Ken Borland

Neil Brand was South Africa’s Test captain just three matches ago,  but now seems almost forgotten by Proteas coach Shukri Conrad. But the Titans skipper knows that a far greater weight of runs than he scored last season will be necessary to force his way back into the picture. Fortunately Brand is the persistent sort.

The left-handed opener and under-rated orthodox spinner led South Africa in their two Tests in New Zealand last summer when the SA20 was being played and had gobbled up most of the country’s top players. Now that everyone is available, competition for places for the two Tests in Bangladesh next month, and the series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home, is stiff with most of the stars available.

Brand has started the new season in fine fashion though, scoring an impressive century for the SA A team he led against Sri Lanka A, in Benoni. His 129 highlighted all his strengths – defiance at the crease, the technique to see off the new ball and the ability to shift gears when the bowling allowed it.

Despite his dream of playing Test cricket coming true in the most astonishing way, last season was actually a battle for Brand, who averaged just 25.92 in all first-class cricket last season, with one century and two fifties.

“It was a bit of a struggle,” Brand admitted when interviewed by Rapport. “I just couldn’t get going although I had lots of starts. But I learnt a lot last season too, especially going to New Zealand and playing for SA A. And I’ve put a lot of hard work in during the off-season, especially on my set-up because a lot of bowlers were getting me out from around the wicket, it was something they had obviously analysed.

“So I’ve made things a bit more simple for this season and it’s always nice to start with a hundred. It’s not really my personality to try and get away from cricket, I prefer hard work, so that’s what I did during the winter. There’s definitely a step-up between domestic and international cricket and it’s hardest in batting,” Brand said.

Now that the 28-year-old, who has been playing first-class cricket for nearly a decade, has a sense of what it requires to succeed at international level, he is well-placed to answer the question as to what our domestic players need to be able to make that step up.

If one has been following the conversation around local cricket recently, then you’ll not be surprised to hear him say playing more cricket is the key.

“We definitely lack cricket. Playing just seven first-class games makes it really tough and sometimes, if you have Proteas white-ball commitments, you only play three or four matches. I would definitely be keen for more red-ball games, we need at least 10. Most players who play for 10 years would be heading for 100 games, I have 55.

“So definitely more cricket is needed. Even for bowlers, for the volume required they need to be bowling 20 overs a day. Four-day cricket presents you with tough conditions and you have to find a way to perform. Our skills are there, but we just don’t execute them for long enough,” Brand said.

Cricket South Africa’s decision to take action against Lizelle Lee had more to do with her dishonesty surrounding her fitness tests than her actual weight, CSA insiders have claimed.

Lee shocked the global game on July 8 when she suddenly announced her retirement from international cricket on the eve of the ODI series in England. Her joint statement with CSA, which also had input from the players’ association and her agent, said she felt she had “given everything I could to the Proteas” and “I feel that I am ready for the next phase in my career and will continue to play domestic T20 cricket around the world.”

It subsequently emerged that Lee had retired because CSA had withdrawn her from the tour of England and threatened to not give her a No Objection Certificate (NOC), which allows contracted players to ply their trade in overseas leagues. The 30-year-old claimed this was because she had failed a fitness test and, in a BBC podcast last week, she said the only aspect of the test she had failed was her weight.

But CSA insiders have told The Citizen that her misrepresentation of her weight was the major issue, and that the organisation was fed up with their continued struggles to get Lee fit.

The Citizen has seen correspondence between CSA and Lee which indicates that, before the tour to England, Lee was meant to go to Potchefstroom for fitness tests. She said, however, that she “wasn’t able” to go and Proteas strength and conditioning coach Zane Webster allowed her to do the testing in Ermelo, with the provision that she would then be retested in England.

Lee did the test with a biokineticist in Ermelo, but did not have her weight done because she said she had already measured it in the morning and passed on the number to Webster.

On July 5, between the two tour games before the ODI series, Proteas manager Sedibu Mohlaba sends Lee an urgent e-mail requesting clarity on what exactly happened with her Ermelo test.

Lee explains and says she was “afraid that it might … result in me not being selected. I know now that that was wrong and that I should have done it there.” 

On July 6, CSA’s Head of Cricket Pathways, Edward Khoza, emails Lee to tell her she has been immediately withdrawn from the tour for her “failure to meet the workload and fitness standards”, a contravention of her employment contract. He says they will not grant her an NOC until she has met and maintained the requirements.

