Ken Borland

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.

Cricket South Africa’s Members Council and Sascoc are likely to discover on Monday what punishment sports minister Nathi Mthethwa is going to hit them with after the stunt they pulled at the weekend’s Special General Meeting of the cricket body, leading to the new Memorandum of Incorporation designed to improve governance not being passed.

In a clearly orchestrated move, Sascoc president Barry Hendricks was parachuted into the SGM, having earlier turned down an invitation to just be an observer, and then delivered a prepared address that basically warned the Members Council that Sascoc would cancel their membership if they went ahead with the amendments to their constitution.

Hendricks had explicitly been warned by Mthethwa, in a letter last week, to not interfere with the process, and now he and Members Council acting president Rihan Richards have been called to a meeting with the minister on Monday.

“You cannot believe how annoyed the Minister is,” sources close to Mthethwa told The Citizen on Sunday.

A statement released by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture on Sunday said the minister was disappointed the Members Council had acted “in bad faith” and he has been left with “no further option but to exercise his rights in terms of Section 13 (5) of the Sports Act” and he “will be taking the necessary steps required to exercise his rights in terms of the law”.

It is likely that he will tell CSA that they are no longer recognised by the Department of Sport, which would lead to them being unable to play any international cricket.

The Interim Board, having failed to win over the recalcitrant Members Council, now only remains in name and will prepare their final report for Mthethwa, their term of office having ended with the SGM at the weekend. It is believed several directors have decided to take no further part in cricket’s affairs.

Cricket South Africa, already in troubled financial waters before the Members Council/Interim Board impasse, will now be in dire straights because leading sponsors and broadcasters are already believed to be preparing to jump ship. One official with knowledge of CSA’s financial situation said a ban on the Proteas would probably mean the organisation would be bankrupt and unable to run the game before the start of next season.

Sun City is hoping that luck’s with them this year and they are able to host the Nedbank Golf Challenge, but in the meantime South Africa’s juniors will have the good fortune of playing the Gary Player Country Club in a major event as the new Nedbank Junior Challenge was announced on Wednesday.

The prestigious Nedbank Golf Challenge was not held in 2020 due to Covid and not being able to have crowds in attendance, and tournament director Ken Payet said it was still too early to say whether ‘Africa’s Major’ would be able to take place this year. The European Tour have scheduled the tournament for November 11-14.

“We’ve been having discussions and from the Nedbank and European Tour perspective it is still too early and anything we say would be just speculation. We’re obviously hoping to put it on this year, but it depends on the regulations in place. By the end of June or July we will make a call, but there are just too many moving parts at the moment in terms of the regulations and everyone waiting for the third wave,” Payet said on Wednesday.

The good news though is that the country’s top juniors will get the whole famous Gary Player Country Club experience from May 3-5, with the winner of the event getting to be a part of the Nedbank Golf Challenge as an observer in the inner circle.

The 54-hole tournament will offer world amateur ranking points on a par with the SA Amateur Championship and the 78-man field will be drawn from the top-50 on the GolfRSA rankings as well as giving exposure to an excellent array of development golfers, through the SA Golf Development Board.

The winner will receive a replica of the famous crystal-ball Nedbank Golf Challenge senior trophy and might even be able to play a practice round with one of the players in the field for the professional showpiece.

Grant Hepburn, the CEO of GolfRSA, said there has already been an excellent response to the tournament.

“Entries have been open for one week and we are well over-subscribed already with 86 applications, so we will have the cream of the crop playing. We’re very excited to be taking our top amateurs to such an iconic venue. We all grew up watching the Nedbank Golf Challenge and it is such a big part of the South African sporting scene. This event is important for us to keep producing golfers at the highest level,” Hepburn said.

Decision-making is normally brilliant in the offices of SuperSport Park but out on the field at Kingsmead on Friday the Titans made a number of wrong decisions that saw them lose their crucial T20 Challenge match against the Dolphins by seven runs and be eliminated from the playoffs.

Their mistakes started in selection as ace spinner Simon Harmer was left out of the side for seam-bowling all-rounder Grant Thomson. It left the Titans with just one specialist spinner, while the Dolphins’ pairing of Prenelan Subrayen and Keshav Maharaj thoroughly dominated the first half of the Titans innings, conceding just 35 runs in their first seven overs combined.

Thomson did not bowl and batted number seven, and although he hit the first ball of the final over for six, he had little impact on the game. Off-spinner Harmer, who has an economy rate of just 5.13 in his 83 T20 games, may well have been able to deal with left-hander David Miller, who was the key batsman in the Dolphins innings, his 49 not out off 35 balls lifting them to 151 for six.

Sending all-rounder Dayyaan Galiem in at number three did pay off for the Titans as he scored a plucky, unselfish 45 off 39 balls to lift a flagging run-rate that saw only 26 runs scored in the powerplay of six overs.

But when Dean Elgar was dismissed by the impressive Kerwin Mungroo (4-0-29-2), the Titans needed 101 from 60 balls but sent in Sibonelo Makhanya instead of Heinrich Klaasen and Chris Morris, who have shown their finishing ability at international level.

By the time Makhanya was also dismissed by Mungroo, for 15 off 13 balls, the Titans needed 55 from 26 deliveries, the required run-rate having increased to 13.09.

Morris came in next but failed, before Klaasen gave the Titans hope with a courageous 29 not out off 14 balls.

But with 14 runs needed off three balls, the Titans were thrown a lifeline as Ottneil Baartman bowled a head-high delivery way down leg which was called no-ball and went for four byes.

That left the Titans needing nine off three balls, but Klaasen could only hammer the free hit straight to Miller at extra cover. Inexplicably he took the single, leaving tailender Lizaad Williams to score eight off the last two balls.

Williams failed to score as Baartman found the blockhole with the last two deliveries.

The Dolphins had won the toss and batted, and went on the attack from the outset as Sarel Erwee (33 from 20) led them to 62 for one after seven overs.

The Titans attack fought back well, Lungi Ngidi leading the way with an outstanding three for 20, but their batting has not been at its best in this tournament and their demise sees the Warriors play the Imperial Lions in Saturday’s playoff, which will decide who plays the Dolphins in Sunday’s final.