Ken Borland

Now that the painful Test series in Australia is over, the critics no longer need to sit in their chairs in front of the TV in the early hours of the morning and jeer the Proteas, and the anticipated extravaganza that the SA20 will be should distract attention anyway.

But one hopes what transpired in Australia is not forgotten, lost in the hurly-burly of the new T20 league and just the sheer volume of cricket and sport that constantly competes for attention. Let’s not forget that the Proteas also spent October and November in Australia, playing in the T20 World Cup, where they bowed out at the hands of minnows the Netherlands. The anger over that fiasco may have died down a bit, but the promise of a full review by Cricket South Africa has not been forgotten. The outcome of that review and the rebuilding strategies decided upon are now overdue.

The responsibility for making sure lessons are learnt from the 2-0 hiding (it surely would have been 3-0 but for rain) lies with the administrators, who now have the opportunity to ensure something good comes out of the ruins.

The current team and their coaches, plus the former players working as commentators in Australia, have all pinpointed the amount of domestic first-class cricket, as well as the standard, as being the main cause of the woeful performances of the Proteas lately. So that is surely where CSA need to start their autopsy.

CSA’s current executives inherited a house that was in drastic need of renovation and Proteas fans need to realise that there are no quick fixes at international level. But that is no excuse for inaction and CSA need to come up with definite plans that have the health of the Proteas – still by far their greatest source of income – as the greatest priority.

It is all very well if the next month is spent admiring the dazzling front garden of the house that is the SA20, but the fire that is raging in the kitchen needs some attention too.

The excellent build-up for the new SA20 tournament continued this week with the news that Sky Sports in the UK have signed a five-year deal to also show the tournament, expanding the global reach of the new T20 league and also bringing in some much-needed hard currency.

With the tournament kicking off in Cape Town next Tuesday evening in Cape Town, everything would seem to be in place for the SA20 to explode into the consciousness of cricket fans.

While co-owners SuperSport will obviously have the African broadcast rights for the league, the all-important Indian market was sown up by the 10-year deal signed with Viacom 18, the dynamic new entertainment network that is growing rapidly on the subcontinent. They are believed to be paying at least $240 000 per game, so this year’s 33 matches will bring in nearly $8 million (R135 million).

Contracts are also being finalised to ensure the tournament is broadcast in other major cricket markets like Australia/New Zealand and the Caribbean.

There is a title sponsor in BetWay, who have signed a “multi-year” deal, and CSA are intimating that the league will make a profit in its first year, having earlier predicted a five-year wait before the SA20 would be in the black.

One does still wonder, however, about a few finer details.

Is a run of five successive fixtures between February 3-7 on the Highveld – with matches at both the Wanderers and SuperSport Park on February 4 – going to enjoy good crowds? The semi-finals follow from February 8 and there is a good chance either the Joburg Super Kings or Pretoria Capitals will be involved in those too.

And is the tournament loadshedding-proof and, if so, are those emergency back-up measures not going to significantly decrease profits?

But here’s hoping for some magnificent action to take our minds off all the troubles currently surrounding South African cricket, never mind the country as a whole.

Having looked into my crystal ball, I would, if forced to, put money on a MI Cape Town versus Paarl Royals final.

MI Cape Town, in particular, have a marvellous attack – Jofra Archer, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada and Rashid Khan could bowl 16 of their 20 overs, which leaves opposition batsmen with plenty of thinking to do when it comes to taking them on.

It may just amount to papering over the cracks, but Cricket South Africa are looking to meet the six SA20 franchises to discuss the fall-out from last week’s auction and get more clarity on why Proteas regulars Temba Bavuma and Andile Phehlukwayo were not bought by any of the teams.

Their omission, especially that of national T20 captain Bavuma, dominated South African cricket news, detracting from one of the most important events in the establishment of the new league as hopefully something that will enthral local fans.

Franchises like Sunrisers Eastern Cape, who are owned by the Sun Group who operate numerous Indian newspapers, TV and radio stations and so should understand the media fall-out, and Durban Super Giants chose top-order batsmen with inferior domestic records rather than Bavuma.

“It’s quite difficult because we agreed with the franchises that we would allow the bidding process to run independently,” CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki told The Citizen.

“But we were hugely disappointed, especially by the omission of Temba and Andile, that was quite a shock. We need to have a post-mortem to see how we can avoid this happening in the future.

