Ken Borland

The Springboks still have 20 of the 23 players (presuming Duane Vermeulen will be unavailable until the closing stages of the Lions series) who featured in the 2019 World Cup final available as they return to international action. So there is probably not much scope for fresh faces to burst on to the scene, but there are still opportunities for some players to show they can be trustworthy regulars in the couple of years leading into the next World Cup.

Trevor Nyakane: The 32-year-old suffered the misfortune of being injured in the first week of the 2019 World Cup and missed out on the final. One of seven props in the squad, the Bulls star will want to return to his pre-eminent place in the tighthead pecking order alongside Frans Malherbe and will need to see off the claims of Vincent Koch, who came off the bench early in the second half of the World Cup final, and the versatile pairing of Thomas du Toit and Coenie Oosthuzen, who can both be considered ‘swing props’.

But Nyakane says he is up for the challenge – “This is a completely different environment, there’s less room for error and all the players are top-quality. So you need to step up to that level, make it as hard as possible when it comes to selection, give them a headache when it comes to picking, Healthy competition Is good.”

Marco van Staden: The Bulls No.6 is sometimes described as a ‘typical fetcher who gives away lots of penalties’, but this is misleading because Van Staden has contributed in so many different aspects of play for the South African pace-setters – while he has conceded 11 penalties in the Rainbow Cup and won several turnovers, he has also won 91% of the tackles he was called to make and gains 2.1 metres per ball-carry. So he is tending towards the sort of hybrid flank that could be very useful to Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber’s replacements bench.

Rynhardt Elstadt: When people think of the 31-year-old Toulouse star, they have a picture of a hugely physical loose forward making big carries and bashing away on the gain-line. But Elstadt has developed his game at the European champions and has also become a trustworthy lineout forward. With locks Lood de Jager and RG Snyman both in doubt due to injury concerns, Elstadt has the chance to become a regular in the Springbok 23 particularly because of his utility value.

“For us, coming from this side of the world, we can have a bit more of a contribution, I hope. We have played a bit more rugby up in the northern hemisphere than the guys in the south. They have only been playing against each other, whereas we have played a lot against the guys in the Premiership and Pro14 who will be on the Lions tour. We have got quite a good feeling about it, I am really amped to be going and joining the boys and see if we can’t go and win another title,” Elstadt told the Talking Rugby Union website this week.

Lungi Ngidi exploited a pitch with some life in it in superb style on the opening day of the first Test against the West Indies at St Lucia, taking five for 19 in 13.5 overs as the hosts were bundled out for their lowest ever total against South Africa – a dismal 97 all out.

While the pitch continued to provide movement and there was swing in the air all through the first day, it was tremendous discipline and the many hours of skills work that Ngidi has been putting in that financed his first five-wicket haul in an innings since he took six for 39 on debut against India in January 2018.

Ngidi, like all the South African fast bowlers, bowled a superb line, sticking consistently to the channel just outside off stump, and his length was also excellent. It meant that the West Indies batsmen were unable to score easily and, with the movement on offer, any expansive strokeplay outside off-stump was very risky.

“You were never really in as a batsman, but it felt good to get a five-for because it’s been a long time since I got one. My Test spot was in doubt and it’s still a work in progress, but behind the scenes I’ve had to work very hard on my fitness and in the gym, but the most important thing was working on my skill. To be able to swing the ball away from the batsman now has been very useful.

“You can get carried away when there’s nip and swing, but my role-definition is very clear – my job was to keep one end quiet, not give them anything. I just tried to zone in on off-stump and I felt more comfortable after lunch, my rhythm clicked in the afternoon and I love the Dukes ball because it seems to still swing after a long time,” said Ngidi, who took five for nine in 6.5 overs in the second session.

Anrich Nortje was the co-conspirator in the rout of the West Indies, bowling superbly in the morning session as he took three for eight in six overs and finished with four for 35 in 11. Ngidi, employing more subtle skills than the fast and furious Nortje, said the focus of the South African attack was to work together as a unit, something they certainly achieved.

“I’ve been working a lot together with Anrich, pretty much being trying to hunt together with him. To see him take on the top-order like he did was what we hoped for and he got us off to the perfect start. I just tried to keep applying pressure. Kagiso Rabada really had them under pressure as well, which should not go unnoticed.

“Hunting together is what we’re trying to restore as a bowling unit and we’ve made the perfect start to this series,” Ngidi said.

The players of Australia, England and India are probably the fat cats of the cricketing world, given the riches of their respective boards and the hefty contracts they enjoy. While I have no problem with top international sportsmen being handsomely paid, it would be nice now and then to see them display some perspective and gratitude for living the dream.

