Ken Borland

Eight teams in the top division and promotion/relegation are two good adjustments that Cricket South Africa have made to their domestic structure, but the fact that, from 2023/24, one or two teams will automatically climb from Division II to Division I is going to ask serious questions about the quality in depth of the competitions.

While the complacency that comes from teams being entrenched in the top division is not good for the game, automatic promotion/relegation means there is no guarantee that the team/s coming up are going to be better than the team going down. There should be a playoff game to make sure the top division is not being perpetually weakened.

And a lowering of standards seems inevitable because the team/s being demoted is going to lose sponsors and players, while the team/s coming up from Division II will not have the resources of the other Division I teams. Without television exposure, and the fact none of the Division II sides are based in major centres, there is not going to be a level playing field. In fact, the inequality is already written into the system because the Division I teams that will start playing next season will each receive R9.3 million from CSA and can contract 16 players with a maximum salary of R1.035 million.

Division II teams, however, will probably only receive around R5 million, can only contract 11 players with a maximum salary of R600 000 if private sponsorship can top up the CSA-prescribed maximum of R400 000. So it is clear that leading players are not going to be signing for Division II outfits.

The only feasible way a Division II side is going to avoid being relegated from Division I after just one season is if most of the players from the team they are replacing jump ship and join them. But those are the same players who were not good enough to avoid relegation anyway, so South African domestic cricket is set to be trapped in a merry-go-round, or more accurately a vicious circle, in which the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and there is precious little development of either players or teams.

The need for stability in the South African game has been the consistent call from the office of the South African Cricketers Association CEO Andrew Breetzke, but this new system does not seem to be bringing that. Even less so if the disastrous decision for two teams to be automatically promoted every season is made.

There are still so many questions surrounding the new domestic structure, not least of them being whether it is one or two teams that will be promoted every season and how the mechanism of promotion/relegation works. Will there be separate teams going up and down in each format or will some sort of averaging take place so that one team moves in all three formats?

These questions were also sent to those responsible for the communications portfolio at CSA but no response has been received. One would think for a decision of this magnitude to be passed, there would be a set of documents detailing the restructuring task team’s position on all these matters in order for the Members Council and the Interim Board to meet their fiduciary duties when approving the changes, but no-one seems to have seen them. At the moment they are as mysterious as the Fundudzi Report.

It is a massive change to make based on what, judging by what has been revealed so far by CSA, are flimsy reasons and little concrete financial planning. A good idea is at the kernel of the change, but, as has often been the case, CSA don’t seem to have considered the unintended consequences.

The process of doing away with the franchises and going back to provinces is a complex administrative task that includes dissolving companies, setting up new ones, sorting out all the tax implications and putting in place an entirely new contracting model for players.

And it all needs to be done within the next month because that’s when player contracts have to be finalised.

So far, the restructuring does not seem to make sense on many levels and the cynic in me believes the only reason the 15-strong Members Council have pushed this through is so the tail can wag the dog and two of the smaller provinces get to join the six major centres at the R9.3 million big table on a rotational basis.

The sleek new six-team Currie Cup Premier Division has certainly ensured a more competitive format and, heading into this weekend’s final round-robin fixtures, all the teams remain in contention for the semi-finals, while the bottom four can all qualify for the knockout stages or finish last and be forced into a promotion/relegation battle.

Both the Sharks (30pts) and Lions (28pts) can sally forth into the last round of games secure in the knowledge that they have already clinched home semi-finals because the gap between them and the chasing pack is too large to be bridged.

Western Province and Griquas are tied on 20 points, while Free State and the Blue Bulls languish on 18.

Whoever finishes last on the Premier Division log will have to play promotion/relegation against the Watson father-and-son combination of the EP Kings after the ambitious Port Elizabeth team topped the First Division standings with an unbeaten 14-game run.

The Free State Cheetahs, after a poor season in which they have won just three of their nine games thus far, are probably most under pressure as they travel to Newlands to take on a Western Province outfit restored to full strength by their Springboks.

And Western Province will not be lacking any motivation as they are after a semi-final place and will be desperate to avoid the ignominy of a relegation battle, which will happen if they lose on Saturday and the Bulls beat the Lions in Johannesburg and Griquas upset the Sharks.

Lady Luck may have turned her face away from the Lions for much of this year, but the troubled defending champions have once again done extremely well in the Currie Cup and, because they have already sown up a home semi-final, can afford to rest some key players on Saturday, perhaps increasing the hopes of the Bulls.

For the Bulls, the permutations are simple. Win, and a semi-final place is their’s, lose and they will have to stave off relegation. (There is a third, more arcane possibility and that is if the Bulls lose but collect two bonus points then they can still finish fourth or fifth depending on how Griquas and Free State do).

The Bulls, with their strict adherence to game plan, and the Cheetahs, with a laissez-faire willingness to attack from anywhere, are on different ends of the playing spectrum but they have both landed themselves in trouble this season.

The Bulls can at least call upon a host of Springboks – Zane Kirchner, Morne Steyn, Jacques Potgieter, Flip van der Merwe, Juandre Kruger, Francois Hougaard, Bjorn Basson, Chiliboy Ralepelle and Dean Greyling – to try and turn their fortunes around at the death.

Western Province supporters, fed a steady diet of under-performance by a side that has gone trophy-less since 2001, are also putting their hopes in returning Springboks, with coach Allister Coetzee naming Bryan Habana, Jean de Villiers, Juan de Jongh, Duane Vermeulen, Andries Bekker, Eben Etzebeth and Tiaan Liebenberg in the starting line-up.

Coetzee has recently relaxed the defence-minded regimen he instituted with the Stormers, but against a team that likes an expansive game like the Cheetahs do, the argument that Western Province should perhaps play it tight and squeeze the visitors carries some weight.

Sharks coach John Plumtree, still haunted by last season’s events when he chose all his returning Springboks for the Currie Cup final and saw a more cohesive Lions team saunter to a 42-16 triumph, has meanwhile decided to phase his returning internationals back into action this time and only Pat Lambie makes it into the starting XV. Prop Jannie du Plessis, hooker Craig Burden and flank Marcell Coetzee are on the bench.

Tendai Mtawarira, Willem Alberts and Lwazi Mvovo have the weekend off and will add tremendously to the depth in the squad when they return to contention for the semi-finals.

Griquas, meanwhile, have surprised each and everyone with their bold rugby and coach Pote Human has reaped the rewards of consistency in selection. He hasn’t got the depth to play around with like the bigger unions, however, so perhaps he had little other option, but Griquas have certainly impressed after most critics had them down for the relegation battle at the end of the season.

The Sharks have had a torrid time against the Griquas in Kimberley of late, but if the Northern Cape team can beat the log-leaders in Durban, it will be an enormous upset.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer will no doubt also be an engrossed observer as Lambie starts at flyhalf for the first time since the early stages of SuperRugby.

It all adds up to an intriguing final weekend of action, the margins between failure and success being ridiculously small.

Weekend fixtures

Friday – Sharks v Griquas (Durban, 7.10pm)

Saturday – Western Province v Free State Cheetahs (Cape Town, 5.05pm)

Lions v Blue Bulls (Johannesburg, 7.10pm)

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