Ken Borland

While most of South Africa returned to the office on Monday, half of the country’s franchise cricketers left for Potchefstroom to enter a bio-bubble for the Momentum One-Day Cup.

Cricket South Africa announced at the weekend that the schedule for the 50-over competition has been revised, with the Momentum One-Day Cup now being held in just one venue, in a bio-secure environment and being reduced to just 15 matches. The franchises are still in their two pools of three teams each, but they will only play within their pool, two matches against each team.

The Dolphins, Titans and Knights will be in Pool A and will kick off the action from Saturday. The Imperial Lions, Cape Cobras and Warriors are in the other pool which will be in action from January 29.

The top two teams in each pool will then contest the semi-finals on February 11 and 12, with the final on Sunday, February 14.

Dr Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, said the official reason for the decision was as a precaution against the ever-rising tide of Covid-19’s second wave of infections.

“We have seen the number of cases rise significantly and the second peak is reaching new levels that are higher than the first wave. We have seen infection among our players as well, we had to cancel a four-day match, and we have a duty of care to the players. We also want to ensure the integrity of the competition, we don’t want to have to start cancelling games.

“So the best way to do that is by playing the whole competition in a bubble. There are risks associated with flying around the country for games because airports are one of the major sources of infection, they are high-risk. So we have decided on the precautionary option,” Manjra told The Citizen on Monday.

Cutting the number of fixtures down from seven round-robin games each to just four has been necessary so that the players only have to spend 11 days in the bio-bubble, which has increasingly been shown to be quite a tough environment to cope with mentally.

It is a big drawback for the teams in Pool A though that they will face a gap of more than three weeks between their last match and the semi-finals, giving the Pool B teams a definite advantage in that they finish their round-robin games on February 5, leaving a space of just six days before the semi-finals.

While CSA have well-publicised financial troubles, playing in a bio-bubble is not expected to cost them more money than if the tournament was staged normally, plus there is the added bonus that broadcasters SuperSport and the sponsors are unlikely to suffer reduced content due to games being cancelled.

South Africa’s new Test captain will take office on Friday with Cricket South Africa due to make the announcement following a lengthy meeting between the selectors and director of cricket Graeme Smith on Thursday afternoon.

While Smith said back in April that white-ball skipper Quinton de Kock will not be the Test captain as well due to workload concerns – a decision the wicketkeeper/batsman has backed – there have been recent mutterings that, with a new convenor of selectors in place in Victor Mpitsang, that position might be revisited.

But Mpitsang, newly installed as convenor, is unlikely to want to rock the boat too much as he presides over his first Test squad. There was certainly nothing controversial or left-field in the white-ball squads chosen for the curtailed series against England, and it is most likely that a placeholder captain will be put in place on Friday.

That’s because two of the most obvious candidates for the captaincy – batsmen Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma – have not exactly cemented their places in the Test line-up.

Markram averaged just 28.61 in 2019 and needs to win his place in the XI back after injuring himself in the Boxing Day Test a year ago against England. While he has almost certainly done that by scoring three successive centuries for the Titans in four-day cricket, he now needs to regain that consistency at international level.

Bavuma returned to the side for the final Test against England, scoring 27 and 6 as South Africa’s batting disappointed at the Wanderers, and he averaged just 19.84 in 2019. And in all cricket this summer he has scored just 150 runs in six innings, plus he will not be playing in this weekend’s round of four-day matches for the Imperial Lions, having been released to attend to personal matters.

But with Faf du Plessis having retired from Test cricket, Bavuma is almost certain to keep his place in the Test team, although making him captain would appear to be placing unnecessary pressure on him whilst his Test future is still uncertain.

Rassie van der Dussen has shown great leadership qualities ever since he made his Proteas debut in October 2018. But he is still making his way in Test cricket, having only played four matches.

The Proteas do, however, have a ready-made candidate to take over the captaincy from Du Plessis, even if it is just as a stand-in for a couple of seasons. Dean Elgar is established in the Test team, having scored 3888 runs in 63 matches at the solid average of 38.49, considering South Africa is the toughest place to open the batting.

The 33-year-old Elgar is highly respected in the changeroom, especially for his indomitable qualities, and has openly put his name in the hat for the captaincy. Plus he has done the job before – leading the team against England at Lord’s in 2017 and to victory over Pakistan in Johannesburg in January 2019.

With South African cricket in such turmoil at the moment and the Proteas languishing in a woeful eighth place in the ICC World Test Championship, now is the time for stability and not gambling.

It was an interesting day for CEOs of Cricket South Africa both past and present on Tuesday as the fired Thabang Moroe saw his plot to return to office delayed in the Labour Court and the acting incumbent Kugandrie Govender suffered the embarrassment of the organisation backtracking on her statement that White consultants would no longer be used unless there were exceptional circumstances.

Moroe approached the Labour Court on Tuesday to have his dismissal set aside because he believes the disciplinary process was unlawful, but he first of all had to convince the court that his application was urgent. CSA’s lawyers argued that the matter was not urgent and the court reserved judgement as to whether the matter should be held urgently or not. The court is expected to make its decision during the week.

Govender stated last week in a text message to Sport24 that following a meeting with the minister of sport Nathi Mthethwa, CSA “are now required to enforce Black consultants only until such time as the numbers are moving in the right direction and we can then revise this. It’s an internal measure to enforce that the change that should have happened organically over the years but didn’t, does actually now happen”.