The Indian Premier League of course offers the biggest payday of them all, which is why player power has ensured no major international cricket is staged during that tournament. Again, that is the economics of the game and I don’t mind that.

But the players should just be honest about the fact that the IPL is their biggest priority and, as the players of Australia and England have shown, the riches on offer there are often more important to them than any ethical considerations or obligations to grow the game as a whole.

The self-same Australian and England players who turned their noses up at playing in South Africa and possibly coming into contact with the Covid-19 pandemic that was recording about 3000 cases a day in December and 1000 in March were happy to go to India for the IPL when cases were already at more than 80 000 a day. It was a staggering display of hypocrisy and double standards.

And it got worse because as soon as the IPL itself was put under threat, it was the Australian players who began bleating about the government having an obligation to organise special flights out of India for them and change the law that applied to everyone else that the borders were closed for people who had recently been to India.

It’s ironic, but these are people who have been living in a bubble since way before Covid-19 arrived. They live in their own mollycoddled world where everything is taken care of for them, they are treated as demi-gods and too many of them seem totally out of touch with the common person. It’s why things like Sandpapergate happened because pampered stars like Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are out of touch with reality.

It was absolutely infuriating the way the Australian players dumped the South African tour at the last moment as soon as it meant they might have some difficulties getting to India thereafter for the IPL, which was always going to be a much harder bubble to manage than the one here.

Likewise the English players, who used a couple of positive tests outside of their squad to hightail it home, doing great damage to Cricket South Africa’s reputation and coffers.

No wonder cricket fans around the world get so angry when talk of the Big Three dictating the game comes up.

The bad vibrations of karma will no doubt follow these selfish cricketers and it was hard to feel any sympathy for the Aussie players who were stuck in India for a while; they did after all land up slumming it in the Maldives. Even the England players have now shown their true colours and they have not only been criticised by former captains like Mike Atherton and Michael Vaughan for what they did in South Africa, but their own England and Wales Cricket Board CEO Tom Harrison, who has been very helpful to CSA, now knows what they are like when it comes to negotiating new contracts.

To end on a positive note though: Cricket South Africa, chief medical officer Dr Shuaib Manjra and his doctors, and the compliance officers, all deserve enormous credit for how well-run our bubbles were last summer. There were only negligible issues and they have proven how safe it will be for any touring teams to come here.

There are still six weeks of action remaining in the Indian Premier League, but notwithstanding the weak performances of the Proteas T20 side, there were some strong showings by South Africans in the first week of the biggest tournament in cricket, highlighted by David Miller and Chris Morris combining to steer the Rajasthan Royals to a thrilling win over the Delhi Capitals.

AB de Villiers had not played a competitive game of cricket since the previous IPL finished in November, but he opened his 2021 campaign with a matchwinning 48 off 27 balls for the Bangalore Royal Challengers in their thrilling win over the defending champion Mumbai Indians. In their next game, he was still trying to work out the wizardry of leg-spinner Rashid Khan when he was dismissed for just a single.

Chris Morris has had a frustrating start to the IPL in terms of his fast bowling, having figures of two for 41 in four and one for 27 in three overs, but he vanquished all those negativities as he roared to 36 not out off just 18 balls to win a thriller for the Rajasthan Royals against the Delhi Capitals.

David Miller missed the Rajasthan Royals’ loss to the Sikhs from the Punjab Kings in their opening game, but played hide-and-seek with the Delhi Capitals’ bowlers, hammering 62 off just 43 deliveries as he led the recovery that was finished by Morris after coming in at 17 for three.

Marco Jansen has been thrust into the limelight at the IPL from the outset by the champion Mumbai Indians, but the 20-year-old has shown immense heart with the ball. His debut was impressive as he took two wickets in the 15^th over of the Bangalore innings, including that of Glenn Maxwell, finishing with fine figures of two for 28 in his four overs. He then bowled two overs for 17 runs against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Unfortunately he has made ducks in both his visits to the crease.

Kagiso Rabada played in that thrilling Rajasthan Royals’ loss to the Delhi Capitals and was the bowler of that penultimate over that cost 15 runs as Chris Morris hit him for two sixes. Rabada had been excellent with the ball before that, taking two for 15 in three overs. He also scored nine not out off four balls with the bat.

Quinton de Kock missed the first game and then scored just two off six balls, but he can still console himself with the fact that his Mumbai Indians team can still defend a low total like 152 as they beat Kolkata by 10 runs.

Faf du Plessis never got going in his opening IPL match, being dismissed for a three-ball duck as the Chennai Super Kings lost by seven wickets to the Delhi Capitals.

Lungi Ngidi and Imran Tahir have not yet played a game, while Anrich Nortje’s participation with the Delhi Capitals was delayed by a false positive Covid test.