Ken Borland

–

Cricket South Africa counted the cost last year of their summer of Test cricket being disrupted, but CEO Haroon Lorgat is optimistic that the current troubles between the West Indies and their administrators will not lead to another international tour to these shores being severely curtailed or cancelled.

The West Indies team are currently on strike and at loggerheads with both their own players’ association (Wipa) and the board (WICB), having pulled out of their tour to India after just four ODIs. If the impasse is not resolved before December, then they may have to send a second-string outfit to South Africa or the tour might be cancelled.

But Lorgat is confident that the issues will be resolved and the best West Indian team will tour, particularly if they accept the offer of assistance from the Federation of International Cricketers Association (Fica), headed by South African Tony Irish.

“I’ve spoken to the West Indies board in the last 24 hours and they are reasonably confident that they will be able to keep their promise and tour here. I’m optimistic that they’ll be able to work through their issues.

“In two weeks’ time the RamSlam T20 Challenge starts here and I was told that the NOCs [No-Objection Certificates] would be granted to the West Indian players involved. There are some big players coming here, including captain Dwayne Bravo, and I’ll be able to talk to them then.

“Plus Tony Irish has offered his assistance, so there are many angles we can work from. The West Indian players are always keen to come to South Africa, so although it’s early days and there’s still lots of emotion, I’m quite confident that we’ll get things worked out,” Lorgat told The Citizen yesterday.

An important ace in CSA’s hands is that the tour to South Africa is the West Indies’ last before the World Cup and Lorgat said there is an eagerness amongst the Caribbean players to perform in that showpiece event.

“The players don’t want to miss out on the World Cup so I’m sure sanity will prevail. It could have been worse: it’s an explosive situation that has been simmering for a while and it could have happened while they were in South Africa!” Lorgat pointed out.

The current strike is the fourth to have affected West Indies cricket over the last decade or so and is centred on Wipa president Wavell Hinds signing a new collective bargaining agreement that results in a significant paycut for the players, as high as 70% for some.

The WICB are now holding the players to that signed contract. Wipa happens to have acted similarly a few years ago when the then-WICB chief executive mistakenly signed a deal giving the players $35 000 more per match-day.

Irish, who rose to the post of executive chairperson of Fica in June, told The Citizen that he had to offer his assistance because “the implications of this issue go far beyond West Indies cricket”.

 

 

These have been interesting times for the organisers of the co-sanctioned events that highlight the summer golf season in South Africa, but the Sunshine Tour is expected to release details of at least the first half of the lucrative schedule this week.

The delay has mainly been due to the uncertainty of when to stage the South African Open, the flagship event of the summer and one for which the Sunshine Tour recently regained the commercial rights.

Unfortunately, the European Tour shifted their Volvo World Matchplay Championship from May to this week in the schedule, pushing their Tour Championship out to November 20-23, the week which had been used by the SA Open in recent years.

In what they described as “a shift in golf sponsorship strategy to focus on customers”, this will be the last time Volvo sponsor the famous matchplay event and they have also pulled the plug on the European Tour’s tournament of winners, the Volvo Golf Champions, which has been hosted by South Africa for the last three years.

While the loss of a high-profile European Tour event like that is obviously a great pity, it has left a gap in the schedule that could well now be filled by the SA Open.

January 8-11, 2015, is now the likely date of the SA Open and the talk amongst the pros is that Glendower Golf Club will once again host the prestigious event, for which big developments are expected in the near future.

The Sunshine Tour could lose another co-sanctioned event with the Nelson Mandela Championship in doubt due to both sponsorship and scheduling issues, taking the number of European Tour events in South Africa this summer down to six.

The Nedbank Golf Challenge will continue its strong new relationship with the European Tour from December 4-7 at Sun City, with the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek being held the following week.

Insiders say the Joburg, Africa and Tshwane Opens should all take place next year, although scheduling challenges do exist.

If the Nelson Mandela Championship does get the go-ahead, it could be staged at the Wild Coast Sun, moving from Durban, according to the professionals.

 

Driving the 177km from Letaba to Punda Maria in a day is a real test of endurance. The far north of Kruger National Park is often incredibly hot in summer and flat mopaneveld stretches on for miles and miles, with birds few and far between.

Generally the birdlife is concentrated along the alluvial floodplains which are well-wooded, especially in the Shingwedzi region, and the mixed woodland on shale, particularly around Punda Maria.

And so it becomes very important to focus as soon as you hit an area that looks promising for birds because, after an hour on the tar road driving through stunted Mopane grassland, you don’t want to miss the sightings that do suddenly materialise.

March 9 was a case in point. Approaching Mopani camp in the middle of the day with the temperature reading 39°, my mind was definitely straying towards the ice-cold Coke I was so lusting for as I neared the turnoff to one of the newer Kruger Park camps.

