Austerity welcome, but not enough to sustain the game
one-day international (ODI) series reaches its conclusion just north of our borders on Tuesday with Zimbabwe attempting to conclude a 4-0 whitewash over the United Arab Emirates.
“So what?” we might snigger from the comfort of cricket’s “first world”. Well, two things: purity and austerity.
The UAE’s under-19 squad half a dozen of whom were born there are currently in camp elsewhere so the senior squad is comprised exclusively of expatriates born in Pakistan or India, most in their mid-30s.
They are club cricketers because there is only club cricket in the Emirates.
The inaugural first-class competition will begin in September. But they cherish every moment on the international stage.
They are on the up. Zimbabwe’s cricketers made the journey to this series in the opposite direction. Nine months ago they crashed to the most unlikely three-run loss to the same team to miss out on World Cup qualification.
It was a crushing blow to the players and everybody involved with Zimbabwean cricket
The UAE have one of the best playing and training facilities in the world in Dubai and an ambitious and hard-working coach in former Scotland allrounder Dougie Brown. They have the comfort of knowing that the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) divisional championship provides them with a pathway to emulate the fairy-tale rise of Afghanistan.
Zimbabwe spent 25 years at the top table but have not just lost their place, they’ve been forced to survive on the most meagre crumbs from it.
Fundamentally, they have no income outside their ICC grant. And no immediate prospect of generating any.
So that’s where they sit. The electronic scoreboard is long gone at Harare Sports Club. Tickets are $3. Five of the national players bought 50 each and left them at the gate on a first-come-first-served basis.
Television coverage was reduced to five cameras with no line decision or boundary replays, never mind DRS. The director and his single VT editor sat behind a mixing desk on the camera platform above the sight screen.
But then the main sponsor, a manufacturer of irrigation and sewerage pumps, declined to pay the remaining 50% of the agreed fee. Apparently that was always his plan. Two games provided plenty of airtime to sell some pumps.
So only the first two games were broadcast and the production lost far more money
Athan it could afford rather than scrape together a tiny profit. Living off scraps.
Cricket SA’s need for austerity measures should be taken very seriously indeed. It is absurd, naturally, to think of any of its resources or facilities falling into disrepair, let alone as far or as painful as Zimbabwe’s, but the global landscape suggests no, emphatically states that even the most stringent belt-tightening will not be enough to maintain SA’s current international status.
The domestic balance sheet is one thing. The way in which revenue is generated and distributed internationally is quite another. For at least the past five years it has been obvious that, as things stand, the rich nations will get richer and the poor will become poorer.
India’s BCCI is the master of the universe with Cricket Australia and the England Cricket Board its fawning princes. Fixtures between the trio dominate the international calendar and the broadcasters continue to pay up.
Frankly, they couldn’t care less whether Sri Lankan and West Indian cricket is bankrupt, that New Zealand cricket survives and remains competitive by allowing all its best players to double or triple their income in domestic T20 leagues, or that Cricket SA has, in CEO Thabang Moroe’s own words, “seen a financial iceberg ahead” and is attempting to “slowly turn the ship around”.
Restructuring domestic cricket to dissolve the franchises and return to provinces is a huge deal which will save many millions. But here’s the really big news. It won’t be nearly enough to turn the ship around.
The only thing we can be certain of is that everyone involved in, or reliant upon, cricket is in this together. Or should be.
Moroe and his executive have to insist publicly that Cricket SA and the game are still “financially sound that is their job. They need to attract sponsors. Really need to.
But behind closed doors the need is equally great to gather together every colleague and ally, share the facts, heed their views and work together. Especially the players.
Moroe and the board of directors may be at the helm but they have tens of thousands of passengers on board, without life jackets.