutes against Canada.

And now he is in line to play against the British and Irish Lions.

“It’s an unbelievable story that I can tell my kids for the rest of my life, but it’s not time now to think about that, there’s rugby to be played and I’m just trying to improve as a player. It’s great that so many of us from the World Cup squad are still together so it’s not hard to make sure we’re all on the same page. Now we just have to go out and show what we’ve learnt,” Reinach said.

The return of fiery fast bowler Shannon Gabriel to the West Indies squad suggests the home side’s response to their thrashing in the first Test at St Lucia will be less of a dignified one and more ferocious in nature when the second Test begins at the same venue on Friday, and Proteas captain Dean Elgar said he is expecting nothing less.

South Africa’s only selection issue is whether batsman Temba Bavuma has recovered from his hip problem, in which case he will come in for Kyle Verreynne.

While their dismal batting was the West Indies’ biggest problem, and they have recalled the experienced Darren Bravo to try help, their bowling attack can certainly do with the venom of Gabriel, who took 13 wickets at Gros Islet against Sri Lanka in June 2018, the best ever figures at the ground.

“I know how a team tends to bounce back at home and we definitely expect that from the West Indies. We’re definitely not taking anything for granted and the West Indies will be coming back with a plan. We have one win in the bag so far, but we can’t stop now, we want another win and to make it 2-0 would be great. Just one win has already taken us so far, so imagine what two will do?” Elgar said on Thursday.

South Africa have themselves always relied on their pace bowlers to spearhead their efforts and, with tropical showers around the island of St Lucia this week, Elgar believes the Proteas attack could once again be their trumpcard.

“The bowlers led the pack in the first Test, the words clinical and ruthless spring to mind, and the pitch looks similar to that one. There’s also been a bit of rain around, so maybe the wicket will be a bit softer and it seems to have the same grass cover. That means in the third and fourth innings there could be indentations and when our big fast bowlers hit those, that’s when the ball reacts from an up-and-down point of view.

“We have a well-spoken-about plan, but we have one of the best spinners in world cricket too, Keshav Maharaj plus three fast bowlers and an all-rounder, that’s my idea of the old South African way. It was great to see them stick to the plan so well in the first Test, when maybe we’ve been searching a bit lately. We’re happy to have the same sort of pitch again and if any bowling unit is going to get something out of it, it would be ours,” Elgar said.

There was arguably more relief for Quinton de Kock’s many supporters than for the batsman himself after his superb unbeaten century on the second day of the first Test against the West Indies at St Lucia on Friday, but there is no denying the last year has been very tough for the Proteas wicketkeeper/batsman.

For one of the more instinctive, laid-back talents in South African cricket, a person whose off-field pursuits are largely geared around the great outdoors, bio-bubbles are not easy for De Kock and over and above that he also had to deal with the captaincy of a struggling side. Having taken a break in the latter half of the summer and now relieved of the captaincy, De Kock blossomed on Friday with a brilliantly judged innings of 141 not out that put the Proteas in firm control of the first Test with a massive first-innings lead of 225.

“It didn’t really have anything to do with the captaincy,” De Kock said of his recent struggles, “it’s just the Covid bubbles. We’ve had so many and they just took their toll. It was too much and I just needed a break. Cricket South Africa deemed it a mental break, but I wasn’t tired of cricket, I was tired of the bubbles.

“I went from the IPL into the Pakistan bubble and that was particularly difficult, just going from the ground to one floor of the hotel and our rooms that had no balconies. Previously I wasn’t able to capitalise on my starts in Test cricket and then in the last while I haven’t even been getting starts, so it was nice to get the hundred today,” De Kock explained after his career-best Test innings.

De Kock has always been one of the classiest strokeplayers in the game, but on Friday he showed the appreciation of the game situation and the ability to adapt to it that is a mark of all the top batsmen. After a rapid start that saw him race to 22 off 24 balls, a much better second hour by the West Indian bowlers on a pitch that was still offering plenty of assistance to the quicks, saw De Kock adopt a much more cautious approach and he went to lunch on 44 off 88 deliveries.

The left-hander shared a couple of very useful partnerships with Rassie van der Dussen and Wiaan Mulder, but a fightback by the home side saw the Proteas slip to 233 for eight. But batting with the tail is a skill that De Kock has mastered, despite all the people who want him batting higher up the order, and he showed a cool, razor-sharp mind as he added 79 for the ninth wicket with Anrich Nortje, who scored just seven of those runs.

“It was a nice start to the day and then the bowlers brought it back really well. I understood the situation though and there was a lot in the pitch. We just needed to soak up the pressure for as long as we could and then capitalise. Credit also to the other guys who chipped in. It was a difficult pitch, even though it was not as up-and-down as it was with the new ball in the second innings.

“Even after 75 overs the ball was swinging a lot, but you’ve just go to find a way of dealing with it. There was obviously still a lot in that pitch on the second day, but it was a fair contest because if you worked hard as a batsman you could get runs and the bowlers always had a chance too,” De Kock said.