Ken Borland

For Duanne Olivier, Monday’s first day of the second Test against India felt like “a new debut” and he gave credit to his fellow pacemen for their efforts in helping to turn a slow start into ultimately a successful opening day for the Proteas as they bowled the tourists out for just 202.

Olivier missed the first Test as he built himself back to peak conditioning following a bout of Covid, but on Monday he was back sharing the new ball with Kagiso Rabada, playing Test cricket for the first time since February 2019, when he took a Kolpak contract in England.

But things did not go well in the first hour for either Olivier, whose first four erratic overs went for 18 runs, or South Africa, as India reached 36/0.

But the drinks break helped the Proteas focus their effort and thereafter they squeezed India and claimed 10 wickets in 49 overs. Olivier and Rabada took three wickets each and young Marco Jansen claimed the other four; Lungi Ngidi bowled as well as any of them but ended with 0/26 in 11 overs.

“It felt like a new debut for me and I was very nervous,” Olivier admitted. “But we just wanted to try and have good energies and put pressure on the batsmen. Lungi and Marco did a superb job to create that pressure.

“And then the whole unit did it. It was a good day for the bowling unit as a whole. We would have taken 202 all out any day. The message from the coach was to stick to the basics and our processes and then reap the rewards.

“Lungi bowled exceptionally well but did not get the rewards, it was just one of those days for him. I am still trying to bowl fuller at good pace, but a couple of balls were too floaty. I will try to do better in the second innings,” Olivier said.

The Proteas batsmen then reached 35/1 at stumps and Olivier is optimistic they can cash in on the second day.

“If we want to be hyper-critical then we probably gave India 20-30 too many runs. The pitch is a bit different to how it is in domestic cricket, there’s not as much grass. It is harder and it will speed up.

“It was very hot today and it will start deteriorating in the second innings and then it might spin. We are 1-0 down, that is the reality, and of course we want to win the series.

“But as a team we can’t look too far ahead, otherwise our focus is not where it needs to be and you can get distracted. Tomorrow is a new day and we will break our processes down into smaller bits,” Olivier said.

Ex South African Airways CEO and former Vodacom executive Vuyani Jarana has reportedly turned down an offer to be Cricket South Africa’s new chief executive.

Interviews for the permanent chief executive post, that is currently temporarily filled by Pholetsi Moseki, were held two months ago, and it is believed CSA settled on Jarana, a high-powered candidate who has a track record of turning organisations around, as their preferred candidate.

But Jarana has apparently since declined CSA’s offer, sources close to the CSA Board have told The Citizen. The reasons for his withdrawal from contention are not known, but there has been speculation that someone with such a distinguished record in the private sector comes with a price tag that the financially-constrained organisation would not be able to meet.

There has been no official comment from CSA, but Andisa Ntsubane, chairman of the board’s HR committee, told The Citizen on Tuesday that the “search process is still ongoing to find the most ideal candidate to take CSA forward”.

With a new board in place since June and some stability returning to the running of the sport in this country, the appointment of a full-time CEO is one of the last pieces of the puzzle needing to be put in place.

But this delay means CSA will scramble into the new year still searching for their operational leader. The Citizen’s sources have indicated that CSA will restart the whole process of appointing a permanent CEO.

Moseki is well-liked within CSA circles and has done a fine job behind the scenes. But it is believed the Board are trying to find a ‘bigger’ name, a strong character and leader, a captain of industry who will stand up to the directors.

Given how Jarana was willing to lock horns with both government and his own board in trying to turn SAA around before his resignation in May 2019, it is not surprising CSA were going to approach the 51-year-old.

Travel from South Africa may be blacklisted now by many Western nations due to the discovery of a new Covid variant, but the Netherlands cricket team made it clear on Saturday that their decision to postpone their series against the Proteas had nothing to do with safety concerns but was all about the uncertainty created by the travel bans that have been instituted.

Cricket South Africa and the Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond released a statement on Saturday afternoon saying they had agreed to ‘defer’ the remainder of the ODI series. That means the matches at Centurion on Sunday and the Wanderers on Wednesday will no longer take place. The first ODI at SuperSport Park was washed out two overs into the Netherlands’ pursuit of the Proteas’ target of 278.

“We have been taken care of by Cricket South Africa in a magnificent way, they have done everything to make us feel safe,” Netherlands manager Steven van Dijk told The Citizen on Saturday.

“So it’s not that we feel unsafe at all, the bubble has been executed perfectly. The only insecurity we have felt is not being able to fly home.

“So we have not been able to end the series because there is so much uncertainty. Some guys need to fly to New Zealand, others to England, which is a problem, the Netherlands too, people had to sit for hours at the airport.

“The players are getting phone calls from home, worried messages, some of them have young kids at home or pregnant partners. So we are looking at all the options for flights – two people getting tickets here, another three there,” Van Dijk said.

Worries about how welcome the players will be upon their return to Europe are also weighing on the minds of the squad. Van Dijk said there was also no clarity over what will await the team on the other end of their flight.

“The conditions of entry change by the hour. The people on Friday’s flight to Schiphol had to wait seven hours to be tested and if they were negative they were allowed to leave the airport and go home for a 10-day quarantine.

“If they were positive then they had to quarantine in a hotel. Of the 600 people on that plane, 61 tested positive. But at the moment we are all just guessing what will happen when we land.

“We were booked to fly on December 2 but we are not sure if we can leave earlier. That’s probably the worst-case scenario and the guys who urgently need to get home, like those with pregnant partners, we are trying to get home sooner,” Van Dijk said.

Last summer it was England and Australia controversially pulling out of tours to South Africa due to their Covid fears and now the current international season could be ripped apart as well as the Netherlands tour and the vital Indian visit are hanging in the balance following reports that local scientists had detected a new variant of the virus in Gauteng and neighbouring countries.

The UK government started the panic when they put South Africa on the travel red list overnight, with the European Union expected to follow suit soon. This is despite scientists assuring that the new variant almost certainly does not come from South Africa, they have just been the first to identify it.

More than half-a-dozen of the Netherlands players are based in the UK, meaning they will have problems returning home after their three-match ODI series against the Proteas ends on Wednesday.

CSA issued a statement on Friday afternoon, while the Netherlands innings in the first ODI had been interrupted by rain at Centurion, saying it was highly unlikely that the tourists will be able to leave before the end of the weekend.

Given that they would have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel if they do not return home as soon as possible, it is understandable that the Dutch team wanted to head off on Friday. But they will now probably only be able to leave on December 2, due to the lack of flights available in the hysteria. It is believed their federation is willing to cover the costs of quarantine.

That means the third ODI, scheduled for December 1, could still go ahead and the series can be completed, unless some other flight option is discovered by the KNCB.

While CSA and the Proteas will be disappointed to not complete the series, they – and especially their meagre coffers – would be devastated if the India tour set to start on December 17 does not go ahead.

India are set to fly to South Africa on December 8, but reports from India suggest the BCCI is waiting for their government to make a decision regarding travel to South Africa.

India A are currently in Bloemfontein playing the first of a three-match series of four-day games and CSA sources have told Saturday Citizen they have expressed no concern about staying in the country.

At the Joburg Open golf tournament at Randpark, co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour (formerly known as the European Tour), thunderstorms caused delays on Friday, but 20 European-based golfers, out of the field of 156, withdrew before the second round began, trying to scramble their way home before the travel deadline.