RW Johnson |
20 January 2016
RW Johnson says the crushing defeat of the Proteas in the current test series is a portent of things to come
Beyond a Boundary
South African cricket since
re-admission in 1990 has been mainly a joy. With the dreadful exception
of the Hansie Cronje affair, the team has been consistently magnificent
and has produced some of the most memorable names in the game – Jacques
Kallis, Graeme Smith, Allan Donald, Jonty Rhodes, Makhaya Ntini, Shaun
Pollock, Dale Steyn, Herschelle Gibbs, A.B. de Villiers and Hashim Amla,
to name but a few.
In this new era the team was at
last open to players of all races and its tremendous successes were also
hailed by all races for the first time. South Africans love a winning
team and that was mainly what they got. It was striking that a large
number of Coloured cricketers quickly rose to the top, showing that
Basil d'Oliveira had been no flash in the pan. Less expected was the
arrival in force of many hugely talented white Afrikaans cricketers.
Black Africans were far fewer –
Ntini, of course, and but for terrible luck with injuries, Mfuneko Ngam –
one of the best natural fast bowlers that the country has ever
produced. But cricket-lovers were happy as long as they felt the team
was picked on merit and provided it kept on winning.
South Africa's crushing defeat
in the current series against England highlights what is happening to
the only sport in which South Africa is rated as No.1 in the world. It
is a tragic situation. Simply because South African cricket was so good
it has been a major target for transformation capture. Who cares about
soccer when the country's team became the first in World Cup history not
to progress beyond the first round as the host team? But in cricket and
rugby South Africa has conquered the world and this means that these are the two commanding heights selected for particularly strong political interference.
In rugby, South Afica were
usually No2 to New Zealand. Cricket, however, has been South Africa's
top sport for some time now, its team No.1 in the world for years on end. But this has simply meant that the political pressures on the game have increased.
One could start some years ago
when Shaun Pollock attempted to persuade Ali Bacher that if something
was not done to keep him, South Africa would lose the services of Kevin
Pietersen. Bacher, who has much to live down from his role in the pirate
tours era of busting sports sanctions, was adamant that nothing extra
should be done to keep Pietersen. So Pietersen became England's
top-scoring batsman instead. He was part of a trend.
Since then one has found an
increasing number of young South Africans emigrating to countries where
their white skins will not be a handicap. Even Roelof van der Merwe has
decided to become a Dutchman while Johan Botha, now an emigre to
Australia, has insisted that if South Africa wants him it will have to
pick him from there. One old Springbok player of great distinction told
the author that when asked to advise on the careers of promising young
white cricketers, he usually counselled emigration to New Zealand.
This situation has now caught up
with the country's Test team. As always, one has to start with the
administrators. The chairman of Cricket South Africa, Haroon Lorgat, is
the man who forced the selection of an unfit Vernon Philander (a
Coloured) onto the South African team in the ODI World Cup, when Kyle
Abbot (a white) was the obvious form pick. This cost South Africa a
place in the final and the decision has weighed on the shoulders of
South Africa's cricketers ever since. A.B. de Villiers, the captain, was
reportedly so discouraged that he didn't want to play in the match at
all and one can only sympathise. By selecting an unfit player South
Africa was made, effectively, to play with only ten men. Philander
bowled a few overs, took no wickets and wasn't even fit enough to field.
In a closely fought game that is too much of a handicap for any team to
overcome.
The Proteas had longed to win
the World Cup, knew that no other team would be forced to pick an unfit
player and realised that, in effect, they had been made to lose by their
own administrators. For most of the players this summed the situation
up all too well: if their own administrators were out to undermine them,
how could they ever win ? The decision was, of course, equally
devastating for Philander. Until then no one had doubted that he was one
of the world's top bowlers in
the team on merit. Now, however, by picking him when he was obviously
unfit, it was made clear that ultimately he was just a quota player.
Philander has never come back from that awful incident.
Spare a thought for what it must
feel like to South Africa's cricketers. First, they had the repeated
experience of being put to the sword by Kevin Pietersen, knowing all the
time that he might have been playing on their side. Then at the World
Cup the New Zealander who hit the winning six against them was Grant
Elliot, yet another emigre South African. Wherever they go they are in
effect mocked by the sight of ex-South Africans turning out for the
opposition. This can hardly be fun.
Then came the tour of India.
Prior to this the experienced Gary Kirsten had been succeeded as team
coach by Russell Domingo, a man of colour, but with virtually no
experience of top level cricket. This in itself was fantastic: plenty of
experienced internationals were available for the job and no other top
Test team would have dreamt of making the perilous tour to India without
a coach able to prepare the team for the unique challenges they would
face there.
The new chairman of selectors,
Linda Zondi, had played only three first class matches in his life and
his fellow selectors were also lacking in any experience of
international cricket. The result was that the selection of the team for
the Indian tour was botched. Above all, they failed even to select two
opening batsmen. The team was also completely under-prepared for what
they might face. Domingo was unable to anticipate the problems they
would confront there because he had never been to India before in his
life and cheerfully (though absurdly) talked of leading an expedition up
the Himalayas.
On top of that, Hashim Amla had
been chosen as the new captain despite his own reluctance to fill that
role. Everyone agreed that Amla was a wonderful batsman, a highly
intelligent and a very nice man. But a captain? He had none of Graeme
Smith's bulldog breed leadership qualities. His field placings were
often naive. He seemed completely unsuited to the role. Indeed, that is
what he had repeatedly said himself. But, of course, the aim was to have
a captain of colour. Again, it was a considerable insult to Amla:
despite his wonderful achievements for his country, in the crunch all
that mattered was the colour of his skin.
