Cricketers, bowl us over in the T20

IT’S a big couple of weeks for South Africa’s senior men’s and women’s cricket teams as they try to salvage a season in which SA cricket plummeted to new depths of incompetence.

That it is, once more, the players who have to put a respectable face on the sport in this country is at once unfair, but also typical.

The sports administrators – those provincial presidents, the president of Cricket South Africa and his vice-president – remain in place even as cricket continues to struggle to attract sponsorships and debt levels explode out of control.

And so it is to Dane van Niekerk and her players and Quinton de Kock and his players that we must look for reasons to feel good about cricket again.

Van Niekerk’s team start their campaign in the T20 World Cup in Perth on Sunday with a tough fixture against England.

South Africa have won just two out 18 T20 Internationals against England, although both wins came in the past five matches between the sides.

The Proteas’ overall World Cup record isn’t great either – just eight wins in 23 matches, and none against their main rivals in Group B of this year’s competition, England and the West Indies.

However, there is reason for optimism. Van Niekerk has instilled a real hardness and competitive spirit since taking over as captain. For the first time in two years she has a fit group of players at her disposal.

They will go into Sunday’s match against the English – runners-up in the T20 World Cup tournament two years ago – believing they can win, which is a significant mental shift for the South African team.

De Kock’s side will believe the same for their opener tonight against a powerful Australian team playing for the first time in South Africa since the sandpaper scandal in 2018. The return of Faf du Plessis – now no longer carrying the weight of captaincy – and Kagiso Rabada adds experience and explosiveness.

SA cricket will be willing our national teams to do well, to help us forget about the incompetence of the administrators. It is indeed a crucial few weeks for the sport in this country.