It is not that easy to describe the importance of the South African Cricket Team for world cricket. They are alongwith Australia the most competitive team in the world. Any games that involves South Africa against an opponent of equal calibre will always be good to watch. Games in the 90s and 2000s between Australia and South Africa was always a treat. Almost all the games were fought equally by both the teams. It is another matter that South Africa never won a home Test series against Australia since the time of their readmission until very recently in 2018 but they are the only team to have won 3 consecutive series against Australia in Australia. It is a feat other teams will struggle to achieve. Probably it may never ever be replicated. However, South African cricket seems to have descended into a mess as discussed earlier.
A brief of the controversies surrounding CSA
The South African board was removed by their Olympic committee, controversy regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, the main sponsors, Standard Bank and Momentum have ended their support for the federation, serious allegations for mismanagement against the former chief executive Thabang Moroe and various other controversies surrounding the South African cricket board.
Yes, South African cricket is really in the crossroad. Hence, it is all the more important that the players are allowed to play. It has been more than 8 months since South Africa had played at the international level. Their last series against India was in March. A short one day series that was cancelled after the first game was washed out because of rain. One of CSA’s independent director Dheven Dharmalingam said “If our players don’t play, we don’t earn any income,”. Cricket South Africa have invited the England cricket team for a short series of ODIs and T20s. However, the sports ministry is yet to approve which makes this tour highly unlikely.
Any tour that involves India, England or Australia is actually a boon for the hosting nation. India brings in its supporters from around the world alongwith more than a dozen sponsors. England & Australia brings along their travelling supporters. All these means that the hosting nation will be able to recover their loss or settle their debts.
South African cricket needs help
The main reason why South African board and their team needs help is because of the range of exciting talent at their disposal. Starting with Allan Donald, through Jacque Kallis, De Villiers, Dale Steyn to Rabada. It is exciting for the paying public to see these players in action. Just one glance at the number of players in IPL will prove the strength of the cricket team. Not to mention the fact the number of players who migrated to England through the Kolpak route. Kevin Pietersen who could have become the South African captain after Smith retired and who could have stayed as the captain for a longtime alongwith scoring tons of runs in a conducive atmosphere will always remain the shining example of talent within South Africa.
A strong and confident South Africa is good for world cricket. The standards of world cricket certainly have slipped. Australia are not the same as before. Remove Steve Smith from the equation, the team is ripe for the taking. India still remain tigers at home and lambs abroad. England always have this habit of playing brilliantly well at one moment and playing horribly the very next moment. New Zealand seems to have improved but they will always have a question mark. The less said about the other nations the better it is. South Africa, for a large part over the last 30 years were extremely competitive in all conditions and in every country. They have definitely fallen from such heights, especially, after losing a series to Sri Lanka at home. Once they pick up their game, they are one of the most exciting teams to watch.
Test captain not appointed yet
South Africa will do well with appointing a captain for their test team. They already have a captain for the shorter formats in Quinton De Kock but are yet to name a captain for their test team. It has remained vacant ever since Faf du Plessis resigned after the series defeat to England. Unfortunately, without a proper functioning board, the appointment is taking time. Hopefully, a test captain will be announced soon.
Boucher talks of regaining the top ranking
One good thing to emerge out of all these gloom is that the South African coach, Mark Boucher, is taking about regaining the top position in all the formats. At the moment, they are among the mid-range teams in all the formats.
“We don’t want to be a nice group of guys and be eighth in the world. I’d rather be a challenging group of guys and be competing for the number one spot and they all want that as well‚ which is great to hear‚” said Boucher.
This is actually a good start for the coach to think along those lines.
Conclusion
Whether they have the players to achieve that ambition of becoming the top ranked team in the near future is debatable but any start that the current team towards that goal will be good enough. There are reports emerging out of South Africa that international cricket will return to the country soon enough. If and when that happens alongwith the closure of the Kolpak window, South African cricket will certainly begin to improve and will once again prove to be competitive in every condition. This will only benefit the world at large.