Ken Borland

Despite Afghanistan inflicting a bitter ODI series defeat on South Africa in Sharjah, former Proteas fast bowler Allan Donald has nothing but praise for coach Jonathan Trott’s team and their suite of exciting talent.

Afghanistan hammered South Africa by six wickets with nearly half of their overs left in the first ODI, before humbling the Proteas by 177 runs in the second match. The 2023 World Cup semi-finalists were bundled out for just 106 and 134 in those first two matches, but they did record a face-saving seven-wicket win in the third and final game.

Champion leg-spinner Rashid Khan took five for 19 and left-arm orthodox Nangeyalia Kharote four for 26 in the second ODI, but Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar was arguably even more of a mystery to the batsmen as he took three for 20 in the first match.

Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz was outstanding with the bat, scoring 194 runs in three innings, including a matchwinning, fiery innings of 105 in the second victory.

“It’s a quality Afghanistan team and Jonathan Trott does not get enough accolades for what he has done there. He has built that team over two years. It’s been so cool to see the rise and rise of Afghanistan cricket and they play with such flair and confidence. It is great for the world game,” Donald told sportsboom.com in an exclusive interview at the Wanderers, where he is now the bowling coach for the Central Gauteng Lions, the champion first-class and T20 team in South Africa.

“Afghanistan will be more and more a force to be reckoned with if they can sort their batting out. I love the way Trott has demanded that Gurbaz take more responsibility, he’s been on his neck a bit because he wasn’t that type of player before. But him batting like he is now will rub off on the top six and it sets Afghanistan up with the bat.

“And dealing with the spin of Ghazanfar is really hard work. Plus he’s a dangerous hitter as well. That whole spin attack just causes chaos for the opposition,” Donald said.

The great fast bowler, who took 330 wickets in 72 Tests for South Africa at just 22.25, and 1216 first-class wickets at 22.76, said he is not overly concerned by the Proteas’ performance, pointing out that coach Rob Walter was resting several first-choice players. While the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Heinrich Klaasen are actually resting in their jacuzzis and reclining chairs, David Miller, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi are currently playing in the Caribbean Premier League.

“I can see what Rob is trying to do and he has to rest certain players,” Donald said. “It’s another chance for the next-best players and I get it, it gave him a guide as to where the fringe players are at, where the depth is. It was a great time to blood some players, to show them he backs them.

“So South African fans shouldn’t be too upset. I half-expected it, especially in Sharjah against that quality of spin bowling. I think Rob pretty much knows what his team will look like in 2027 for the World Cup and that team will play together the majority of the time.

“It’s Wiaan Mulder’s time now, Bjorn Fortuin as well, and Reeza Hendricks just needs to keep chipping his way back into form. Kwena Maphaka has three years to get ready and Nqaba Peter definitely offers something different. He was great last year for us, but there’s no doubt his second season at top level will be tougher. We’ve had those conversations with him, told him to expect a difficult challenge this season,” Donald said of the Central Gauteng Lions stars in the Proteas mix.

DULLSTROOM (Mpumalanga) – Having pioneered women playing in a series of Sunshine Tour events, Vodacom have now increased their effort to promote gender equality in golf by giving the ladies playing in the Origins of Golf tournaments a golden opportunity to play in the Ladies European Tour’s Access Series.

Last year’s Vodacom Origins of Golf Series saw women compete with the men in the same tournament for the same R2 million prizemoney for the first time on the Sunshine Tour. This year, starting at the Highland Gate event which begins on Friday, new incentives have been introduced in order to encourage more women to take part in the series.

The response has been immediate, with nine female golfers, more than for any of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series tournaments last year, having entered.

The incentives are based around a new mini order of merit for the ladies who play in at least two of the three regular Vodacom Origins of Golf Series events and the final. The winner of that leaderboard will receive a cash prize, automatic entrance into the 2025 Joburg Ladies Open, co-sanctioned by the LET, and three tournament invites for the Access Series.

The Access Series is the LET’s official development tour and is based in Europe. The top six on the order of merit get cards for the LET, while positions seven to 20 go straight to the final stage of qualifying school.

