Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Usuthu, Arrows’ woes continue
GRAEME Smith is capable of leading South African cricket out of the mire, but Smith has to dig deep within himself before his own cleansing is complete.
Smith is South Africa’s most successful international captain, one of the best opening batsmen to have played the game and an integral part of South African cricket’s history post isolation.
The way Smith played the game was tough and uncompromising. It had to be, when he was made the Proteas captain at just 22 yearsold.
Many questioned his promotion to Test captain at such a young age and the former England captain infamously couldn’t remember Smith’s name at a press conference in the build-up to a Test series between England and Smith’s South Africa.
Smith’s response was to score a double hundred. Hussain, like the rest of the England team, never forgot Smith’s name and it was Smith’s Proteas that forced Hussain to relinquish the England captaincy.
Smith’s international cricketing achievements must be stated for the record: He scored 9265 Tests runs and 6989 ODI runs. He scored 27 Test hundreds and 38 half centuries and 10 ODI hundreds and 47 half centuries. He averaged 48.25 as a Test opener in 117 Tests and 37.98 in 197 ODI’s. He also averaged 31.67 in 33 T20s and captained the Proteas in 108 Tests.
Smith holds the world record of captaining a Test team (109), which includes captaining the ICC in an official Test match. His 53 Test wins as captain is also a world record.
There is no counter to Smith’s pedigree when it comes to cricket or his standing internationally as one of the finest to have played the game.
He is a leader and has always shown that on the field of play.
But it is now that Smith, at 39-years-old, must show the world his EQ matches his IQ and his leadership can look within as much as it can inspire.
Several players of colour have spoken out about being prejudiced when playing for the national team captained by Smith and his predecessor Hansie Cronje.
One of them is Thami Tsolekile, who this past fortnight has been vocal in his public attacks on Smith as a person and Smith as the national captain. Tsolekile felt Smith ended his international career and spoke of being treated differently to white players.
For the record Tsolekile ended his own career with a long-term ban for match-fixing. This had nothing to do with Smith, who responded to Tsolekile’s claims with a counter claim of his own. Smith, on social media, gave his side of the story and it painted a glorious picture of a captain, devoid of power when it came to influence about players national aspirations. This is nonsense. Smith, like Cronje, was the most powerful voice in South African cricket in his playing era. Smith dictated and determined and got the necessary results.
He has nothing to apologise for if he felt Tsolekili was not good enough to make the team and expressed such an opinion, but he has plenty to apologise for if he couldn’t see the racial bias black players were experiencing within the squad he captained for 10-plus years.
Tsolekile said he would have appreciated an apology from Smith, but the nature of the apology has got lost in translation. Tsolekile wants the comfort that he didn’t make it as a Test cricketer because of Smith, which is untrue.
There won’t and should not be a selection apology but there has to be one from Smith to every player who felt marginalized because of an environment that spoke exclusively to a white, privileged and entitled culture.
If Smith can understand this, he will understand how to fix South African cricket.
As for Tsolekile, he, as a black player, deserves an apology from those within cricket’s system, while his apology has to be to the sport that he disgraced through actions that led to a career-ending match-fixing ban.
BIDVEST Wits kept their faint title hopes alive with a 2-1 win over relegation-threatened AmaZulu in their PSL Absa Premiership clash at the FNB Stadium yesterday afternoon.
It was Wits’ first league win since the PSL’s restart after they ran up three draws on the trot. They are now fourth on the log.
AmaZulu remain near the foot of the standings, one point above Polokwane City.
AmaZulu, who had dismissed their Slovakian coach Jozef Vukusic on the eve of the match, were playing to instructions from caretaker coach Ayanda Dlamini. Their first sortie down the left could have reaped early reward but unmarked striker Bongi Ntuli overran the ball while trying to meet a Siyethemba Sithebe cross in the seventh minute.
It was one of several scoring chances that AmaZulu spurned in the first half. There were also two crucial calls (a handball and a foul) that went against them in key areas on the field.
Both teams employed a 4-4-2 playing pattern, but AmaZulu seemed to work most of their efforts in the channels out wide. Wits’ thrust was evident in central positions, but they lacked the tactical discipline to make an impact. Many in the starting line-up were drawn from Wits’ reserve team, and at times their inexperience showed.
Wits should have been punished in the 16th minute when Sphesihle Maduna fired wide from point-blank range.
When second-half play started, AmaZulu looked the more likely to score until Wits central midfielder Cole Alexander let rip with a scorching drive from outside the penalty area. AmaZulu goalie Siyabonga Mbatha deflected the ball for a corner.
Near the hour mark Wits hit the target twice in quick succession.
First Rowan Human netted, and then substitute Deon Hotto scored with his first touch (2-0).
After this AmaZulu’s heads dropped. However at the end when Wits allowed complacency to set in their ranks, AmaZulu substitute Lehlohonolo Majoro scored a consolation goal in injury time.
NEW Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has chosen former Sweden striker Henrik Larsson as one of his assistant coaches alongside Dutch coach Alfred Schreuder, the club said yesterday.
Larsson, 48, had a brief but important spell at Barca and played a crucial role off the bench in the team’s comeback from a goal down to beat Arsenal 2-1 to win the 2006 Champions League final.
He has been an assistant and first team coach in
In the earlier match yesterday, Mwape Musonda’s brace against Golden Arrows earned Black Leopards maximum points in their bid to avoid relegation as they moved up to 13th with a 2-1 win at Emirates Airline Park.
Both teams appeared to be headed for a draw but a free-kick from Lifa Hlongwane came off the upright and was tapped in by Musonda.
Referee Cedric Muvhali made two controversial penalty decisions in the first half that saw the two teams go into the interval at 1-1.
In the 16th minute Muvhali awarded Arrows the first penalty after the ball unwittingly came off the elbow of Isaac Masia who had his right arm very close to his upper body.
Knox Mutizwa slotted past King Ndlovu for his 12th league goal of the season.
Against the run of play, Hlongwane’s cut-back came off the legs of a sliding Divine Lunga. The Limpopo-born referee mysteriously saw an irregularity and pointed to the spot.
Lidoda Duvha’s captain Musonda equalised, taking his league goals tally to seven.
Sweden since 2010, his last job being with former club Helsingborgs.
Schreuder, 47, joins Barca after being sacked as head coach of German side Hoffenheim in June.
He spent the previous campaign as assistant to Erik Ten Hag at Ajax Amsterdam, who reached the Champions League semi-finals.
Koeman, one of Barca’s greatest ever players, left his role as Netherlands coach to take over at the Catalans on Wednesday after Quique Setien was sacked following last week’s 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.