Ken Borland

The intensity and skill on display in the new domestic structure makes the cricket very competitive, but it is the game-awareness of international players that marks them out when you move to a higher level, according to Western Province paceman Beuran Hendricks.

Hendricks was unfortunate to miss out on selection for the Proteas squad currently in the United Arab Emirates preparing for the T20 World Cup, but will instead spearhead Western Province’s efforts to try and win the CSA Provincial T20 Cup and bring some silverware to Newlands for the first time since 2014/15.

Western Province did not have things easy though qualifying for the quarterfinals from Pool A, and the Central Gauteng Lions fell by the wayside in the same group, which was topped by Division II side South-Western Districts.

“The start of the season has been brilliant and very competitive,” Hendricks told The Citizen. “It looks like a good product and it woke up a few teams. We nearly found out the hard way that the Division II teams are not mediocre.

“We were in difficult positions, the Lions were knocked out and the Titans had a big scare. We’ve seen talent come through, names you didn’t see at franchise level like Evan Jones and Clyde Fortuin.

“There’s no problem with the intensity and the guys have the skill, but where the shift to international level comes is in game-awareness. You have to make sure you have all your bases covered, not just one factor.

“The guys need to make sure they hone their skills, specifically the T20 ones like change-ups and yorkers at the death, and the awareness that the field-placings have to be spot-on,” Hendricks, who has played one Test, eight ODIs and 19 T20s for South Africa, said.

While Western Province were far from perfect in edging out the Lions by two runs and beating Northern Cape, it was pleasing that they came through under pressure, which speaks well of the environment in the squad under Faiek Davids.

“We’re quite relaxed and the guys are starting to enjoy themselves. It was quite a tough environment before because losing is never easy.

“But experienced guys like myself, Wayne Parnell and Aviwe Mgijima are trying to bring a sense of calm to the group. If the seniors take responsibility then the youngsters can just express themselves.

“Having three left-arm quicks in myself, Wayne and Nandre Burger is also good because it means it’s not easy for the opposing batsmen, who normally face so many right-armers.

“I’ve never seen three left-arm quicks play in the same team before, but we feed off each other and it’s definitely an asset to have 12 overs of left-arm seam,” Hendricks said.

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.

A new year brings new challenges for the Interim Board of Cricket South Africa with arrangements for the Australian Test tour needing to be made and a new structure for the organisation now being considered by the directors.

Judge Zak Yacoob, the chairman of the Interim Board, said on Thursday that he was confident the incoming tour by Australia would take place, although he did let slip that it is now expected to take place only in April.

“The Australia tour will go ahead at this stage. A week ago I had a chat with the head of Cricket Australia and we agreed that we would make sure the facilities are as good as necessary. Not that we did anything wrong when England were here because none of their players were affected by Covid. But our learnings on this virus changes all the time, it is unpredictable.

“But we both have doctors and other experts who will lead us through and if they say our facilities are fine then I have no doubt that the tour will go ahead, unless things take a real turn for the worse. But cricket fans must know that if they comply with all the precautions then they are not only doing it for themselves but doing it in the interests of cricket. I know we are looking at April,” Yacoob said.

The Interim Board’s term of office expires on February 15 and Yacoob said their focus in the next three weeks would be on formulating a new structure for the board.

“Our most important consideration now is how to change the structure of CSA to ensure it works better, and that is an independent process because we have no intention of being on any future CSA board. The main objective is to ensure that the Memorandum of Incorporation (MoI) and the Board Charter are changed in accordance with the Nicholson recommendations i.e. the need for an independent board.

“We are trying to work through what the power of the Members Council should be and the one conclusion is that we cannot have two centres of power. We have decided it would be preferable for the Board to be in control of day-to-day operational matters. If the directors are independent then they will have no personal interest in the decisions taken,” Yacoob said.

While one former director – Omphile Ramela, the previous president of the players’ union – has launched court action to overturn his removal from the Board, another – former Easterns president Xolani Vonya – has been reinstated as a director.

The move seems part of a more conciliatory tone towards the Members Council.

“Mr Vonya is back, because the Board decided that may be better. Some of the reasons for his removal were not fully justified, Easterns did not fully justify their very serious allegations against him. On balance, we had a rethink and decided to be more generous towards him.

“We have not yet really engaged the Members Council on the new MoI and I suspect there will be a difference of opinion, which is justifiable. An independent Board does reduce the power of the Members Council but I am certain they will operate in good faith. There will be genuine and bona fide debate over how independent the Board should be.

“One can get carried away and get people who know nothing about the game and you obviously need to avoid that. The Members Council have to appoint us again and if they don’t approve us again then off we go on February 15 unless the Minister of Sport does something. We would have to tell the Minister that we have not finished our work, but I personally would not implore him to intervene, he must make an objective decision,” Yacoob said.

Richard Pybus has been one of the real legends of domestic coaching in South Africa, having won nine trophies with the Titans and Cape Cobras franchises, but he began his career guiding lowly Border into a position where they were competitive against the big guns of local cricket. So when the former Pakistan and West Indies coach says plans to change the domestic structure, increasing the top level to 12 provincial teams, are not addressing the true problems in South African cricket then his views should be considered seriously.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Pybus said of the plan to do away with the six franchises at the top table of domestic cricket. “They are trying to fix the wrong thing. The issue is the administration of the game and not franchise cricket. Why are Cricket South Africa in their current financial position? They should review that. Why pull apart a highly effective system, the same sort of model that has given Australia consistent success?

“The issue is not our model but getting our administration right. Our problems are not about the franchise game, that’s giving us what is needed, which is incredible competition, the best 66 players in the country going up against each other. The franchise system was directly responsible and supported our national team getting to number one. We want strength versus excellence, not to dilute that,” Pybus told The Citizen from his house in Hermanus.

The 55-year-old Pybus said the domestic system needed to reflect the differences between the high-performance needs of the Proteas pipeline and those of growing the game.

“Our cricket has lots of layers and it needs to be clearer whether those layers serve the recreational game or the Proteas, with a lot of layers not really serving either of them. A lot of our cricket should not be professional and any changes should be about strengthening that level. We have a brilliant, multi-cultural game and it also needs to be inclusive.

“The development programme does have some issues, there are not enough players coming from Black communities, but that has nothing to do with franchise cricket. There are geographical and historical reasons for those issues. Coaching is also a real problem and it will take a generation to transform that because we have pushed all our senior coaches out, that intellectual capital is gone,” Pybus said.