Ken Borland

Northerns Titans CEO Jacques Faul likes to spring a surprise on the opposition and, on face value, the franchise’s decision to sign Beyers Swanepoel for the coming season will be a shock to some, given the controversial fashion in which the all-rounder’s stint down the road at the Central Gauteng Lions ended.

The final match of last season was the One-Day Cup final between the two Gauteng archrivals and a tightly-contested thriller went the Titans’ way, thanks mostly to the heroics of Keegan Petersen and Duan Jansen.

But Swanepoel’s bizarre decision to leave the field of play in the 43^rd over of the Titans chase, having bowled his ration of 10 overs, also played a major part in the visitors to the Wanderers shifting the momentum of the game. Because Swanepoel had not suffered any injury, the Lions were not allowed to substitute him and were left with 10 fielders for the tense finale’, which they lost by three wickets on the penultimate ball of the match.

Swanepoel had chosen to leave early so he could catch a flight to England, where he was due to join Worcestershire for the county season. Astonishingly, he also did not have a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from his local franchise or Cricket South Africa to play overseas, an incredible oversight by his agents, Tridon Sports Management.

His team-mates were left in a strange state of heartbreak and fury after the game and it did not take long, less than two weeks later, for the Lions to terminate his contract. That did, however, make Swanepoel a free agent and CSA agreed to give him an NOC to play for Worcestershire. The mother body did, however, lay a Level 4 charge of bringing the game into disrepute against him.

That can carry a ban of 10 matches, which would be a sizeable part of next season. The CSA disciplinary hearing has still not been held, however, due to the unavailability of the disciplinary commissioner.

That means there is still a lot of uncertainty over Swanepoel: Not only in terms of his mental state but how much of next season he is going to be missing due to a ban. For Faul and the Titans, however, it is not an outside-the-box signing and the CEO confirmed that he did not even need Board approval to offer the talented 28-year-old a contract.

“Professional sport is cut-throat and we have to sign people who can help us to win. Our information was that four franchises wanted to sign him. He’s 28 years old, so he probably has seven years left as a top cricketer, and he has no track record of this sort of behaviour before,” Faul told kenborland.com.

“I think he just got the date of his flight wrong and to not allow him to play here would be a severe punishment. Everyone’s entitled to one mistake, he has apologised and he has been sanctioned by the Lions.

“He is still a very capable player and it would be wrong to scapegoat a quality cricketer like him. We had to sign him before the CSA disciplinary because the contracting window was closing. But hopefully emotions have died down a bit and he’s not painted into a corner.

“He thought no-one else would want him, but I hope he can redeem himself, I think he will. To be remembered for that one incident would be the saddest thing. And he is the right profile cricketer for us – at this stage he doesn’t play for SA A or the Proteas. And he was schooled here in Titans territory at Garsfontein,” Faul said.

It is believed that the Lions players and coaches did not want to lose a cricketer of Swanepoel’s ability and were willing to forgive him, but the Lions board were adamant that he had to go.

The whole incident will be even more galling for the Wanderers-based team now that Swanepoel has gone across the Hennops River to their great rivals, the same team that snatched the one-day trophy from them after his inexplicable departure. A swing bowler who can be quite phenomenal on his day, both with the red and the white ball, Swanepoel is also a very handy batsman down the order, capable of scoring very quickly.

Our domestic cricket would be the loser without Swanepoel playing and hopefully CSA can sort out his disciplinary hearing soon and therefore finally draw a line under a most unfortunate incident.

The Unlimited Titans were able to spring into action – as befits the month of September – from the word go as they dominated the opening day of the inaugural Global Softech Sixes Franchise Challenge with three consecutive victories at SuperSport Park yesterday.

Their opening match, the 10.50am encounter with the Warriors, proved a good tune-up as they restricted the Eastern Cape franchise to 87 for two in their five overs, left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe and medium-pacers Theunis de Bruyn and Farhaan Behardien all producing tidy overs.

De Bruyn is also a clean-hitting, powerful batsman and he slammed four sixes off nine balls in scoring 33 not out as he and fellow opener Henry Davids (32 retired off 7 balls, 4×6) broke the back of the chase as the Titans laid down an early warning to the other franchises, winning with a full over to spare.