While the promising Brittney-Fay Berger was able to sparkle in the last two events of the 2023 Vodacom Origins of Golf Series, it was generally tough going for the women with Cara Gorlei, Tara Griebenouw and Zethu Myeki making one cut each.

But to their credit, Vodacom have listened to the concerns of the Sunshine Ladies Tour players and have taken cognisance of the fact that they are breaking new ground and their bold move will take a while to bear fruit.

“We started last year with our effort to bring more women into the game because they don’t get enough tournament opportunities to showcase their talents,” Dr Ntombi Mhangwani, the executive head of Vodacom Business Marketing, says. “But with the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series going to four different regions, it gives our ladies more playing time and more exposure.

“We must remember though that they have not played with the guys before and so we have constant discussions with our partners, the Sunshine Tour and Flooid, about how we can make this initiative better. We are always talking about what worked well and what didn’t, what can we fix?

“The women are not yet competing on an equal footing so we have asked the Sunshine Ladies Tour professionals questions like ‘what courses work for them? How can we partner with you to get you where you want to be in your golf career? The Sunshine Tour has played a central role in pulling all the sponsors together, the whole ecosystem must work together to make this succeed,” Mhangwani says.

Gabrielle Venter, a new star on the Sunshine Ladies Tour having won the Standard Bank Ladies Open, after finishing fifth in the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am and runner-up in the SuperSport Ladies Challenge, admits to being a convert to the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series and the 20-year-old will tee it up with the men at Highland Gate this weekend.

“The incentives definitely made up my mind, getting an Access Series invitation is a big thing because it gives you a chance to play in Europe and get experience over there. And the Joburg Open is a Ladies European Tour event so there are a lot of world ranking points on offer there.

“I was waiting to see how the other ladies did last year in the Vodacom Origins of Golf, and they did pretty well. If you’re going to play but just never make the cut then it’s not worth the R15 000 a week you’ll be paying to compete, what with accommodation and everything,” Venter said.

The Bloemfontein Golf Club representative said Highland Gate was a good venue for the women to play because even though they are not given much advantage in terms of forward tees, it is a course on which most times you have to lay up anyway on the par-fives, so driving distance does not really matter as much.

DULLSTROOM (Mpumalanga) – A gentle breeze blew across the valleys and mountains of the Steenkampsberge on Thursday, the day before the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series kicks off for 2024 with the opening event at Highland Gate Golf and Trout Estate, a far cry from the gales that lashed the course on the first day of the pro-am.

The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series is held every year at some of South Africa’s finest golf clubs, grouping amateurs, leading business figures and customers with some of the top players on the Sunshine Tour. Once the pro-am finishes on Thursday, the professional tournament will be held over three rounds from Friday, and the leading contenders are united in their belief that Highland Gate will pose a stern challenge, especially if the wind gets up.

“It’s a great course and hopefully the weather stays good because it is really tough here in the wind,” Neil Schietekat said on Thursday. “The greens are slopey and quick, and if you add strong winds to them then it becomes really tricky.

“There are no giveaway birdies here, which is what I like on a course. You have to map your way around here, you can’t just hit-and-hope and then make an easy birdie. But I feel good about my game, I’ve found a bit of form and you know what they say, ‘be careful of the sleeping dog’,” Schietekat, who is coming off top-10 finishes in his last two Sunshine Tour events, said.

The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series also marks the return to action of one of the great gentlemen of the Sunshine Tour in George Coetzee, who last played competitively in May 2023 at the Italian Open on the DP World Tour.

Coetzee underwent wrist surgery and, on a happier note, became a first-time father in the interim. He was his usual smiling self on the putting green on Thursday, although he acknowledged some daunting golf was ahead of him.

“It’s good to be back and the wrist is rustig [calm]. I’m just going to go out and try and enjoy myself, but if the wind is up again like Wednesday then I could be in for some torture,” Coetzee said.

It is not just the men that will be tackling the Ernie Els designed course that is 6717 metres long and perched 2000m above sea level. Nine Sunshine Ladies Tour golfers are competing for the same prizemoney as part of Vodacom’s push to ensure the country’s leading women golfers enjoy more exposure and opportunity.

