Ken Borland

Rassie van der Dussen is known for being a phlegmatic, composed guy, but his mental strength shone as brightly as it ever has in the first ODI against England as not even heatwave conditions that saw other players and spectators require medical treatment could dissuade him as he cruised to a brilliant century that set up victory for the Proteas.

The stadium management in Chester-le-Street issued health warnings to their spectators as temperatures reached 36°C, but Van der Dussen kept his cool, taming the weather and the England attack as he used his three hours at the crease to compile a remarkable 134 off 117 balls.

His best score in Proteas colours led South Africa to their highest ever ODI total in England – 333/5 – and then when the bowlers produced a marvellous all-round display – both the pacemen and the spinners met expectations – victory was completed by 62 runs.

“It was pretty hot out there but not too bad, mid-30s. We’ve just had a tour of India where it was a lot worse,” Van der Dussen said with characteristic understatement after he had met the challenge.

“I just tried to read the situation and adapt. I feel like I have the game and the shot options to put the bowlers under pressure. It was a massive outfield and the wind was quite strong, so it took the six option out for 25 overs.

“We knew we had to play smart cricket, hit the pockets in the field and run hard, make sure we got runs off good balls. The pitch got tough towards the end with the old ball keeping a bit low.

“It was like playing in Bloemfontein in terms of field size and temperature. There was not a lot of bounce and you had to play straight and try and accumulate runs,” Van der Dussen said.

England’s bowlers and fielders looked like they needed medical care as Van der Dussen and Aiden Markram (77 off 61) cut loose in a third-wicket stand of 151 off just 123 balls.

Apart from their meeting against South Africa in the T20 World Cup last November, when the Proteas won by 10 runs but still missed out on the semifinals, the last time England played with much at stake against the Proteas was in 2019/20 when they visited Africa and won the Test series 3-1 and the T20s 3-0 before bailing out of the ODIs due to supposed Covid fears.

South Africa have done much to rehabilitate their image since then and Van der Dussen recognised the importance of the Proteas laying down a marker, while stressing that it was merely the first day of a long tour.

“Obviously it’s a massive result, but it’s only one match on a long tour. We had to prep well, the batting was really good and the bowlers executed brilliantly, and now we will see where we can improve.

“England are still a world-class team, with various matchwinners on their day. But you could see they’ve played a lot of cricket lately, we were a bit more up for it today,” Van der Dussen said.

There is no honour amongst thieves, so the saying goes, and it seems there is also no end to the greed and selfishness that characterises international cricket. Little wonder then that even The Big Three are starting to box each other, never mind their deplorable treatment of the rest of the cricketing world.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the associated quarantine protocols have given teams an easy excuse not to fulfill their commitments. England’s disgraceful exit from their tour of South Africa last summer was the first sign that The Big Three would not be beholden to anyone, not even the International Cricket Council, when it came to their board or players doing whatever they wanted.

Australia also refused to come to South Africa when the science actually showed their reasons were totally flawed, and India recently did the dirty on England by pulling out of the last Test of their series on the morning of the game due to a couple of positive Covid tests in their tour party.

Never mind that the Indians were probably to blame because they had been out of the bubble attending coach Ravi Shastri’s book launch and what not.

Poor old Pakistan have the added disadvantage of always having the ‘security risk’ tag hanging over their heads and both New Zealand and England have unilaterally pulled out of tours there. They say it’s because of security threats but they have never informed their hosts exactly what those threats were, and it is telling that Britain’s own High Commission in Islamabad supported their tour going ahead.

And let’s not forget that Pakistan toured England last year, staying in crappy hotel bubbles, at the height of Covid when their hosts were desperate for cricket.

Now even the Ashes are at risk because the English players don’t want strict quarantine rules to apply to them and their families in Australia.

It has all just led to a great diminishing of the image of international cricket. The pre-eminence of country-versus-country contests no longer seems to be in place and the ICC, the very custodians of international cricket, don’t seem overly invested in protecting their turf.

