Getting attention back to the playing field

The timing of AB de Villiers’ return to the South African cricket team could hardly have been better. On the eve of the first test against Australia this week at Sahara Park Newlands, the Proteas have to deal with some stiff challenges, especially their own rustiness and the lack of game time by a few of their senior players.

The South African team have the potential to field a world-class bowling attack, but have to find the balance between attack and defence. Furthermore, Graeme Smith will have to strike back and remove the lingering doubts about his form as a batsman.

Sure, his test form over the past 18 months has been encouraging, in stark contrast to his poor performances in one-day internationals. But the past month he has been involved in the shortened formats, and has regularly struggled against the swing of the Australians.

The world-class South African top-order will have to find their collective feet and make a strong statement against a classy Australian attack.

The first test at Newlands will be a charm offensive by the Proteas. Not only will they have to restore lost pride after the disappointing Cricket World Cup but the team would also like to strike back after the loss of the one-day international series.

The choice of the phrase ‘charm offensive’ is deliberate; the South African cricket image is on the wane, mostly because of the corporate governance record of Cricket South Africa (CSA).

The government has officially launched an investigation into the bonus-scandal and CSA’s domestic one-day competition is a no-name brand with no official sponsor. MTN decided not to renew its contract.

CSA found a test sponsor in the nick of time to save itself from embarrassment.

The reasons for the ‘sponsor-boycotts’ are not hard to find. If there are legitimate questions about your corporate governance, sponsors usually do not want to identify themselves with you.

Deflecting attention

An emphatic victory by the SA cricket team and a return of the feel-good factor for the fans will do much to avert the attention away from the board problems.

It will also give cricket fans all over the world watching this test on TV with much interest, an opportunity to draw a collective curtain on one of international cricket’s most sordid and shameful sagas in recent memory, the corruption case against three Pakistani players in London.

Last week, jail terms were handed out to the Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt (two years and six months), Mohammad Asif (a year) and Mohammad Amir (six months).

They will serve jail time for their conspiracy to accept corrupt payments and for their conspiracy to cheat in the Lord’s test match against England in August 2010.

The sentences will no doubt act as a strong deterrent against match fixers and would-be corruptors all over the world.

The South African Cricket Players Association (SACA) has been at the helm of a new dispensation in international cricket by educating players and making them stakeholders and partners in annual earnings with the national board.

Through the memorandum of understanding, SA players can receive approximately 20% of the annual earnings of CSA.

The Daily Mail reported in 2010 that Australian players could earn about 400 000 pounds annually, England players roughly the same amount, whereas South African players earn about 105 000 pound annually.

According to the Mail, the best South African players could annually receive R10 millions in earnings, if the other revenue streams like bonuses and the Indian Premier League as well as endorsements are taken into account.

Pakistanis, though, in stark contrast earn only about 22 500 pounds per year. According to Tony Irish, the chief executive officer of SACA, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is taking a leaf from the book of SACA and players associations in Australia, England and New Zealand in attempting to emulate their practices to establish a new dispensation for players in Pakistan.

Improving their contractual remuneration to closely resembles that of other top-nations might make these players less susceptible to approaches by Indian, Pakistan and Sri Lankan bookmakers.

Unfortunately, the example of Hansie Cronjé proved that cricket poverty is not the only dynamic in players’ involvement with bookmakers. Cronjé could have earned more than R1,5 million per year when he was at the height of his powers as SA captain. He testified in 2000 that it was the lure of easy money, or money for jam, as he termed it, that attracted him to the advances by bookmakers.

Yet, mentorship and education by players associations as well as making players shareholders and stakeholders of income streams of national boards, will no doubt lessen the odds of players becoming involved in corruption.

Back to Newlands

But that’s enough of corruption and the battle to eradicate it. Let’s return to the scene of the Newlands-test.

South Africa will not be casting an eye on the CSA boardroom squabbles, simply because they will need to focus sharply on the thunderbolts of Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle.

Recently, Johnson was only a pale shadow of his formidable self. In 2008, he captured five wickets for two runs in 20 devastating deliveries against South Africa in Perth. In 2011, he collected a mere 21 wickets at an average of 41.28 while struggling to impose himself on England and Sri Lanka.

But he has returned to his former devastating self by capturing nine wickets for 112 runs in the four-day match against South Africa’s A-team.

Mickey Arthur, a former South African coach, said that Johnson is in a “good head space” and will form a formidable attack with Harris and the 18-year-old Patrick Cummins in the first test. Harris finished with nine wickets for 83 runs just a week ago in a Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania.

Australia would have to select one of Cummins or Siddle. They might dismiss Arthur’s idea to experiment with the inexperienced Cummins.

South Africa’s greatest ally in the series against Australia would be the form of their finest batsmen, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, and the menace of Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel.

Steyn flattered to deceive in the previous test series at home as Phillip Hughes got Australia off to a flyer with two centuries. Johnson unsettled the SA top-order with a magnificent performance at the Wanderers and his superb spell at Kingsmead, where he injured Smith and removed Kallis in double-quick time.

It is possible that the performances by Johnson and Steyn might just decide the outcome of the series.

Steyn was disappointing during the one-day international series. He failed to ‘turn up’, and his return to form is pivotal to South Africa’s success.

Australia has problems of its own. The top-order is vulnerable. Their wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has been out of sorts with the bat lately, which leaves the lower order susceptible to collapses and the Baggy Greens have tended to crumble against hostile attacks the past 18 months.

If South Africa can survive the early bowling onslaught of Johnson and Harris at Newlands and Smith imposes himself like the Biff of old, the Proteas can write a new exciting chapter in test cricket. Hopefully it is a chapter that will bring joy to the local fans, and help them to forget about the painful corruption saga in England.

Fanie Heyns