Cara Gorlei, the winner of the Jabra Ladies Classic at Glendower in April, and Gabrielle Venter, who claimed the Standard Bank Ladies Open title at Royal Cape Golf Club in March, will lead the women’s charge.

Vodacom have also introduced more incentives for those women who opt to play in the Origins Series, the winner of their own mini-leaderboard qualifying for the Joburg Open and three Access Tour events on the Ladies European Tour.

Danie van Tonder, the winner of the previous event on the Sunshine Tour, the FNB Eswatini Challenge at Nkonyeni Golf Estate, says the Highland Gate layout suits him as well.

“It’s a great course in excellent condition, the greens are very quick and tricky. But I haven’t yet found a course where if I take driver and hit it long, far and straight, I will not do well,” Van Tonder said.

The cricket season just past has seen Wiaan Mulder freed from his cell of self-imposed pressure and doubt, and the Central Gauteng Lions all-rounder’s reward has been a return to the Proteas T20 squad, albeit for the warm-up series against the West Indies in Jamaica at the end of this month and not the World Cup.

The Lions were the outstanding domestic team of the summer, winning both the four-day competition and the CSA T20 Challenge that ended last weekend in a final at the Wanderers, with the Gautengers easing past the KZN Dolphins by seven wickets with 14 balls to spare.

Mulder was at the forefront of that successful chase, blazing his way to a ferocious 55 not out off just 26 balls, with four sixes. It capped a superb tournament for the 26-year-old, who scored 248 runs at an average of 35.42 and a strike-rate of 139.32. Mulder also took 11 wickets and conceded just 7.10 runs-per-over, making him the only player to appear in the top-20 of both the batting and bowling averages.

It followed his destructive performances in the SA20 league, where he scored 297 runs at an average of 37.13 and a strike-rate of 157.14 for Durban Super Giants.

In the Lions’ triumphant four-day campaign, Mulder was their leading run-scorer with 549 at 54.90, which included a couple of centuries. He also claimed 16 wickets at an average of 26.50.

Little wonder then that the Proteas have come calling again. He played in the ODI series against India last December, but Mulder is set to play his first T20 international since September 2021 in Sri Lanka.

But in a candid interview before his selection was announced this week, Mulder admitted that he had not made the most of his previous Proteas call-ups.

“The biggest thing for me at international level is mental. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself, which is made worse when you think every game could be my last,” Mulder said after the Lions’ T20 triumph.

“I do my best when I am just given the freedom to go out and play; unfortunately I’m an over-thinker and then I try too hard and get a bit down on myself. I’ve done relatively well with the ball for the Proteas, but I haven’t really shown what I can do with the bat. But maybe my time will come in the next couple of years,” Mulder said.

The all-rounder’s mantle is a tough one to bear in South African cricket because we have been blessed with arguably the greatest of them all – Jacques Kallis – as well as a succession of legends who could both win matches with the bat and double as a proper fast bowler: Mike Procter, Clive Rice, Kallis, Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock have spoilt us.

Mulder does not bowl express pace, but he is a very handy practitioner who can fulfil a variety of roles. The St Stithians product says the presence of another great – Allan Donald – on the Lions coaching staff has helped him enormously in terms of growing his skills and even becoming a little quicker.

“Allan Donald has been massive for us and for me personally. I’ve been working with him to get more energy behind the ball, being able to bowl back-of-the-hand deliveries. It’s difficult bowling in the powerplay at the Wanderers, the ball really flies here, so I’ve had to up-skill a lot.

“I feel like I’m bowling well and it’s nice to be consistently bowling. Not bowling five matches in a row in the SA20 gets a little frustrating,” Mulder said.

The up-skilling Mulder has done on his batting will also hopefully pay off at international level.

“Russell Domingo [head coach] said there were certain things that have to get better in our game and there was an expectation to up-skill. There was a lot of hard work in the transition period after he became coach.

“And you could see when Reeza Hendricks and I were batting together in the final, we made sure the required rate never ran away from us even though we weren’t hitting boundaries. We were getting the ones and twos and making sure there were no dot-balls,” Mulder said.