Ken Borland

Since making his debut last November, George Linde has played in 14 of South Africa’s 18 T20 Internationals and done rather well, so his omission on Thursday from the Proteas’ squad for the T20 World Cup starting in October in the United Arab Emirates came as a shock.

Linde has taken 15 wickets in those games, at an average of 22.66 and a very tidy economy rate of 7.08 runs-per-over. Although he has not yet been able to really do justice to his talent with the bat, he has a strike-rate of 130.

The two left-arm spinners named in the squad are Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin.

Maharaj has yet to make his T20 International debut, although his performances in ODIs suggest this is overdue. Over the same period since Linde’s debut, Fortuin has played just six T20s.

Convenor of selectors Victor Mpitsang on Thursday struggled to explain the selection tangle, which makes it look like the wrong horse has been backed for the last 10 months.

“George is one of our all-rounders, he has done well with the ball but we have decided to go with our senior all-rounders [23-year-old Wiaan Mulder and 32-year-old Dwaine Pretorius, both seamers] and in terms of a left-arm spinner, Bjorn. And the selection panel felt Keshav would bowl really well in those conditions. In terms of role-clarity, George has done really well on the bowling side, but Bjorn can also bowl up front and that swung it,” Mpitsang said.

Linde is the only White player amongst those three left-arm spinners, so questions were immediately asked about quotas in the make-up of the squad. Director of Cricket Graeme Smith said no policy was given to the selection panel, and Mpitsang said “there just happens to be” seven players of colour in the 15-man squad, as there have been in every Proteas world cup squad for at least the last decade.

Linde was named as one of the three travelling reserves, along with seam bowling all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo and paceman Lizaad Williams. The rest of the T20 squad are all in Sri Lanka for a three-match series that starts on Friday, apart from captain Temba Bavuma, who is back home having had surgery on a fractured thumb. He said he expects to have recovered in about four weeks.

None of South Africa’s T20 free agents – Chris Morris, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers – have been included.

It seems Morris has officially signed the divorce papers from Cricket South Africa, with Smith saying “he has made himself unavailable for international cricket”, while agreement could not be reached with Du Plessis. Tahir has a ready-made replacement in Tabraiz Shamsi and De Villiers stated in May that his international retirement was final.

“With the free agents, you have to find a balance that works for both the team and the player and unfortunately, with Faf in particular, we struggled to find a solution that would work for both parties. Imran has had a great run and been very successful, but we are very confident in our current crop of spinners and they deserve their chance,” Smith said.

Proteas T20 World Cup squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Bjorn Fortuin, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Aiden Markram, Reeza Hendricks, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi. Travelling reserves – George Linde, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lizaad Williams.

As if the global Covid-19 pandemic has not disrupted the international cricket calendar enough, the Indian Premier League has now moved to September, which Cricket South Africa Director of Cricket Graeme Smith said has put paid to any hopes of the Proteas being in action before November.

South Africa were scheduled to play series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka before summer, but Smith admitted at the weekend that those commitments were now on the back burner. The IPL, meanwhile, has taken advantage of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia being postponed until next year, and will be held in the UAE, starting on September 19.

South Africans scheduled to play in the IPL include Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi for Chennai Super Kings, AB de Villiers, Chris Morris and Dale Steyn are in the Bangalore Royal Challengers squad, while Kagiso Rabada is contracted by the Delhi Capitals and Quinton de Kock is on the Mumbai Indians roster.

“The West Indies tour has been postponed indefinitely because now we’re struggling with the IPL – it looks like our players will be needed there at the beginning of September. We also don’t know when the Sri Lanka tour will be able to take place and in terms of the national women’s team, we are working on getting government permission for their tour to England next month.

“Hopefully November is going to be a very busy time for the national team, hopefully we can cram in all the tours we’ve missed out on, if all goes well and we get things up and running by then,” Smith said.

Faced by a barrage of criticism from certain sectors of the Black Lives Matter movement, Smith said he accepted the position of director of cricket in December in order to restore the reputation of the Proteas, who he previously led to the number one ranking in all formats. The 39-year-old reaffirmed his commitment to seeing that through.

“I was sad to see South African cricket fall from its perch, that’s why I got involved. Back in December it was absolute chaos in South African cricket, there was zero trust between anyone. I wanted to be part of the solution and now that it’s feeling chaotic again, you keep revisiting that. The narrative that a clique has taken over is really unfair and I did not appoint myself.

“I went through a rigorous interview process, led by mainly Black African people, and then I made a number of appointments in December – Volvo Masubelele as manager, Justin Ontong, Charl Langeveldt, Mark Boucher, Enoch Nkwe and the medical staff. The appointment of Paul Harris as a consultant was made around Keshav Maharaj’s request and Jacques Kallis was an interim consultant, he has not been on CSA’’s payroll for many months. But we would be stupid not to involve one of the most successful batsmen in the world,” Smith said.

Smith said he was not invited to the inaugural Social Justice and Nation-Building meeting that arose from the BLM movement, but he hoped to be involved going forward. He said it was crucial to co-operate with Black players in order to ensure they could be comfortable in the Proteas environment.

“We want to create a better environment going forward, we’ve got to create a culture in which everyone feels safe to talk. I was most surprised that the players did not feel they had a voice in the past. Hopefully CSA will involve us in the Social Justice project now after the Board asked us not to be part of the first one. We should all want to be part of the solution. “I was very taken aback by the Makhaya Ntini stuff. I never thought of him as being the silent type when I first came into the Proteas team, he was one of the senior players, and he gave me a different explanation for running to the ground and not coming on the bus. But as the only Black African it must have been tough for him and it’s important that nobody else feels that way,” Smith said.

