All being well with New Zealand’s unpredictable weather and barring unpredictable injuries to Kagiso Rabada or other important Proteas bowlers in Christchurch, the national team will have completed a turnaround in fortunes of shuddering proportions by the time the majority of you read this.
Losing the first Test match by an innings and 276 runs was akin to losing a soccer match 10-0, the scars run deep and there is rarely redemption, never mind immediately. The Test team has proven to be an astonishing exception, even if something goes dramatically wrong on the final day in New Zealand.
There is a “secret” to their success. Apart from the usual hard work, dedication, determination and so on, the difference between this team and many others is the way they perceive themselves to have been let down by their employers and strength of the bond which has consequently formed between them.
It’s hardly a secret, at least it shouldn’t be. Captain Dean Elgar has been asked, and has spoken about it publicly. He was delightfully irascible in a press conference before the team left the country saying he was “pissed off” that so much attention was being paid to “off field stuff” when it should have been reserved for the team’s achievement in coming from one-nil down to beat India, the No 1 ranked team in the world.
It is almost certain that Elgar could see what sort of team he would need given the leadership vacuum above him. Soon after his appointment as captain Elgar was asked whether he was disappointed with the boardroom wrangles and politicking which were dragging the game’s reputation and popularity downwards: “Yeah... but we play for each other,” he said before adding a withering “I don’t even know who’s there any more.”
Elgar said he hoped the distraction of the Mark Boucher disciplinary hearing would galvanise the team rather than distract it. Those who watched the first Test match may well have thought them be distracted rather than galvanised but their lacklustre performance had a great deal more to do with jet-lag than the thought of having to testify on behalf of, or against, their head coach.
Under the leadership of Elgar and Temba Bavuma the national squad has, to all intents and purposes, become self-governing. They may not be booking their own flights and hotels but every big decision being made concerning the players is being made by them. The turning point came with Cricket SA board’s directive — the players saw it as a threatening ultimatum — to take a knee after the first game of the T20 World Cup.
Irrespective of whether it was the right decision and whether the gesture was appropriate for a SA team to make, that it was forced upon them just hours before a World Cup match televised around the world reduced some players to tears of rage. Rightly or wrongly, the players believed they had reached an admittedly shaky compromise which allowed them to display their respect in a manner of their choice. However it looked to the rest of the world.
There is another huge decision to be made in the immediate days after the team’s return home, one which could have far longer-lasting effects on the game in SA than whether to take a knee or not. Just as that decision should have been taken many months before the World Cup, this one should have taken well before the team left for New Zealand. Will SA’s Indian Premier League (IPL) players participate in the series against Bangladesh?
The three-match ODI series counts towards qualification for the next World Cup, which the Proteas are struggling to do as they sit in 10th place on the 13-team log with just three wins from 10 matches. The top eight qualify. The two-match Test series counts towards the World Test Championship. SA are in fourth place and, if they collected another 12 points on Tuesday and can beat England later in the year, have a realistic chance of qualifying for the final.
Of the 10 players signed at the recent IPL mega-auction, Rabada, Anrich Nortjé, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen are intrinsic to the Test squad, and Quinton de Kock to the ODI team. Yet they stand to lose a lot of money and kudos with their franchises if they miss the first three weeks of the tournament and, unlike England and Australia, Cricket SA does not have the money to justify compensating them.
Ordinarily such a decision would be made by the executive but Pholetsi Moseki, Cricket SA CEO, still operates with one hand tied behind his back because of his “interim” status. He has done a remarkable job in the circumstances without due recognition and, after more than a year in office, the board could do far worse than make him permanent.
But it is the players who will have to make that decision. Whatever they decide will set a strong precedent for the future. The IPL has no doubt. They have already issued a statement saying that Australia’s and England’s players will complete their tours of Pakistan and West Indies before joining the league, but that SA’s would be there from the start.
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