Suits caught short, but Proteas still very much in the game
Just as SA’s on-field future began to look brighter than many might have predicted six months before the World Cup, it was confirmed by a Cricket SA delegation in parliament that the game is heading for a forecast loss of around R650m over the next four years.
The problem with that sort of financial outlook is that those already invested in the game become understandably reluctant to remain involved. Whereas Cricket SA and its board members may back themselves to fight their way to sustainability, even profitability, it is the fiduciary duty of large sponsors not to endanger their own futures.
The game may well be able to turn itself around, but four years of heavy losses is a long time to endure a famine for companies with their own boards and shareholders to answer to. It was unclear whether the predicted shortfall between revenue and expenditure included the inevitable hundreds of millions it will cost for the Mzansi Super League to establish itself, but it almost doesn’t matter.
The numbers are so huge that a hundred million or so here or there will hardly make a difference. Cricket SA admits that its international fixture list, on which it relies for 80% of its income, is woefully inadequate and that it “needs to develop alternative sources of income”.
As suggested here on numerous occasions over the past year, a high-profile domestic league with international interest is just about the only diversification possible from the established blueprint. But the market is a crowded one and Cricket SA have no obvious USP (unique selling proposition) to persuade broadcasters to pay for it above
or as well as the Indian Premier League, Big Bash League, Caribbean Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Bangladesh Premier League or half a dozen others.
What they do have is popularity with the game’s international players, an attribute never to be underestimated. The difficulty for Cricket SA will come in its admirable desire to spread the game’s popularity and, ultimately, playing base through the exposure provided by the broadcast partner, the SABC, with the need to incorporate marquee players from around the world and the resulting television broadcast deals increased advertising.
Interest in the tournament is helped enormously by a strong and Proteas team whose demolition of the Australians in Perth on Sunday was the perfect fillip for the tournament. Perception can be far more important than reality in the world of sports marketing, and the national team is all that 90% of the world gets to see of SA cricket.
The international retirement of AB de Villiers led to a huge downturn in interest in the Proteas brand around the world but, in the absence of a replacement batsman, we offered the world the sight of Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn and Lungi Ngidi thundering in and bowling fast on a helpfully bouncy pitch. And what a sight it was.
It also provided a glimpse into the method by which Faf du Plessis and his team might mount a serious challenge in England in 2019. Bowl the opposition out! Without toporder allrounders to choose from, the selectors will have no option but to choose a team of specialists with a distinct “top six” batsmen and four specialist bowlers linked by a single all rounder. Andile Phehlukwayo is that man at the moment but Wiaan Mulder and Chris Morris could be included in place of one of the three fast bowlers.
If having Steyn batting at No 8 causes concern (and it should), then at least it focuses the mind of those above him. Australia won three of the past four World Cups by picking specialists while SA enjoyed the greatest depth and had more options than any other team and have won none. That’s not to say that Bob Woolmer’s theory of “nine batting options and seven bowling options” is not ideal, but sometimes circumstance forces the hand to the greater good.
At least Du Plessis, Ottis Gibson and the selectors have a road map to follow, even if it isn’t the route they would have chosen. Of the world’s top seven teams, only England in the build-up to the 2015 event were more clueless than Australia are at the moment this close to World Cup.
It is vital that Cricket SA keeps the Proteas flag flying as proudly as it has been for the past few years. It does not take long for empires to fall once the internal organs are exposed, as Australians well know.