The result was, of course,
catastrophe. The team only tied with Bangladesh and then lost 3-0 to
India and its younger batsmen came back with their confidence crushed. A
clear sign of the sheer amateurism of the situation was the way in
which a decision about whether to include the injured Dale Steyn was
taken only at the last moment before any given match. It was as if they
were ready at the drop of a hat to play a semi-fit Steyn.
In Durban it seemed that the
team was close to just folding up. Once again, the selectors refused to
pick a proper opening batsman to accompany Elgar. A high price was paid
for this. Then again, despite De Villiers' known frailties and his
publicly stated wish not to be over-burdened, he was pressed into
service as a wicket-keeper: he ended up keeping for over 202 overs.
Essentially he was put under that absurd load because if de Kock had
been picked to keep wicket, Bavuma would probably have had to make way
for him. And that couldn't be allowed on obvious racial grounds.
All of this was allowed to
happen with no serious discussion on either TV or radio because all
sports commentary and particularly cricket commentary in South Africa is
now subject to strong political censorship. No one may even discuss on
air the calamities being inflicted on the game by racial politics. This
is, of course, exactly the same as happened under apartheid when there
could be no discussion on SABC of the horrific damage done to the game
by the Vorster government's bone-headed attitude to the d'Oliveira
affair.
The result, then as now, is that
if one wants to have any notion as to what is going on one has to read
what foreign commentators are saying. Thus, for example, the seasoned
BBC commentator, Jonathan Agnew, questioned whether South Africa was
being properly captained at all - “Amla just stands at mid-off polishing
the ball”, he wrote, adding “Quite simply the Proteas look as though
they are hating their cricket. There was no leadership from Hashim Amla –
when things are going badly, the captain has to galvanise the team to
inject some spirit and fight. There was none at all.”
In addition, of course, the
coaching scene was a pure mess. Batting coaches came and went in swift
succession. Allan Donald left as bowling coach and there too there has
been too much coming and going. In the end Graeme Smith erupted on air
and was immediately approached about being drafted into the Proteas'
dressing room (though this reportedly did not come to pass) Everything
was ad hoc. Contrast that with England who have an Australian coach,
Trevor Bayliss, and a West Indian bowling coach, Ottis Gibson. They have
been selected purely on merit. But one could not imagine South Africa
asking foreigners to step in and, truth to tell, none of the good ones
could possibly stomach the continual political interference in the game.
This dismal process ended with
another thrashing at the Wanderers and the loss of South Africa's No.1
status. But the real drama is this: South Africa are now No.3 in the ICC
rankings but England are No.5 and coming up fast, while Pakistan (no.4)
have just beaten England. In other words, South Africa could sink to 6th place relatively soon. Indeed,
beneath that neither New Zealand nor Sri Lanka are pushovers, so it is
quite conceivable that within a few years from now South Africa will
have mirrored the collapse of the mighty West Indian teams of yore and
sunk down near the bottom of the heap.
The reason why this is so is the
new CSA rule, requiring all provincial sides to play six players of
colour of whom three must be black African. The fact that this is being
enforced is itself
testament to the fact that teams chosen strictly on merit would not look
like that. Which is to say, CSA have decided deliberately to degrade
the standard of provincial cricket and with it the standard of the
national side too. No other cricket board in the world would take a
decision deliberately to undermine the standard of its own national side
for political reasons. How different, indeed, is the CSA from the old
apartheid cricket regime? Both of them enforce selection based on race.
There was a time when South
African provincial cricket was as strong as Sheffield Shield cricket in
Australia. No more. The standard has already been degraded and will now
be lowered further. There is no doubt at all that this rule will see
more and more cricket refugees leaving South Africa in order to qualify
for other countries. Already this has reached embarrassing proportions:
at a World Cup nowadays there is hardly any team without an emigre South
African member or two. Both of New Zealand's two most recent
wicket-keepers, B.J. Watling and Kruger van Wyk, are South African, as
are their team mates Neil Wagner and Grant Elliot.
Kyle Coetzer is Scotland's
vice-captain, Wesley Barresi and Ryan ten Doeschate star for Holland, as
will Roelof Van dr Merwe in future. Michael Vaughan, the former England
captain, has spoken out against the fact that ten South Africans have
now played for England and in some cases, like Trott or Kieswetter, this
was after they had already played for representative South African
sides. In the current English team, one might note, Nick Compton used to
play his cricket with Hashim Amla at Durban High School. In effect,
South Africa is becoming for cricket what Cuba is for baseball, with
more and more talented Cubans defecting from their country in order to
play for foreign baseball teams.
Already, the signs are clear.
The stars of the current team all came up through a provincial structure
based largely on merit. It is unclear whether they would have managed
that under the new structure. As they age it is harder and harder to see
any realistic replacements. As the team begin to realise how precarious
their position is, morale has collapsed. As De Villiers puts it “all
hope has gone”. This was already evident in this year's matches when a
South African Invitation XI and an “A” team played England: both were
thoroughly thrashed – yet they are supposed to represent the future.
Players begin to envy men like Ashwell Prince and Alviro Peterson who
have done so well by leaving this troubled scene for the calmer world of
English county cricket.
The reasons why the Windies
imploded are various and are still debated. Undoubtedly part of the
problem was the greater financial appeal of basketball and baseball in
the US and the consequent loss of talent to cricket, but poor
administration also played a part. The extraordinary thing about South
Africa's implosion is that it has thus far been engineered entirely by
appallingly bad administration. Of one thing there is no doubt: there is
no shortage of talent. In addition to the many good Afrikaans and
Coloured cricketers we now have great black prospects like Rabada and
Bavuma. It is, though, a sad story of how racial politicking can destroy
even the best.
RW Johnson
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