“We tried corrective action, we were willing to bend over backwards for her,” a CSA insider said. “We were prepared to take her through a fitness programme like we did for Sisanda Magala and others.

“We then tried to protect her and not speak about these things, we did not want to demonise her in the statement she was part of. But now what she is saying is different to the statement which she, SACA and her agent were involved in.

“She was not honest with us, her fitness tests were fraudulently done. She is now trying to embarrass us and has gone rogue.”

Lee’s retirement has robbed the Proteas of one of their few truly world-class players, although she has been in poor form lately, not passing 40 in any of her nine innings for South Africa since September 2021.

Lee has also frustrated the team management with what has been described as her negative energy in the changeroom.

New Zealand may be the reigning world Test champions, but the weight of history is against them as they start a two-Test series against South Africa at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch at midnight on Wednesday evening South African time.

In the 16 series played between South Africa and New Zealand since 1931/32, the Proteas have won 13 of them and three have been drawn. Even at home, the Kiwis have only managed to draw two of the eight series.

The absence of the best Black Caps batsman and the regular captain, Kane Williamson, as well as Trent Boult, the fourth New Zealander to take 300 Test wickets, who is missing the first Test for the birth of his third child, levels the playing field even more.

But the Kiwis are the masters of playing in their own conditions, especially since South Africa’s last tour, in 2016/17, when New Zealand probably would have drawn the series 1-1 were it not for the last day of the final Test being washed out.

“I was aware that New Zealand have never beaten us in a series,” Rassie van der Dussen said on Tuesday, “but the team hasn’t spoken about it. We know our teams have been really successful here in the past, probably because conditions favour seam bowling.

“It’s a bit different in this series though, because New Zealand are the defending Test champions and they have been really successful over the last couple of years, especially at home.

“They have played at home a lot and they really know the conditions, which are quite good for seam bowling. There’s not much spin, but there’s quite a bit of bounce and the pace of the pitch needs some getting used to.

“The pitches always look very green and grassy, but the surface is quite hard underneath, which makes for consistent pace and bounce. The conditions favour swing and we know that’s the big challenge,” Van der Dussen said.

The way South Africa’s batsmen grinded their way to victory over India gives them a template for success, however. Their leading run-scorer, Keegan Petersen, has not been able to travel to New Zealand though because of a positive Covid test, clearing the way for Sarel Erwee to make his Test debut.

Van der Dussen said the way the left-hander has accumulated thousands of runs in domestic cricket suggest he will find a way to prosper at Test level as well.

“Sarel is a very experienced domestic cricketer and he has toured with us for the last year. He knows how to bat long and how to score big runs.

“For me, the step up to Test cricket was all about keeping the fundamentals the same, although there is more skill and intensity from the bowlers.

“Debut or not, he knows what his game is about and he has nothing to prove because we know what type of player Sarel is,” Van der Dussen said.

The Bulls like to market themselves as being one of the most physical outfits around and, having been thoroughly outplayed by a pacy, skilful Leinster team on the opening weekend of United Rugby Championship action, flank Arno Botha expects them to be able to throw their weight around a bit more against Connacht on Friday night.
Playing in perfect conditions for running rugby, Leinster barely allowed physicality to come into it with their high-paced game and efficiency at the breakdown, but a change in the Irish weather this weekend might also slow the game down for the Bulls.
“There were perfect conditions against Leinster, sunny with no wind, but it’s going to be totally different against Connacht, which they say is like Kimberley.

“But I think it’s going to rain, so it will be cold and wet. They bring a physical battle and they never stop, their whole mindset is just to go and go.
“They beat Munster there and it’s definitely going to be a physical and interesting battle for us. We need to be more clinical, it’s not so much physicality that let us down.

“It’s just about getting more comfortable in a different environment, there are things we need to adapt to, and sometimes just one or two mistakes mean you lose the game,” Botha, who played for Munster before returning to the Bulls, said on Monday.
Botha said that, as the tourists, they need to find a way to take Connacht out of their comfort zone.
“It’s obviously more pressurised rugby and we have to go back to grinding it out again so we can take them from their comfort zone to an uncomfortable place.

“Leinster were quick and they caught us a bit because we went in not being too sure what to expect. But it’s not a trainsmash, it’s still a learning curve for us and we will make the step up.
“I don’t think there’s a big gap between us and the Irish, sometimes things just happen in a game. We made two mistakes and we were behind our poles. There was no panic though, but there were little defining moments that we got wrong and we must learn from,” Botha said.