The announcement created a storm of protest, with civil rights lobby group AfriForum threatening legal action against CSA and the Institute for Race Relations writing to the International Cricket Council to report the organisation for failing to respect the governing body’s constitution in terms of racial discrimination and political interference.

CSA issued a statement on Tuesday saying they were saddened by the media reports around their use of consultants. They called the stories “factually incorrect” even though they were quoting their own CEO verbatim.

“CSA has not taken and will not take a decision to work exclusively with Black consultants. The media reports around the statements made by our Acting Chief Executive are not a correct reflection of the sentiment that CSA had sought to convey. CSA therefore reiterates that it does not have a policy of excluding any racial grouping.

“As part of our corporate business model, CSA has adopted and subscribes to the country’s BBBEE Act and Affirmative Action policy. This means CSA has a moral and legal obligation to implement these two prescripts, while still embracing the need for all South Africans to live their cricketing dreams regardless of background, culture or ethnicity, and this includes the services that we procure from external service providers,” their statement said.

CSA went on to say transformation is a pillar for the organisation.

“It is, therefore, imperative that we constantly remind ourselves of its [transformation] importance in the way in which we conduct our business. As a democratic and non-racial institution, CSA is well aware of the need to provide equality and quality of opportunity to all and we do also emphasise that this has to be seen in the context of our unhappy history that for more than a century deprived the majority of our population from living their cricket dreams both on the field of play and in many other areas.”

The change of stance by CSA will now obviously attract the attention of Minister Mthethwa, who has been critical of the number of White faces in prominent positions at CSA. It is believed using exclusively Black consultants unless there are none available at the level required in order to keep the Proteas at the top end of the world rankings is exactly what CSA promised Mthethwa at their meeting last week.

It is also a loss of face for Govender, whose meteoric rise at CSA saw her appointed acting CEO on August 19 after Jacques Faul stepped down.

It’s hard to describe for non-sports lovers what A World Without Sport is like, but I guess an office without coffee or a party without any music could mimic the same feelings of emptiness and loss myself and millions of others are feeling right now in these times of Covid-19.

It is, of course, a small, hopefully shortlived price to pay for our health and ensuring that society itself does not break down. As one government minister put it, every life saved now is a potential sports fan in the future.

But it is hard not to feel sad that, as summer fades into autumn, there will be no more bat on ball, no nervewracking SuperRugby clashes, no more peaceful hours on the couch watching the best golfers in the world strut their stuff on beautiful courses. The hockey astroturfs, usually so full of joie de vivre on the weekends, are quiet. There is no more gloating from Liverpool fans on social media, or the angst of long-suffering Arsenal supporters.

Sport provides a thrill, a shot of inspiration watching real-life superheroes overcoming the odds and, for many people, gives them a reason to slog through the week and make it to the weekend. As if to rub it in, the weather in Johannesburg has been glorious the last couple of days, sunny and warm, perfect for a day at the Wanderers or SuperSport Park.

But when the governing bodies of the various sports sift through the wreckage of 2020 once this pandemic has passed, they will have the opportunity to perhaps ‘reboot’ several aspects of their product.

It seems inevitable, given the financial damage Covid-19 will do to the coffers of sport across the board, that the sporting landscape will change once the world returns to ‘normal’ again. Sadly, some cherished things might fall by the wayside; happily, some blights might disappear.

Writing in The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2020/mar/16/beware-sporting-disaster-capitalists-crisis-go-to-waste), the excellent Jonathan Liew speaks about the Covid-19 crisis causing financial turmoil and then warns of “greedy disaster capitalists” taking advantage. Sporting bodies could be forced into some unpalatable decisions simply due to financial pressures.

The column ends with the warning – “For the next few weeks, perhaps even months, the power-brokers of sport – administrators and executives, sponsors and speculators, agents and marketers – will be at a loose end. Nothing to do but plot and strategise and kick around ideas. And then ask yourself a question: how far do you trust these people to act in the best interests of the sport you love?”

The South African situation is further complicated by Icasa, the broadcast and telecoms regulator, drawing up the new legislation governing the coverage of sport in the country. The amendments are due to be published by the end of September and Icasa have already said the goal is to ensure more free-to-air coverage of sporting events that are “in the national interest”.

The problem is the free-to-air broadcasters do not have the means to do this properly; the national broadcaster is all but bankrupt and e.tv are far from the forefront of the sports business game.

The loss of income from the exclusive television rights SuperSport pays will only add to the burden of our sports bodies after the Covid-19 pandemic.

SA Rugby seem to be one of the earliest movers in terms of strategising for what happens next. There have been strong suggestions that once it is safe to start playing rugby again, SuperRugby 2020 will be rebooted with the South African franchises (and possibly the Free State Cheetahs) playing each other in a series of local derbies.

This is a fantastic idea and hopefully crowd attendances will be much greater than they have been for SuperRugby in recent years.

And the icing on the cake would be if this spurs major change in our competition structures and the Currie Cup is restored to its rightful place as a major tournament and not just an afterthought.

With enthusiasm waning for the 25-year-old SuperRugby concept, change, accompanied by a move towards Europe, could be good.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-columnists/2258834/post-pandemic-days-a-chance-for-sport-to-reboot/