In their second match, against the Highveld Lions, David Wiese showed that he is one of the most effective hitters in the country as he hammered four sixes off five balls, scoring 25 not out to take the Titans to 99 for one.

Behardien, another man who has no doubt been earmarked for the national team to be chosen tomorrow, scored 27 not out off 10 balls, while De Bruyn again showed what a talented batsman he is by scoring 34 off 10 balls before having to retire.

Spin is again proving to be an effective weapon for the Titans and Van der Merwe conceded just eight runs, six of them from one hit by Chris Morris, in the second over before off-spinner Davids took two for seven in the third to fatally undermine the Lions’ chase.

There was a slight threat in the final over when De Bruyn had to be taken out of the attack after bowling two high full tosses, hit for six and four respectively, but wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle, with 28 runs to play with, conceded 19 runs off the last four balls and removed the dangerous Morris, who belted seven sixes in his 53 off 17 deliveries.

Wiese bowled a magnificent opening over, conceding just four runs (the most economical of the day) and dismissing Cameron Delport for a duck to give the Titans early control in the final game of the day, against the Dolphins.

But Morne van Wyk, who was only dismissed once yesterday in scoring 113 runs off 30 balls, hit four sixes in his 31 retired and Khaya Zondo made 35 retired off nine balls to take the Dolphins to a competitive 97 for one.

But Davids (35) and De Bruyn (33) each plundered five sixes before retiring with the bulk of the chase done, Wiese scoring 22 not out off five balls to steer the Titans home with four deliveries to spare.

The Titans now need to win just one of their two matches today to book their place in the Franchise Challenge final.

Scores in brief

Cape Cobras 72-5 (Richard Levi 20, Justin Ontong 20*; Malusi Siboto 1-8, Shadley van Schalkwyk 2-9). Knights 67-3 (Dillon du Preez 21, Werner Coetsee 22*; Stiaan van Zyl 1-7). Cape Cobras won by 5 runs.

Warriors 87-2 (Colin Ingram 36*, Jon-Jon Smuts 24). Titans 90-1 (Henry Davids 32*, Theunis de Bruyn 33*, Farhaan Behardien 23). Titans won by 5 wickets.

Highveld Lions 83-4 (Shaylen Pillay 55*; Khaya Zondo 3-10). Dolphins 72-5 (Morne van Wyk 28, Khaya Zondo 24*; Chris Morris 1-8, Pumelela Matshikwe 2-10). Highveld Lions won by 11 runs.

Cape Cobras 84-2 (Richard Levi 32*, Justin Ontong 25*; Ryan Bailey 2-12). Warriors 89-0 (Colin Ingram 34*, Christiaan Jonker 22*, Ryan Bailey 30*). Warriors won by 6 wickets.

Titans 99-1 (Theunis de Bruyn 34*, Farhaan Behardien 27*, David Wiese 25*; Dwaine Pretorius 1-10). Highveld Lions 91-5 (Chris Morris 53; Henry Davids 2-7). Titans won by 8 runs.

Dolphins 120-3 (Morne van Wyk 54*, Cameron Delport 35*, Keshav Maharaj 20; Werner Coetsee 2-20). Knights 95-1 (Reeza Hendricks 36*, Dillon du Preez 20, Werner Coetsee 32*). Dolphins won by 25 runs.

Cape Cobras 113-3 (Stiaan van Zyl 31*, Richard Levi 35*, Dane Vilas 34*). Highveld Lions 109-1 (Chris Morris 34*, Shaylen Pillay 33*, Brian Barnard 20*). Cape Cobras won by 4 runs.

Dolphins 97-1 (Morne van Wyk 31*, Robbie Frylinck 21*, Khaya Zondo 35*; David Wiese 1-4). Titans 101-1 (Henry Davids 35*, Theunis de Bruyn 33*, David Wiese 22*). Titans won by 5 wickets.

Today’s fixtures: 10h00 Warriors v Knights; 10h50 Dolphins v Cobras; 11h40 Knights v Titans; 12h30 Warriors v Lions; 13h20 Titans v Cobras; 14h10 Warriors v Dolphins; 15h00 Knights v Lions; 16h10 Franchise Sixes final.