Of course, the Indian Premier League towers over all other cricket like the Drakensberg peaks tower over the surrounding midlands. No player ever pulls out of that tournament and every single recent change to the international schedule has benefited the IPL. If the Indian players had played that last Test against England, some of them would have missed the first game of the resumed tournament in the UAE due to quarantine arrangements. And many of the same players who were terrified of Covid in South Africa quite happily went to India when the pandemic was killing thousands of people every day.

The ICC should be like an Alsatian in being the guardians of international cricket, instead they are a lap dog for The Big Three. The consequences of this will be T20 tournaments continuing to ransack the calendar space and the players that should be available to international competition.

If all this double-crossing and use-and-abuse treatment of the poorer nations is allowed to continue, I can see franchise cricket overwhelming the international game. The ICC will limp along as a toothless body holding world cups every few years.

Lovers of T20 will be delighted as that format will dominate the calendar even more, but traditional cricket fans, especially lovers of the Test game, will be left angry and disinterested.

At the moment, those with the power in cricket all seem to just want to chow down at the banquet table without any consideration for those who produce or serve the feast. It is this greed and selfishness that is destroying the game.

Unless there is a sea-change in mindset and cricket gets some non-selfserving leadership in place, it will be a case of bad luck to the poorer nations as the rich get richer and the rest simply fade away.

The Jamaica Inter-Collegiate Sports Association received the same disdainful treatment as the rest of the sides in Group 2 of the Red Bull Campus Cricket Finals as Assupol Tuks brushed them aside by 56 runs at Wormsley Cricket Ground yesterday.

A well-judged innings of 76 off 56 balls by Aiden Markram was the foundation of the Tuks innings as the University of Pretoria scored 178 for five in their 20 overs after electing to bat first.

SA U19 captain Markram then completed a stellar all-round performance by taking three for 12 in three overs with his off-breaks, while fellow spinner David Mogotlane was also outstanding with three for eight in two overs.

Opening batsman Oraine Williams ensured the Jamaicans made a fine start to their run-chase with an aggressive 55 off 38 balls, taking them to 66 for one at the halfway mark, but Mogotlane dismissed him at the end of the 11th over and the last eight wickets fell for just 48 runs in 8.3 overs.

The slow left-armer then picked up the wickets of captain Delbert Gayle (7), to a wonderful return catch, and Kimani Morgan (2) with successive deliveries in the 16^th over to kill off any lingering hopes the West Indians had.

A change of tactics saw Markram bowl the second over of the innings and it bore immediate fruit with Javaughn Buchanan sweeping the fourth ball to backward square-leg.

Markram was the obvious choice for man of the match, but the tall right-hander enjoyed the strong support of the middle-order in the Tuks innings.

The Jamaicans claimed the wickets of Gerry Pike (4) and Theunis de Bruyn (16) inside the first four overs, but Johan Wessels then scored 30 off 26 deliveries as 55 was added for the third wicket in 9.3 overs.

Markram batted through to the final over and quickfire contributions from Heinrich Klaasen (22) and Sean Dickson (19*) ensured the powerful finish Tuks needed to bat the Jamaicans out of the game.

Tuks will now play the defending champions, Rizvi College of Mumbai, the Indian representatives, in the semi-finals on Saturday at the Oval.

The other semi-final is between the University of New South Wales and the Jamaicans, who finished second in Group 2.

Tuks coach Pierre de Bruyn said his team could not be going into the semi-finals in better shape.

“I’m over the moon with the results, we’ve had two bonus-point wins and all departments have been tested and come up with the goods.

“We had a batting man of the match in the first game [Theunis de Bruyn], a bowler [Corbin Bosch] in the second match and today Aidan’s all-round performance.

‘I was delighted with the way we started, we summed up conditions quickly and although we’ve had some individual brilliance, there’ve been two or three other players contributing greatly in every game,” De Bruyn said.