Ken Borland

Covid-19 has dealt South African sports fans a cruel deck of cards, never mind a hand, with the much-anticipated British and Irish Lions rugby tour now almost certainly not happening in this country this year. But there is still something to look forward to with the Rugby World Cup Sevens coming to Cape Town next year.

Megapro, who are the giants of commercial rights and sponsorship sales in South African sport, were appointed as the exclusive sponsorship sales agency by WorldRugby earlier this month and they are busy ensuring they lay on a feast of entertainment. The overriding hope, of course, is that the pandemic has eased to such an extent by September next year that sport would have returned to normal with spectators cramming into the wonderful Cape Town Stadium.

It is reassuring to know that it is a former Sevens Springbok, Steven Hunt, who is spearheading this drive as the sales manager of Megapro.

“It’s a waiting game still for the Lions tour, which is sad because it only comes around every 12 years and we could miss out on the enormous benefits it brings to the country. But the light at the end of the tunnel is the Sevens World Cup next year and there is great excitement around that. Everyone wants to see sport return to normality and the hype of a big event.

“At the moment, putting on big sporting events is weighed down with challenges, but a world cup unites the country and to lose that feel-good factor is the major loss we are currently having. But it’s good to see the professional set-ups moving again, it shows why keeping sport going is so important. The Sevens World Cup could have a very similar impact to the Lions tour,” Hunt told me in their Bryanston offices this week.

High performance sport is like a fire that needs oxygen in order to burn, it needs spectators in order to oxidise and catch alight.

“Professional sport needs spectators, both for the commercial aspects and for the players themselves. It never happened to me in my career that we ever played with no crowds, but it affects the whole life cycle of the game. And Sevens is all about the fans and the fan engagements, the festivities and fun. The whole event lives on that energy.

“Obviously the positive about this Lockdown is that the supporters can’t wait to come back to live events and hopefully they come back stronger. We’re 100% expecting the crowds for rugby to come back bigger, better and stronger. There is still massive value in playing the tournament in an empty stadium though because we will still be putting it in front of the world,” Hunt said.

South African rugby was on an absolute high when Covid struck, having just won the XVs World Cup in sensational fashion in Japan, but now they are in a fight for survival. How long this ‘state of emergency’ for SA Rugby lasts is anyone’s guess because government is ill-equipped to provide many answers or an efficient vaccination programme.

“It’s terrible that the great momentum of the 2019 World Cup has been lost. SA Rugby pushes for answers about when fans can return but there are still none – the numbers could still go up, we just don’t know. And it boils down to WorldRugby whether there will be no spectators or not at the World Cup. Fortunately we have the Cape Town Sevens this year as the last event on the circuit and we can gauge a lot from that.

“The Cape Town Sevens has set massively high standards as an event so we will stick to that formula, keep how that is structured. SA Rugby also had success with the event in George and Port Elizabeth, so the World Cup is in good hands. It’s also the first global event that we have the exclusive rights for, so it is massive for Megapro. It will be a huge success, a top-class tournament, as long as there is no more Covid,” Hunt predicted.

South African rugby may miss out on the British and Irish Lions tour, but hosting the Rugby World Cup Sevens with international spectators will be like getting a kitten for Christmas.

The fact that the Springboks will be missing the defence of their Rugby Championship title – and any international rugby at all this year – is obviously terrible but it is a courageous and correct decision by SA Rugby.

The fact that, for once, the players were not thrown under the bus, sacrificed on the altar of financial gain, speaks volumes for the integrity and willingness to do the right thing for the game of the people who made that extremely tough decision.

Yes, not playing in the Rugby Championship is going to mean South African rugby, already bleeding due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is going to lose out on millions of rand. Fortunately some of the financial blow will be mitigated by some clever work in negotiation that has a clause written into the Sanzaar contract that if a country is unable to play due to circumstances beyond their control, then they still get a share of the revenue.

It is precisely that sort of integrity and willingness to act for the greater good of the game that is entirely missing from the Cricket South Africa Board.

What can we say about a person’s integrity and service to cricket when the forensic report they personally played a role in instituting implicates them in wrongdoing; and when both Sascoc, the controlling body for all high-performance sport in this country, and the Minister of Sport call for them to stand aside to allow for a proper investigation; but they stubbornly refuse to go, even at the risk of the ICC suspending the Proteas from international action?

As someone who has covered top-level cricket and rugby in this country for more than 25 years, I cannot escape the irony of where SA Rugby stands at the moment in terms of public credibility in comparison to Cricket South Africa.

CSA used to be leading the way in terms of transformation and good governance, and the Proteas, despite their miserable World Cup record, were consistently amongst the top three in global cricket. Rugby, slow to transform and with the tail (all the minor provinces) wagging the dog in terms of decision-making, delivered World Cups in 1995 and 2007, but there were many dark times on and off the field in between and after.

One of rugby’s lowest moments came when they tried to take on government, even forcing Nelson Mandela to testify in court. They took a long time to recover from that disgrace.

But with Rassie Erasmus and Jurie Roux leading the way, a third World Cup title was won last year with a marvellously transformed team that was loved by the public at large.

Rugby has learnt the lesson that you should never pick a fight with the sports minister: you might win a battle, but you will definitely ultimately lose the war. The arrogant CSA Board, judging by the awful letter acting president Beresford Williams sent to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa, clearly still need to learn this lesson.