“I am part of the SA20 board and I will be proposing a post-mortem with the franchises. It will be a discussion, not an interrogation. We can’t control how they go about picking their teams, but we just want to understand better why it happened.

“We will have earnest discussions with them and inform the public as well. We want the public’s buy-in for this tournament, so they need to be able to read and hear why certain players weren’t chosen,” Moseki said.

The first sign that things were heading south at the auction came when Sunrisers Eastern Cape bought Marques Ackerman in the 12^th round of bidding. The KZN Dolphins batsman has a strike-rate of 123.68 and an average of 24.25 in 39 domestic T20s, compared to Bavuma’s strike-rate of 124.67 and an average of 30.52 over 100 matches.

Ackerman’s base price was admittedly just R175 000, while Bavuma’s was R850 000, which was clearly set too high, either by himself or whoever advised him poorly. Moseki confirmed that “the Proteas players could choose their own reserve price, initially they were told to go at R850 000, but if they wanted to go lower then they could do that. It was not possible to lower their price during the auction though”.

“We will ask the franchises whether there was enough local input in their selections. We need a long-term plan to ensure this does not happen again, specifically when it comes to contracted Black players.

“It will be very sad if it happens again next year and we obviously need to plan better,” Moseki said.

The SA20 Auction was always going to be one of the key events in the build-up to the launch of the new T20 league early next year, crucial in getting the public behind Cricket South Africa’s proposed financial saviour.

Unfortunately the six franchises made a complete hash of it by snubbing one of this country’s most popular players. I’m not sure whether Temba Bavuma’s status as captain of the national T20 team or the fact he is a role-model and hero to so many is most important, but either way, he should be playing in the SA20.

His highly-controversial snubbing – there is no other word for it when you fail to get a bid despite going on auction three times – has led to ferocious debate. Some of it has been so lacking in clarity of thought or decent humanity that it reminds me a bit of how Hashim Amla was treated in the early stages of his international career. Despite scoring prolifically for KwaZulu-Natal, Amla had many critics who said he would never make it at international level.

Amla showed ‘em alright how wrong that characterisation of his abilities was.

Let’s be clear, I’m not saying Bavuma should automatically have been bought simply because he is a Proteas captain, or his popularity, or the colour of his skin. I’m saying choose him because there are compelling cricketing reasons to do so.

That the 32-year-old is not the most explosive T20 batsman is a given, but he can perform a very important role in the top-three, especially when conditions give the bowlers a bit of assistance. I watched him score an outstanding century at the Wanderers to win the Highveld Lions the T20 title against the Warriors in 2019.

My point is three of the franchises clearly chose players instead of Bavuma who do not have better records than him.

My alarm bells were ringing when Sunrisers Eastern Cape bought Marques Ackerman in the 12^th round of bidding, admittedly for just R175 000, compared to Bavuma’s base price of R850 000, which was clearly set too high, either by himself or whoever advised him poorly.

Because we’re going to be comparing records of these top-three batsmen, Bavuma’s T20 stats are the baseline. In 25 internationals, he has a strike-rate of 120.60 and an average of 26.76. But there were some purely domestic players who were chosen ahead of him, so Bavuma’s local stats are 100 matches, a strike-rate of 124.67 and an average of 30.52.

Ackerman has played just 39 domestic T20s and strikes at 123.68, with an average of 24.25.

There was an even bigger warning that Bavuma was in for humiliation when Durban Super Giants bought West Indian Johnson Charles in the next round. A bang-average T20 player based on his stats: In 34 internationals, he has a strike-rate of only 121.68 and an average of only 21.93. His domestic figures are 128.63 and 25.76. And before you bring up his wicketkeeping, Durban already had Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen in their squad.

In the next round, Super Kings bought Matthew Breetzke, a sound investment in up-and-coming talent, but he has a domestic strike-rate of 129.43 and an average of 24.78. Like many of the local cricketers, half of those matches have been in the semi-pro ranks, so you really cannot compare him with Bavuma.

When Sunrisers Eastern Cape then bought Test opener Sarel Erwee in Round 15, it really seemed like the auction was merely a device for our IPL overlords to ram home some sort of anti-transformation agenda.

Erwee strikes at 123.64 and has an average of 24.70.

One wonders how much local input the franchises used.

And considering the awful racist targeting of Bavuma and Andile Phehlukwayo, whose omission from the SA20 is also a shock, by some Indian social media, and the right-wing, anti-liberal current Indian government, one wonders whether there is not more to these auction outcomes than meets the eye.

We sincerely hope not.