Ken Borland

The representatives of the Cricket South Africa Board tasked with meeting parliament’s portfolio committee on sports, arts and culture on Tuesday found the going so tough that they caved in and have agreed to release the full Fundudzi Forensic Report to those politicians by 4.30pm on Friday.

CSA’s seven-strong delegation included acting president Beresford Williams and independent directors Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, Marius Schoeman and Dheven Dharmalingam, but they received a hostile welcome from the sports portfolio committee, who were miffed that a summary of the forensic report had been released publicly on Monday before the politicians had had a chance to look at it.

The self-serving nature of CSA leadership is probably only matched by those parasites in parliament, so it was no surprise when the portfolio committee, who have been waiting five months for the report, began to demand that nothing less than the full, unedited Fundudzi findings be made available to them.

It was Schoeman, the chairman of CSA’s audit and risk committee, who eventually made the concession.

“It’s a tipping point and a step in the right direction. The protocol to follow is that the Members Council will be consulted and confirm that the Board may release this report. It will be released in hard copy by Fundudzi by Friday, close of business, 16 hours 30. If this is not done by 16:30 on Friday, then I will resign,” Schoeman promised.

Acting president Williams, who was mentioned in the Fundudzi report for failing to recuse himself when there were conflicts of interest in loan discussions between CSA and the Western Province Cricket Association which he formerly headed, also committed himself to the full report being released. That will surely see him put out to grass when the AGM is held on December 5, following former president Chris Nenzani, who had initially made all sorts of promises about releasing the report and then resigned in mid-August, into the wilderness.

“On behalf of CSA I just want to recommit that we will deliver on our promise. Thanks to everyone for their contribution. We will make the full report available as committed,” Williams said.

Judging by the level of anger expressed by the sports portfolio committee and by Sascoc, it seems inevitable that they will only be satisfied once the entire CSA Board has been put out to pasture.

“I respected cricket’s leadership when they said they were waiting and processing. But the respect I have given you I didn’t see in return. You think that this report does not belong to the committee. Why should we wait, five months down the line? And instead of this committee being given the full report, a summary goes to the public.

“I’m very disappointed with your leadership for disrespecting even the chairperson of this committee, who gave you chances when the members said I shouldn’t. You didn’t have the courtesy of thinking, five months down the line, that there is a committee of parliament that you were supposed to prioritise. I don’t take kindly to what you have done to me. I’m so disappointed in your leadership that, five months down the line, you have done this to us,” Beauty Dlulane, the chair of the sports portfolio committee, said.

The effectiveness with which the Bulls were able to kill the Sharks’ momentum in last weekend’s SuperFan Saturday match at Loftus Versfeld will weigh heavily on coach Sean Everitt’s mind as he prepares for the tough SuperRugby Unlocked challenges that lie ahead.

While the Sharks set the tone in SuperRugby earlier this year with the brisk tempo of their play and the efficient finishing of their backline, the Bulls showed that both those factors can be taken out of the equation if the KwaZulu-Natalians are beaten at source and don’t get enough quick ball, with the home side romping to a 49-28 win in Pretoria.

The loss of Andre Esterhuizen, Tyler Paul, Juan Schoeman and Le Roux Roets has robbed the Sharks of much go-forward grunt and they will have some other big packs to contend with when Super Rugby Unlocked starts on October 9 when they host the Lions in Durban.

“I thought the Bulls’ breakdown work was outstanding and we battled to get quick ball. Momentum comes from what type of ball you get at the breakdown and it was difficult for us to get any momentum, difficult to get on the front foot. In terms of physicality, the Bulls handled us well. It’s always difficult when you’re under the pump and don’t get over the gain-line.

“You end up making mistakes under pressure and turnovers, which means you’re always on the back foot. So it was obviously not the scoreline we wanted. We wanted to play off turnovers but they negated that and then three missed balls in the air cost us three tries. We will have to reorganise in that area, although we were also a bit unfortunate on attack,” Everitt said.

Given that the Sharks play a high-risk, high-reward type of rugby and that they now have a young side, it was understandable that there were costly moments when sound judgement was not always apparent.

“We certainly took a lot of learnings from the game. We came in with an enlarged squad and a lot of really good youngsters, and in the second half they did exceptionally well, playing the style of rugby we wanted. When you play risky rugby, sometimes things are not going to go well and missing some balls in the air cost us, the Bulls did well in the set-pieces and their breakdown work was outstanding.

“When we were deep inside their 22, maybe we didn’t always take the right options and we’ll now have to refocus. Injuries will happen, that’s part of the game, and we were fortunate not to have many in SuperRugby. But now a perfect scenario would be being able to rotate the squad, but we are still getting contact fit. The good news is James Venter, Henco Venter and Madosh Tambwe should all be available for the Lions game,” Everitt said.