The ICC may be the global governing body of the sport, but they are generally reluctant to get involved in the affairs of their individual members. In fact, they will only step in if a member complains to the ICC itself, which is why there have been numerous thoroughly dysfunctional administrations about which nothing has been done.

Haroon Lorgat, the former chief executive of both the ICC and CSA, has also drawn the important distinction between government interference and intervention. By forewarning CSA and the ICC – he gave them a very generous two weeks grace – Mthethwa has signalled that his stepping in is an intervention rather than interference. There are very few people other than the CSA Board who will not consider it a welcome intervention, so long and revolting this imbroglio has become.

Mthethwa issued his statement, which is one of the most dramatic in South African cricket history, on Wednesday. By Friday afternoon we were still waiting for any response from CSA to what amounts to a massive motion of no confidence in the organisation.

Perhaps they don’t know what to do, given the rank incompetence of so many of their directors. Well here’s a suggestion for the obstinate CSA Board: Do the right thing.

In my mind that involves anyone implicated in the Fundudzi Forensic Report immediately standing down, so Sascoc can do a thorough investigation of CSA’s affairs without these self-serving, power-hungry administrators  continually being in the picture.

That’s the sort of compromise that might just get Mthethwa off cricket’s back and stop him from doing something that could really lead to catastrophe for the sport.

For the sake of cricket, the game you have all professed to love so much, please just stand aside.

The Sharks have been the form team in South African rugby this year but following six months of Lockdown their daily focus has just been on returning to basics and trying to get sharper every day, according to star flyhalf Curwin Bosch.

How quickly the Sharks can regain the brilliance and momentum that took them to the top of the Super Rugby standings will be put to the test on Saturday when they take on a revamped Bulls side on SuperFan Saturday at Loftus Versfeld. Bosch was also the form flyhalf in South Africa before Lockdown and, with Handre Pollard out of rugby for the rest of the year, there will be plenty of focus on his own form with the Springbok No.10 jersey in mind.

“It will be tough for all of us to get that momentum back and it’s all about starting back at the basics once again. Saturday is the perfect opportunity for us to sharpen up our game and try out a couple of things we have been working on. We’re not looking too far ahead, we’re just going to take it game-by-game and hopefully we will improve every week.

“It’s great to be back and these are exciting times, but our bodies are still adjusting to contact and it’s going to be different with no crowds. Our approach this week is a bit different because we are preparing for the SuperRugby/Currie Cup competition that is coming up. But why change what we have been doing when obviously we have been doing something right?” Bosch said in a virtual interview on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old with two Test caps says the Sharks’ game-plan will once again revolve around playing a high-tempo game. Being at the fulcrum of that can only help Bosch’s chances of Springbok selection and he is surely closing the gap between himself and Elton Jantjies, who has been the spearhead of the Lions’ energetic style of play for so many years.

“We want to play with speed and tempo, so it’s going to be an interesting clash with the Bulls, because if you look along the lines of who they have signed, we expect a very physical game from their massive pack. I think the Bulls are going to try and slow us down, have a lot of set-pieces, while we will try to speed things up. We’re not looking to change much, just fine-tune what we’ve been trying to do.

“Personally, I’ve had a different approach this year with my main focus being on the Sharks and trying to help the team succeed. If I do that then Springbok selection will take care of itself. But I do see a bit of an opportunity to play number 10. It’s always my dream to play for the Springboks, that’s why I decided to stay at the Sharks. It was easy because we have become a special team in the last year,” Bosch says.

The South African women’s cricket team’s hopes of playing internationally this year seem to be crumbling into dust with no real effort being made by the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture to pay anything more than lip-service to their stated intention of uplifting women’s sport.

On Tuesday Cricket South Africa were forced to turn down an invitation from world champions England to play five women’s ODIs and two T20 internationals next month due to government not being willing to relax their international travel restrictions.

That would be understandable if it weren’t for the fact that the England and Wales Cricket Board had offered a chartered flight with all necessary health protocols to fly the Proteas team over. Government have also already granted certain sportsmen permission to travel overseas and compete. Repatriation flights and some business travel have also been allowed.

“It is frustrating that another opportunity for our Momentum Proteas to play against top-quality opposition has again had to be cancelled, but as always the safety of our players and support staff is the prime consideration, ” CSA director of cricket, Graeme Smith, said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Clare Connor, the managing director of England women’s cricket, sounded even more frustrated.

“I am immensely disappointed. We have been committed from the outset to deliver the same bio-secure standards for both men’s and women’s international cricket, an investment that included exclusive hotel use for teams, chartered flights and medical provisions. An ECB team, with support from the county ground in Derby, has created a dedicated behind-closed-doors environment to host all of our women’s internationals,” Connor said.

While the Ministry did not respond to a query for comment, they have been users of punitive measures against sporting federations that were not in their good books before. When CSA appeared before the sports portfolio committee recently, they were castigated by Minister Nathi Mthethwa for their “all-White management”.

President Chris Nenzani and acting CEO Jacques Faul have since resigned, but it would be no surprise if the ministry, often ill-informed on events on the inside of sporting organisations, have now also jumped on the anti-Smith bandwagon and are trying to make his life more difficult.