Ken Borland

In the first two editions of the Mzansi Super League (MSL), feted cricketers like AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle have been marquee players allocated to one of the teams but that is all set to change, along with many other aspects, in this year’s T20 carnival.

The third instalment of the MSL will see only eight CSA-contracted players allocated to teams. The plan is for each of the eight franchises to then be able to choose one Kolpak or non-contracted South African and one overseas player from the draft.

In that way the MSL draft will become a much more exciting extravaganza with the eight teams competing for some truly top-class attractions. It means someone like De Villiers, who is a non-contracted player, will no longer be allocated to the Tshwane team but will no doubt cause something akin to a bidding war amongst the eight teams as he will be available on the draft. And there will also be much jostling for international players, who have been of mixed quality over the first two seasons.

Quinton de Kock, formerly of the Cape Town Blitz, has been mooted as the new marquee player for the Centurion-based side.

The other change will be in the names of the teams. The six domestic franchises will now be able to choose whether to continue with their MSL brands or revert back to their own names – i.e. Cobras, Dolphins, Knights, Lions, Titans and Warriors.

It means cheesy names like the Tshwane Spartans, which have developed little traction with fans (what are Spartans anyway?), will be ditched.

Franchises will also be able to source their own sponsors and will share in whatever profits the tournament makes.

A new broadcast deal has yet to be signed for MSL III, but CSA are known to have offered the rights to SuperSport. The first two editions of the MSL were broadcast for free by the SABC, contributing to the massive losses the tournament made.

For the South African Women’s team, their first bit of post-Covid action may well only come in September, but their leading wicket-taker, Shabnim Ismail, says she is champing at the bit to get back on the field with her Proteas team-mates.

And the thing she misses most about playing for the Proteas is the family atmosphere.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) revealed earlier this week that they are making “positive progress” on scheduling a tri-series with India and South Africa and how they can best host it in the safest way possible. The Women’s Proteas were originally scheduled to play two T20s against England in the first week of September and then move on to a four-match ODI series also featuring India. The ECB have said they are committed to still having those fixtures and they may yet be able to play them in their original slot.

“Coming back from the T20 World Cup, where I still believe we would have made the final if the rain hadn’t come against Australia, we were looking forward to hosting the Aussies in our own backyard. Instead we had to spend three months at home, which is really tough as a cricketer. I miss our family, which is the Proteas women’s team. Soon hopefully we will be able to start training.

“Those fortunate enough to have a gym at home were able to still train and having Trisha Chetty with me, I have a wicketkeeper to at least bowl to every day, but it’s still not the same as nets. I really miss it and the team environment, for the last couple of years we have seen each other every month. It’s all very different from when I started playing for the Proteas in 2007 when I was still very young [18],” Ismail, who was named CSA’s Women’s T20 Cricketer of the Year at the weekend, said in a teleconference.

Ismail is one of the fastest bowlers in the global women’s game, getting into the 120s in terms of speed, and has a phenomenal record with 136 wickets in 98 ODIs and 99 scalps in 92 T20s. Now heading for her 32^nd birthday, she is confident that her career is far from done. As befits someone who always looks really ready for a scrap on the field, the Cape Town product says she modelled herself on Andre Nel’s aggression, if not the occasional red mist that used to descend on the fiery fast bowler from the East Rand.

“I chose the same No.89 on my Proteas shirt because I loved Andre Nel’s aggression and passion. Dale Steyn is also a role-model because he is a fighting character as I am. To be a fighter is just in a fast bowler’s character. I’m turning 32 but I still believe I have a good couple of years left, if I keep fit and nobody sees what you do behind the scenes. But I believe in my skill and ability,” Ismail said.

A return to international action any time soon is looking increasingly unlikely for Dale Steyn after the 37-year-old fast bowler was omitted from a 45-man Cricket South Africa High Performance Squad that resumed training this week in small, monitored groups with their franchise coaches.

And, judging by the statement released on Tuesday by CSA to explain Steyn’s absence, it unfortunately looks as if South Africa’s leading wicket-taker is once again struggling with injury.

“Dale is not available to take part in the high performance training programme at this stage. Cricket South Africa’s medical team is monitoring his fitness and are in constant contact with his medical team in Cape Town. We will evaluate his progress over the next few months and go with the advice of the experts in regards to the next steps,” director of cricket Graeme Smith said in the statement.

The nature of his ailment is clouded in uncertainty at the moment, but apparently they are just niggles. Steyn missed last year’s World Cup due to long-standing shoulder problems and has played just eight Tests, nine ODIs and five T20 Internationals for the Proteas in the last three years.

In August, Steyn announced his retirement from Test cricket in order to prolong his white-ball career and was targeting the ICC World T20 Cup in Australia in October. But with a fresh Covid-19 outbreak happening in Victoria, it is now very doubtful that that tournament will take place this year.

There was better news though for several uncapped players as they received confirmation that they are in the Proteas’ plans for the future.

Experienced leg-spinner Shaun von Berg, batsmen Ed Moore, Raynard van Tonder, Sarel Erwee, Tony de Zorzi, Rudi Second, Keegan Petersen and Marques Ackerman, all-rounders Sisanda Magala and Gerald Coetzee, and pace bowlers Glenton Stuurman and Nandre Burger were all called up for training.