That there is enormous cricketing potential in this country is generally accepted, but due to a variety of reasons, it is tough for Cricket South Africa (CSA) to ensure all our communities get decent opportunities to play the game.

CSA’s development programmes are one thing, but what happens next? How do those talented young cricketers in the outlying areas then get to play enough decent matches, how are they transported to matches, what facilities do they have with which to hone their game? Are they given the love of cricket and then just left to their own devices?

CSA identified these problems and came up with the idea of hubs and regional performance centres (RPCs).

The RPCs have been a heck of a success in ensuring it is no longer the case that talented young cricketers from disadvantaged areas are lost to the system due to socio-economic circumstances. And, in tremendous news for South African cricket, it has been announced on Thursday that Standard Bank, the headline sponsors of the Proteas, will no longer be focused on just the pinnacle of the pipeline, but are now making a major contribution at grassroots level with their sponsorship of the RPC programme.

The implementation of the RPC programme means CSA are now making great headway in terms of building relationships with communities and local municipalities. And now this progress will be accelerated thanks to the support of Standard Bank, who have added this vital development initiative to their naming rights sponsorship of the national team.

“Standard Bank has been a key supporter and sponsor of the Proteas for many years and by sponsoring the RPCs we hope to develop the immense cricketing talent we have in our country.

Budding young cricketers in many outlying areas are still in desperate need of facilities and coaching, and this RPC in Soweto will assist in helping these players fulfil their true potential and turn their dreams into reality,” Vuyo Masinda from Standard Bank said at the launch of the new deal at the Dobsonville RPC in Soweto on Thursday.

There are RPCs in all nine provinces, with each having several hubs in their stable acting as feeders. Having a centralised venue dedicated to nurturing the disadvantaged talent in the vicinity allows CSA to pour resources into it, ensuring there is adequate infrastructure with which to develop quality cricketers.

Girls and women’s cricket is also included in this programme.

The quality of coaching is also of the greatest importance and each RPC must have a head coach who is Level III certified and an assistant coach who is Level II certified. The Hubs must have a head coach who is Level II certified and an assistant coach who is Level I certified.

The feeder system for the Hubs starts with the KFC Mini-Cricket programme and, thanks to the Momentum Friendship Games, the Hubs and RPCs get to play against the leading schools in their area.

Some of the franchise players who will be acting as mentors for the programme include Omphile Ramela, Malusi Siboto, Khaya Zondo, Mangaliso Mosehle and Temba Bavuma.

Jonty Rhodes says his reluctance to make tough calls and decisions cancels out any desire to be a head coach, but he adds these exact qualities are what makes Faf du Plessis a great captain.

Rhodes captained Natal for a brief period during his playing days, but always served as a trusty lieutenant to Hansie Cronje and Shaun Pollock in the national team. Although he travels the world as a consultant coach, with fielding his area of expertise, these days, he says he has no desire to become a head coach.

“As captain I used to take things too personally. You have to make the tough calls and decisions and that’s just not my personality, I prefer being more of a motivator. And that’s also why I don’t qualify as head coach material.

“But Faf is a hard guy, he’s very strong mentally and you see it in his batting, anywhere from number three to number five. He brings that tenacity, he’s an unruffled batsman, he’s not flamboyant, he works flippen hard and plays to his strengths. He can block forever and maybe the comeback by the Proteas in the second Test, the way they just built and built the pressure on England, we didn’t give them an inch, we really grinded them, was a reflection of his character,” Rhodes told The Citizen on Wednesday at the CSA Centre of Excellence, where he was putting the national academy through their paces.

Rhodes added that with Jacques Kallis out of the picture, the Proteas had to make the tough decision to change the balance of the team by bringing in the extra frontline bowler in Chris Morris.

“For a long time we had Jacques, who was a frontline batsman at three and a frontline bowler, and not many teams have that. We maybe didn’t appreciate how blessed we were because he was like having an extra player.

“So the Proteas had to make that call. It depends on what’s best for the situation and conditions, I suppose if there’s a bit of juice in the pitch and you can afford to have one bowler less, then you can play the extra batsman. And the time to move Quinton de Kock up the order was also now, while he’s still young and strong enough to do that and keep wicket.

“He can bat with the tail as well, because he hits a high percentage of boundaries, but he can fulfil both roles. He’s totally different to the other grafters in the top-order, before you know it he has 30 and it doesn’t look like he’s taken any risks. Sometimes you just have to bat and other times you need someone to take the game away,” Rhodes said.