Proteas took value from low run chase against Zimbabwe
The Proteas lost five wickets chasing 118 for victory against lowly Zimbabwe in Kimberley on Sunday and some people said they’d been rash, careless or profligate.
What would the same people have said if Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks had crawled their way to 118/1 in 35 overs? How much would anybody have learned from that?
In order to glean extra “value” from the run chase the home side asked themselves how many overs they would have expected to use in reaching 120 if they had been batting first, given the awkwardness of a dry, twopaced pitch. The answer might have been “20 on a good day 25 on a bad day”. It turned out to be a bad day.
It is perfectly possible they will encounter a similar pitch at the 2019 World Cup on which they might be chasing 260 for victory, in which case they will need to score at five runs per over. So why not practice that on Zimbabwe in Kimberley?
There is a great deal more at stake between now and next June than merely winning matches and beating Zimbabwe. Critics should be careful what they wish for.
Meanwhile, a flurry of negotiating activity behind the scenes of Cricket SA’s new T20 league is taking place and the realisation of how much compromise must happen for it to even start is beginning to dawn. The stipulation that the six city-based squads must contain “a minimum of three and maximum of four overseas players” is just one of the problems being tackled.
Cricket SA is contractually bound to offer places to the eight “marquee” stars drafted in 2017’s Global League. Kevin Pietersen has since retired and the other seven — Brendan McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Jason Roy, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga and Eion Morgan — are all contracted for 10 days to the Dubai T10 tournament which takes place in the middle of the new league.
Several of those players have since confirmed that they have been offered a place in the new league on the basis that they play the first week or so, fly to Dubai to compete in the T10 and then return for the final three weeks, effectively playing an entire tournament inside the window of another. Hardly ideal, but it’s the best that can be organised at such late notice.
Kolpak players will also be regarded as “overseas” for the purposes of the league and there are plenty of those to go around. The Port Elizabeth team, for example, could invite any of three to return home in Colin Ingram, Colin Ackermann and Simon Harmer — though Ingram, too, is contracted to the T10 league.
A number of English players have made themselves available as have some of Pakistan’s best players after a falling out between the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Dubai people which resulted in the PCB refusing permission for its contracted players to participate in the T10.
Local and foreign players can expect to earn less than half of what they were contracted for in the Global League and they will be paid in rand, a source of considerable concern for the game’s megabuck mercenaries who have become accustomed to the greenback.
There would appear to be no budget for high-profile coaches, however, with the teams based in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town expected to make use of the existing franchise coaching and medical staff.
The location of the sixth team will be decided by logistics with Bloemfontein almost certain to miss out purely because of the lack of flights.
Paarl and Benoni both impressed with their Global League portfolios and their proximity to Cape Town International and OR Tambo airports makes them frontrunners for the sixth team. The Winelands is likely to prevail.
There may be no Stephen Fleming, Tom Moody or Gary Kirsten in the coaching dugouts but they might yet be offered a spot in the commentary boxes as it appears there will be budget available for big names behind the microphone.
Pietersen has already been mentioned as a desired “target”. Cricket SA is playing an active role in many of the production elements of the tournament while the SABC will cede control of most of the match coverage to an independent production company.
With just more than a month to go it would be preposterous to try to create “new” teams or attract new audiences. Why would we need “Jumbos”, “Cavaliers” or “Mavericks” when we have names more than a century old: Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth …