Fun, fans and really good players
The SA20 competition is breathing new life into South African cricket —a welcome reprieve from the politicking and spats that have bedevilled the local game in recent times
The SA20 cricket tournament, about to hit its knockout stages this week, is the best thing that’s happened to the local game since boerewors rolls became mandatory at all South African grounds.
The competition is fun: each game is over in three dizzy hours and some of the world’s best cricketers (should that be performers?) have strutted their stuff to ecstatically full houses across the land.
Cricket desperately needs a feel-good story, and it’s found one unambiguously in the SA20.
When the competition broke for a recess due to the three-match one-day international (ODI) series against England this past weekend, the Pretoria Capitals were top of the log.
They didn’t get there by fluke. With Anrich Nortjé and England wrist-spinner Adil Rashid in their midst, they’re probably the best bowling side in the competition. Allied to that, they have the destructive batting brilliance of England pair Will Jacks and Phil Salt to call on, and they have been captained well by Wayne Parnell.
The Capitals skipper is experiencing an Indian summer. He burst on the scene at the 2008 under-19 World Cup in Malaysia as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, but never quite fulfilled his zippy early promise.
A series of niggling injuries and a flirtation with bling and the celebrity high life didn’t help.
But he’s matured since and some of his earlier indiscretions can be forgiven as the restlessness of a younger man.
Parnell, 34 on his next birthday, has revealed a subtle and supple mind in the SA20. It will be surprising if the Capitals don’t reach the already sold-out final at the Wanderers in Joburg on February 11.
“The most important thing now that we’re approaching the business end of things is to keep calm,” says Capitals coach Graham Ford.
“We’ve got some old heads around us — I think [New Zealander] Jimmy Neesham has played something like 230 T20s, for instance, but you also know things can head south pretty quickly once you hit the knockouts.”
It’s one of the peculiarities of the competition that the Capitals, who will in all likelihood finish top after the knockout stages, won’t earn a home final. The organisers, made up of a new entity featuring satellite channel SuperSport and Cricket South Africa (CSA), might have a look at this in future tournaments. They might also look at the teams’ hectic travelling schedule and an unsatisfactory break in the middle for the England ODIs.
This, though, is all small fare. The fiddly things will be tweaked in due course. The Indian Premier League, now 15 years old, didn’t become the commercial juggernaut it is in a day.
The SA20 has succeeded wonderfully — and it has done so because it has put the pleasure back into local cricket, a sport that has been bedevilled by spats, controversy and needless anguish for too long.
As importantly, a financially successful SA20 will swell CSA’s dwindling coffers, allowing the mother body to finance programmes and rehire coaching staff lost due to recent austerity measures.
South Africa hosts a 50-over World Cup in four years’ time and some of the stadiums are looking tawdry. The second scoreboard at Newlands either doesn’t work, or works intermittently. The television station on top of the Newlands main grandstand could do with a lick of paint.
Outside the stadium, it’s dirty. This is to some extent the story of modern urban South Africa, but Newlands needs to up its game as the most iconic stadium in the country.
The SA20 has succeeded in another way: it has allowed young, ambitious local cricketers who might never play for the Proteas to effectively play international cricket.
Eathan Bosch (Capitals), Jordan Hermann (Sunrisers Eastern Cape) and Evan Jones (Paarl Royals) have shown off their skills to good effect in this tournament. The SA20 will be the making of some of them, allowing them to play in other T20 leagues around the world.
Meanwhile, in Bloem …
While the SA20 was in recess, the Proteas romped to an unassailable 2-0 lead against England in the three-match series. Their second win, in Bloem on Sunday, was as fine a victory as they’ve achieved anywhere in the world in the past couple of years.
England appeared to have the match sewn up at the interval, having posted 342/7 after being put in by Temba Bavuma. In the chase Bavuma made good on his hunch that batting second was the thing to do, with a charming 109 in 102 balls.
His innings set up the climb to victory and, with handy contributions by all of the middle order, David Miller finished matters off with a scintillating 37-ball 58. The Proteas won their record chase at Bloem with five balls to spare, to win by five wickets.
Happy days are here again — at least until the Proteas have to play an away Test against decent opposition.
The competition is fun: each game is over in three dizzy hours and some of the world’s best cricketers (should that be performers?) have strutted their stuff to ecstatically full houses across the land