WorldRugby may have this week opened a window for the Rugby Championship to take place in New Zealand between November 7 and December 12, but the situation is still far from ideal for South African participation. But commercial imperatives dictate that the Springboks simply have to find a way to get over there and play, otherwise SA Rugby will suffer devastating financial losses.

It is the Sanzaar competitions that bring in the bulk of South African rugby’s revenues and with SuperRugby having been scrapped after just half-a-dozen rounds, it is the Rugby Championship that needs to save the broadcast deals through providing some live content.

As SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux said recently, the Rugby Championship is a very expensive competition to run, but the broadcast revenues are significant enough that the commercial value compels Sanzaar to continue the event. The difference between revenues and expenses is the reason SA Rugby can use the Rugby Championship to cross-subsidise several other competitions.

One of those competitions is the Currie Cup, which used to be an event of industrial proportions in South African rugby, the envy of the world. Sadly SA Rugby has over the years allowed the jewel in their crown, their most valuable property after the Springboks, to fade into relative insignificance.

But the imminent demise of SuperRugby is likely to bring a resurgence in domestic competition and a Currie Cup style tournament this year is going to play a crucial role in the Springboks returning to action; hopefully that local action will continue to be a focus in 2021 and beyond.

Even though playing in Europe seems to be the big prize at the moment, and private equity investors in our franchises are already saying this is essential for them to get a return on their money, hopefully SA Rugby will still put energy and resources into having a strong purely local competition.

In the meantime, the top eight teams in South Africa are going to play a tournament later this year to at least get rugby back on the go locally. Apart from providing some content for SuperSport, who pour millions into the game, those eight teams are also going to play a vital role in getting the Springboks ready for action.

With New Zealand and Australia already back playing rugby for half-a-dozen weeks and South African players realistically only returning to action in mid-September, there have been understandable concerns expressed that the Springboks are going to be on a hiding to nothing if the Rugby Championship is played this year, being so far behind in terms of preparation. There have been angry mutters about their World Cup win being tarnished.

But the reality of the situation is that even if the Springboks are going to disappoint in terms of on-field results, they simply have to return to action and our television screens, it is a financial imperative. And they have played for financial reasons before, most recently when they lost to Wales in Washington in June 2018.

New Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has said a squad of 45 players are going to have to travel to New Zealand and quarantine before entering their bio-bubble, and there have even been complaints from local coaches that that will decimate their provincial squads. As is often the case in South African rugby, the unions are going to need a reminder that they are there to serve the national cause, any local competition this year is mostly about getting the Springboks ready for action.

Sanzaar CEO Andy Marinos certainly knows the value of the Springbok brand and last weekend he was stressing the importance of them returning to international action before the end of the year. And as we saw at last year’s World Cup, in which they were certainly underdogs, the ability to rise above the obstacles in their path is a great property of the Springboks.

“By no means will the playing field be level, but the Springbok side have a deep, steely resolve, and I know Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber will optimise whatever time they have to be as competitive as possible,” Marinos said.

Nienaber says the players in the Springbok squad need at least six games beforehand in order to be able to play in the Rugby Championship. They are unlikely to get much more than six matches unless rugby somehow resumes later this month, but at least they will be going to New Zealand feeling fresh.

And there is a large gap between the Rugby Championship kicking off and the end of SuperRugby Aotearoa and SuperRugby Australia. The New Zealand competition ends on August 16, with no final, while the Australian final will be held on September 19. Whoever handles the double-edged sword of rust versus fatigue best will have a large advantage, and I wouldn’t write off the Springboks just yet.

Kagiso Rabada has made the most sensational start to a Proteas ODI career since Allan Donald exploded on to the international stage when South Africa returned to world cricket in Kolkata in November 1991, and the former national bowling coach says he believes the 20-year-old prodigy is only going to get better and better.

Due to Apartheid, Donald was already 25 years old when he took five for 29 against India, but Rabada claimed the world record for best figures on ODI debut with his six for 16, including a top-order hat-trick, against Bangladesh in Dhaka.

Donald became one of the greatest bowlers the world has seen, but began his career as a young tearaway with pace to burn, but who was often erratic in terms of control. Rabada’s greatest attribute seems to be his control, at good pace, which is extraordinary for one so young.

“His overall skill just blows me away and even his control is exceptional, it’s a bit freakish. I still think he’s going to get quicker and it stands him in good stead that he’s grooving that control for when the extra pace comes later. He’s already ahead of where he should be, his rhythm is good, he’s tall, athletic and can bowl a heavy ball, and when you combine all of that together, as he grows into his body he’s definitely going to get faster,” Donald told The Citizen at the launch of the Titans’ and Nashua’s Art of Fast Bowling Programme at the weekend.

Rabada came into the national squad last summer when Donald was still the bowling coach, and the spearhead of South Africa’s return to international cricket says the St Stithians product is an absolute pleasure to work with.

“You can just sit back and watch him, his action, ability, athleticism, I don’t have a bad thing to say about him. He has a wonderful work ethic which makes a coach’s job so much easier, he wants to compete so badly and he asks a lot of great questions, which you don’t normally get from a 20-year-old. I just loved him, he’s well-grounded and full of humility as well.

“And he has a natural action, there’s absolutely no need to interfere with that. It’s clean, uncomplicated and all in sync. Are we looking at a legend? I’m pretty sure we are,” Donald said.