The High Performance Squad also offers the chance of an international reprieve for the likes of batsmen Pite van Biljon, Khaya Zondo and Theunis de Bruyn, fast bowlers Junior Dala and Daryn Dupavillon, all-rounder Wiaan Mulder and spinner Senuran Muthusamy.

Champion limited-overs leg-spinner Imran Tahir is training with the Dolphins in Durban, while Chris Morris, although he is still available for the 3TCricket event that will herald the return of cricket in the coming weeks, is not included in the Proteas’ plans.

High Performance Squad

Batsmen: Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Ed Moore, Pieter Malan, Dean Elgar, Pite van Biljon, David Miller, Zubayr Hamza, Temba Bavuma, Raynard van Tonder, Sarel Erwee, Janneman Malan, Aiden Markram, Reeza Hendricks, Khaya Zondo, Tony de Zorzi, Theunis de Bruyn, Rudi Second, Heinrich Klaasen, Kyle Verreynne, Keegan Petersen, Faf du Plessis, Marques Ackerman.

Spinners: Shaun von Berg, Keshav Maharaj, George Linde, Bjorn Fortuin, Senuran Muthusamy, Tabraiz Shamsi, Imran Tahir

All-rounders: Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Sisanda Magala, Gerald Coetzee, Jon-Jon Smuts, Wiaan Mulder,

Fast bowlers: Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Glenton Stuurman, Junior Dala, Kagiso Rabada, Daryn Dupavillon, Nandre Burger, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks.

SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux said recently that every union whether provincial or international is going to join up with private equity partners either sooner or later. Rugby has been one of the slowest sports to embrace professionalism though and I can hear many fans wailing that private equity is going to ruin the game.

“Private equity in rugby will have a massive influence, it will probably control rugby. And yes, SA Rugby is in discussions with private firms, but I don’t think there’s a union that’s not talking to someone. We all live in a post-Covid world that is now a much smaller pond and there is the opportunity now for investors to buy things at much cheaper prices. Private equity is here to stay, you’ll either join early or late, but join you will,” Roux said in an online press conference earlier this month.

There is perhaps going to be understandable anxiety that rugby is going to end up in the same sort of mess as the Premier Soccer League has with the controversial sale of the famous BidVest Wits club to a little-known National First Division club, Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila, based in Limpopo. Thanks to BidVest cynically pulling the plug based purely on financial considerations, 99 years of history is down the drain, a club that has won nine top-flight trophies and produced players such as Gary Bailey, Peter Gordon, Richard Gough, Sam Magalefa, Thulani Hlatshwayo and Benson Mhlongo for all intents and purposes no longer exists.

Never mind Western Province leaving Newlands, can you imagine the outrage if it was announced that the Bulls were moving to Polokwane and would henceforth be known as the Buffaloes?

But let me allay your fears by pointing out that rugby has mechanisms in place to prevent such stupid things from happening.

Before going to market, a union will split its assets between a commercial/professional arm, which will largely deal with corporate matters like sponsorships, advertising, marketing and broadcast deals, and an amateur arm which will hold assets like the stadium (whether they own it or have a rental deal) and ‘intellectual property’ like the team name.

Stakeholders can then buy shares in the commercial/professional arm. A private company can buy 25% of those shares and the union gets the cash, while the equity partner takes dividends while also hopefully driving up the commercial value of those properties.

Even though SA Rugby’s constitution now allows for private companies to own up to 74% of a union’s professional arm, as long as the ‘amateur’ administrators have done their paperwork correctly then properties like the team name or where they play should be totally protected even if the union is now a minority shareholder.

The Bulls have been amongst the first unions to really make private equity work for them, with Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital Investments and Johann Rupert’s Remgro each owning 37% of the Blue Bulls Company. First prize to them because the influx of cash has allowed the Bulls to hire big-name coaches in John Mitchell and now Jake White, who is totally revamping the team with a host of quality additions to the player roster.

Perhaps the first thing for a union to ensure is that there is synergy between themselves and their private equity partners, so that they can work together to run a successful team.

Unfortunately there have been two unions in the news lately for getting it all wrong – the Eastern Province Rugby Football Union and the Western Province Rugby Football Union. Both those beleaguered unions seem to be suffering from a bunch of rank amateurs trying to run multimillion rand businesses.

After years of wrangling seemed to be coming to an end with the signing of heads of agreement to sell Newlands to Investec, WPRFU president Zelt Marais has unilaterally decided not to sign off on the rest of the deal, despite already taking an advance of more than R50 million from Investec. Interestingly, the WPRFU also owe Remgro R58 million for a loan. These are powerful enemies to have and one fears that the once proud union could be heading the same way as Eastern Province.

The embattled Port Elizabeth franchise just seems to lurch from one crisis to the next and fresh problems are now springing up between the company that holds the majority shareholding in the Southern Kings and the EPRFU.

Roux was not specifically talking about the Southern Kings or Western Province, but his message certainly applies to them when he said political interference tends to surface when administrators try to run their franchises as an amateur entity.

But to borrow from Saturday Citizen deputy editor Brendan Seery’s excellent Column, for every couple of Onions that have to be dished out to unions, there will be more Orchids given out to those who make private equity work.

Simply put, rugby is unable to survive this post-Covid world without them so, like the Wallabies and scrums, every union just has to find a way of making these partnerships work.