The Shipandani stream crosses that turnoff, temporarily running parallel to the H1-6, and late summer rains meant there was a fair bit of water pooled up against the culvert. With long grass on the banks and an overhanging tree, it looked a likely spot for something interesting, so I stopped to scan the area carefully, thoughts of much-needed refreshment being put to the side.

And I’m glad I did. Amidst the other more common birds hanging around, I noticed the unmistakable blue flash of a kingfisher …

There being water around, my initial thought was obviously a Malachite, but this kingfisher was too big as it returned to its perch, a dead stick on the edge of the pool. How about a Halfcollared Kingfisher, which I had never seen before in Kruger Park, but which has been uncommonly recorded … ?

But the head was not blue, but a dirty whitish-grey in colour, and then I saw the chestnut belly and so it could only be the even scarcer Greyheaded Kingfisher, only my second sighting of this beautiful bird.

On such a sweltering day, it was unsurprising that this African migrant was bathing and preening. Suitably inspired, I was soon refreshing myself at Mopani camp before pressing on for Punda Maria.

With the waterholes full, there were sporadic patches of exciting bird activity: An excellent patch of flooded grassland around the N’warihlangari waterhole, 20km north-west of Shingwedzi, provided Orangebreasted Waxbill, a very rare bird in Kruger and a special sighting, just my third anywhere.

Eurasian Golden Oriole was spotted dashing along the tree-lined Nkokodzi River heading towards Shingwedzi, a Tawny Eagle was hanging around Bowkerkop and a Striped Cuckoo was calling and moving along the Tsendze River, providing an exciting close-up sighting at the Mooiplaas picnic site just outside Mopani.

The long day began at Letaba camp, which is an excellent birding spot in its own right because it is on the sizeable Letaba River and the woodland is full of well-established trees.

Blackbacked Puffback, Paradise Flycatcher, Yellowbreasted Apalis, Dusky Flycatcher and Redwinged Starling were all seen while packing up camp, while friendly Bushbuck, Tree Squirrels and Dwarf Mongoose also came by.

Driving north out of Letaba along the H1-6, there are several kilometres of river frontage to enjoy and I was able to add Little and Whitefronted Bee-Eaters, Emeraldspotted Wood Dove, Nile Crocodile, Goliath Heron, Black Stork, African Spoonbill and Yellowbilled Kite to the growing list.

As you cross the Tropic of Capricorn, 16km north-west of Mopani, the S144 turnoff to the north-east takes you into dry Mopane scrubveld. Having seen them before in this exact area, I was thinking Redcrested Korhaan could well be the next bird to tick off and hey presto! one male started his distinctive clicking call and was then found sheltering under a bush.

The beautiful Shingwedzi camp was unfortunately closed due to most of it being washed away in the previous floods (which is why my need for a Coke was so great at Mopani!), but a Southern Black Tit was picked up at the turnoff.

The open veld north of Shingwedzi has rank grasslands growing and this is perfect habitat for the Whitewinged Widow. Even better habitat was found the following day, 3.5km north of the S59 near Punda Maria, with hundreds roosting in the long grass there.

The wonderful thing about birding in Kruger Park is, of course, the incredible variety of birds that are drawn to the bushveld. The famous reserve is the centre of activity for more than 500 bird species.

And so, just before the tropical lushness of the N’warihlangari waterhole, one drives through an area of dry, stunted savanna grasssland, overgrazed as summer gives way to autumn, and Chestnutbacked Sparrowlark, a fairly uncommon bird to look out for in the eastern half of the park, made an appearance.

