Scandals dampen Cricket SA celebrations

These are unhappy days for South African cricket, writes Stuart Hess.

Timing is everything,- the old Greek saying goes. In sport, that’s as true as for any aspect in life, and in cricket, timing forms a rich part of the games tapestry.

Cricket South Africa’s timing this week could not have been worse - not that it is the organisation’s fault.

Twenty five years is an important landmark and 2016 represents 25 years since unity was achieved. It is a milestone that deserves celebration, but the timing could not be more wretched for Cricket SA.

Only the periods surrounding the Hansie Cronje match-fixing affair in 2000 and then the administrative bonus scandal which ran from 2009 to 2012 have been less fraught for South African cricket than what is currently the case.

Tomorrow night there’ll be a gala dinner in Sandton at which more than 100 players who have represented the country across all formats since 1991 will be present. Drinks will be shared, stories retold and backs will be slapped.

Following that, on Tuesday night, the annual SA Cricket Awards dinner takes place. In between there’ll be a breakfast and a golf day. Special edition paintings reflecting key moments in the last 25 years have been commissioned and will be auctioned.

As is usually the case with anniversaries, there’ll be time to reminisce, reflect and rejoice. It’s just that right now, rejoicing doesn’t feel appropriate.

These are unhappy days for South African cricket.

The period around the bonus scandal, which led to Gerald Majola unceremoniously exiting CSA’s offices, was a dark time but at least on the field there was a successful Test side to provide some distraction.

The current administration doesn’t have a winning national team to draw attention away from all the ills befalling the game in the country at present.

The bare facts are stark: In the last year the South African team played 42 international matches across the three formats, winning 19 times (just one of those victories coming in a Test match) and losing 18. For a team containing the likes of Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn, that almost beggars belief. Whatever else is ailing CSA, the organisation can scarcely afford its most precious asset under-performing for such a lengthy period.

And there are plenty of troubles in SA cricket.

The inability to ensure the independent inquiry into the national side’s poor performances hangs heavy over CSA, who it seemed wanted to rush the process.

That, however, is not as worrying as the controversies in the domestic game which has included another match-fixing scandal.

The investigation into who did what, when and how much they pocketed from last season’s RamSlam T20 Challenge is still dragging on - nearly nine months after CSA first revealed incidents of fixing had occurred.

In January they banned Gulam Bodi from all cricket for 20 years and at least half a dozen other players have been tainted by the scandal and with reports alleging jail time for those found guilty, it is controversy CSA can ill-afford and which certainly puts a dampener on any 25-year anniversary celebrations.

That the names mentioned in the scandal are black African cricketers adds an additional layer, especially in a season where the topic of transformation proved to be controversial and the Sports Minister issued punitive measures as a result of what he perceived to be lax effort on CSA’s part to include black players at senior professional level.

Fikile Mbalula’s aims are laudable but the manner in which he’s gone about achieving those goals have been haphazard.

The statistical data upon which his findings punishing cricket and four other sports were based was flawed on a number of levels.

For CSA’s part, the communication of its new quota/target policy for the professional game was very poorly handled, causing unnecessary anxiety for players and fear and confusion among senior professional coaches.

Trust is badly lacking between those playing and coaching and those who sit in boardrooms administering the sport.

Against that backdrop, CSA is also interrogating its domestic structure in an attempt to provide quality playing opportunities - in conjunction with its transformation initiatives - and shrink the gap between provincial and international cricket.

That has to occur in an environment where the country’s top players are increasingly facing temptation to utilise their talents in lucrative T20 leagues where dollar salaries make their national contracts look like small change.

It is only so long that the badge on the shirt can maintain its allure and if an AB de Villiers can pocket $500 00 (about R7-million) in a year for participating in three T20 tournaments - the IPL, the Big Bash and the Caribbean Premier League - then CSA will find it increasingly difficult to hold on to the talent even when they restructure the domestic competitions.

There is confusion internationally from the ICC over how to restructure the international game and thus make it more relevant in particular for players like De Villiers, who last season expressed his desire to play less international cricket.

It is contests against England, India and Australia that really get the blood flowing for the players, but even for Test matches against those teams in South Africa crowd numbers have been down significantly.

Making Test cricket more relevant in an age when taking five days to achieve a result seems an interminable exercise and it is something the authorities at ICC level have to grapple with - and fast.

It leaves CSA in a tight spot as it knows that outside of those big three countries, garnering excitement for series against Sri Lanka or Bangladesh is a very difficult task.

Still the partying must go on. Who knows, perhaps drinks shared between old heads and new ones over the next few days may ignite some ideas about how to make the sport better in this country.

Whatever else, amid all the doom and gloom in SA cricket at present, recalling past battles - both won and lost - may lead to a few smiles and we all know there’s always time for that. - Sunday Independent