It is a fact that South African cricket is in the crossroads. Off late, there are lot of news coming out of South Africa and most of them are negative. A few weeks ago, there was the controversy regarding the comments made by Lungi Ngidi regarding the Black Lives Matter movement and the opposition from some of the former South African players. The CSA board and its executive were asked to step down. Their replacement is still unknown. Lack of international cricket at home or away which has meant heavy loss for the South African board. Former players like Thami Tsolekile accusing Smith of racism during his playing career.
Talented players seeking opportunity elsewhere in the world. So on and so forth. All of these means that South African cricket is in the crossroads and there doesn’t seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. It is not a secret that the cricket world needs a strong South African team.
Coming back after years of isolation
South African cricket came out of international isolation in the year 1991. Right from then, till about a couple of years ago, South Africa has been an exceptionally strong team. Winning in South Africa was tantamount to winning in Australia or winning in West Indies during their prime. It was that difficult. Especially, for the Asian countries who invariably go onto lose all the games played. I distinctly remember their first series in 1991. It was against India. They had the ferocious pace of Allan Donald, the leadership skills of Hansie Cronje, the excellent support to Donald in the form of Brian McMillan, Fanie de Villiers and not to mention the exceptional fields skills led by probably the greatest fielder the game has even seen, Jonty Rhodes. It felt like they were never really out of the game for close to 30 years.
All the players were fit and they were in form. Their performance in that series and in the subsequent series was enough to convince the world that South Africa will be a threat to Australia’s domination of world cricket. Especially after 1995.
Except for the extraordinary Australian team of the 90s and early 2000s, no other team managed to win in South Africa consistently. There was one occasional England win but that was about it. Only Australia were able to defeat South African regularly. Every other team that went to South Africa, promptly lost the test series.
The absolute peak of South African cricket
Not only were South Africa unbeatable in their own country by teams other than Australia, they were extremely competitive in other nations a well. South Africa remained the only team not to lose a single test series in India for 10 years starting from 1999. They are the only team to win three consecutive series in England apart from Australia. They are the only team to win three consecutive series in Australia. I do not think any team will ever replicate that record. The number of excellent and great players that South Africa churned was certainly on par with Australia.
There was Smith the competitive captain, Jacques Kallis whose exploits on the field be as a batsman or as a bowler or as fielder will probably never be matched. Hashim Amla extraordinary run accumulator. The mercurial A B De and last but not the least, the greatest fast bowler over the last 25 years, Dale Steyn. Some of these players are all time greats of the game.
The racial quota system
Suddenly, something seems to have gone wrong. It is an open knowledge that every South African sporting team will have to work towards satisfying the reservation policy. Cricket is no stranger to that rule. The South African cricket team is required to field a minimum of 6 players of colour with atleast 3 black players. This was introduced to help the black players. However, this seems to be having an opposite effect on the deserving white cricketers. So much so that, there has been a player exodus from South Africa and mostly through to the English county system through the Kolpak route which makes them ineligible to represent South Africa. Kevin Pietersen, who could have had a successful and a much better career with South Africa was among the disillusioned cricketer.
South African team’s struggle in recent years
This has left the South African cricket team to play with players who are that good at the international level. Temba Bavuma, Dane Vilas and a few others comes to mind. As a result of that, South African began to lose series regularly. Recently, they were hammered 3-0 in India and in the previous series, they were again humiliated 3-0 in 4 tests. If not for rain in Bangalore, they would have lost that series too. Last year, they lost to England 3-1 in South Africa. They won a series against India 2-1 but if only India had prepared better, India could have easily won the series 3-0. The absolute nadir came against Sri Lanka when South Africa lost a 2 tests series 2-0 having lost the previous series between these teams in Sri Lanka 3-0.
These are results that South Africa have never seen from the time since their readmission. The repeated failure to win even one World Cup, be it T20 or ODI is another case in point. Not only their test performance, even their one day performance have nose-dived. This is a format in which the South African team had a superior win ratio even when compared to Australia. It is the same team that still holds the record for successful chase in any One Day International.
Conclusion
It is absolutely essential that a strong South African cricket team is a necessity for world cricket to thrive. One good thing is that the Kolpak window will close by the end of this year with Britain’s exit from the European Union. This means that South African talent will remain in South Africa. The talented players will have to struggle with the quota system and the best will raise to the top. It is not clear what will happen to the players who have already signed Kolpak deals. If they are to return, South Africa will be a much stronger than how they have been over the last 2-3 years.
If you have similar opinion about the mess that South African cricket is finding itself in or if you think that everything is fine with South African cricket, please leave your comments?
Articles related to Black Lives Matter can be read here and here.