Sightings list

Brownbacked Tree Frog

Blackbacked Puffback

Bushbuck

Blackeyed Bulbul

Paradise Flycatcher

Tree Squirrel

Yellowbreasted Apalis

Impala

Little Swift

Dusky Flycatcher

Redwinged Starling

Dwarf Mongoose

Lappetfaced Vulture

Little Bee-Eater

Emeraldspotted Wood Dove

European Swallow

Blue Waxbill

Common Sandpiper

Nile Crocodile

Greenshank

Goliath Heron

Wiretailed Swallow

Whitefronted Bee-Eater

Hippopotamus

Wood Sandpiper

Blacksmith Plover

Egyptian Goose

Threebanded Plover

Black Stork

Redfaced Cisticola

Pied Kingfisher

African Spoonbill

Grey Heron

Yellowbilled Kite

Namaqua Dove

Striped Cuckoo

Southern Black Flycatcher

Cinnamonbreasted Rock Bunting

Carmine Bee-Eater

Blue Wildebeest

Swainson’s Francolin

Greater Blue-Eared Starling

Redbilled Woodhoopoe

Rattling Cisticola

Cape Turtle Dove

European Bee-Eater

Crested Francolin

Forktailed Drongo

Vervet Monkey

Redbilled Quelea

Southern Greyheaded Sparrow

Lilacbreasted Roller

Wahlberg’s Eagle

Bateleur

Greyheaded Kingfisher

Natal Francolin

Tawny Eagle

Redcrested Korhaan

European Golden Oriole

Southern Black Tit

Whitebacked Vulture

European Roller

Whitewinged Widow

Elephant

Buffalo

Lesser Grey Shrike

Sabota Lark

Redbacked Shrike

Yellowbilled Hornbill

Longtailed Shrike

Arrowmarked Babbler

Laughing Dove

Plains Zebra

Greater Kudu

Giraffe

Grey Hornbill

Grey Lourie

Waterbuck

Wattled Starling

Brown Snake Eagle

Woodland Kingfisher

Glossy Starling

Fantailed Cisticola

Marabou Stork

Blackshouldered Kite

Slender Mongoose

Chestnutbacked Sparrowlark

Orangebreasted Waxbill

 

Going into the tournament with confidence is one of the laws of success in the World Cup, according to South Africa coach Russell Domingo, and he has already mapped out his plans for a summer that could be the making of his tenure in charge of the Proteas.

“Confidence going into the World Cup is always vital. Playing well throughout the year leading up to the tournament is probably more important than anything else.

“If you’re losing a lot beforehand, then you have to make changes in personnel or strategy just before the tournament, which is never ideal. The players need to feel comfortable in the strategy you’re going to use,” Domingo said after his presentation to the country’s leading coaches at the CSA Level IV Coaching Conference at the High Performance Centre yesterday.

One of the strategies which Domingo believes will be highly applicable in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand from next February is the use of bouncers, while he defended the Proteas’ scarce use of yorkers.

“How many bouncers you use depends on the opposition and the pitches, but it’s a very useful weapon. Someone like Kumar Sangakkara ducks just about every bouncer so those are dot-balls.

“The stats show that a wide yorker is very hittable if you just miss your length. Very few people bowl six yorkers an over at the death, even Lasith Malinga, who has the best yorker of anyone, doesn’t bowl it  every time.

“Predictability is very dangerous at the end of the innings, you can’t just bowl yorkers, you have to mix up your deliveries. The short ball is very important in this regard because it causes doubt and fear in the minds of batsmen, and cause them to get into strange positions sometimes as well,” Domingo said.

Although Jacques Kallis has halved his cricketing commitments, Domingo said the great all-rounder was still an integral part of their plans for the World Cup. There is no doubt that, used in the top-order to set up the innings, Kallis can be a batting kingpin for South Africa, while he is also still good for a few overs as well.

But in order for the team’s planning to be complete by the time they begin their World Cup challenge against Zimbabwe in Hamilton on February 15, Kallis is going to have to play most of South Africa’s ODIs in the next nine months.

“We have 24 ODIs before the World Cup, but to ask Jacques to play in all of those is unrealistic. But he’ll definitely be needed to play in the vast majority of those because we have to develop a strategy for playing with Jacques Kallis. We have to incorporate him back into the team and it effects the balance – we could play seven batsmen instead of six batsmen and an all-rounder. It’s a different dynamic because we’ve developed a strategy for playing without Jacques Kallis in recent times,” Domingo said.

AB de Villiers was just an eight-year-old child when the World Cup was last held in Australasia in 1992, the wonder of South Africa’s return to the international fold turning to dismay when poor rain rules ended their dream run at the semi-final stage and started a seeming curse for the team in that tournament that they have yet to shake off.

De Villiers will almost certainly be the captain of South Africa’s World Cup squad this time around, and he is also the favourite to inherit Graeme Smith’s Test captaincy.

“The captaincy is not cut-and-dried and there are some really good options. It would be a tough ask for AB to be captain, keep wicket and be a key batsman, and the selectors will take that into cognisance. I have input with the selectors and then their recommendation goes to the board, who make the final decision,” Domingo said while trying to throw journalists off the scent.

But he possibly let slip his feelings on the matter when he said: “It’s going to be a big challenge for the new leader to step up and fill the massive void that Graeme has left. But the maturity of the Test side will enable him to do it and senior guys like Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla know that a new leader is coming in and will bring different ideas to the team.”

South Africa have been offenders before when it comes to going into World Cups without covering all their bases, but with the domestic competitions arranged to help their planning and a limited-overs tour to New Zealand and Australia in October/November, they should not want for preparation.

“I’ll be looking for consistency in selection and strategies, and hopefully we’ll have settled on our combination and the style we want to play. The last 10 ODIs before the World Cup, I’ll look to play the best XI as much as possible.

“We have a pretty good idea of the 15 we want, but it would be naïve to think all 15 of those will make the World Cup because of injuries, loss of form or a domestic player shooting the lights out and putting his name in the hat,” Domingo said.