As champion sports people and winning teams are fond of saying, it’s one thing to reach the top or win a title but quite another retaining a title and staying at the top of your game. Which is not to say that victory and the moment of triumph should not be celebrated, but a modicum of humility and respect for the vanquished is normally a worthwhile investment.
The Sunrisers Eastern Cape were not the best team through 10 rounds of the inaugural SA20 but they are worthy champions, which is a different thing. They took a while to click on the field but, having reached the semifinals, their captain’s century ensured they reached the final, and the “savvy” the franchise showed at the player auction helped them win it.
Roelof van der Merwe used the term “Moneyball” when discussing the composition of the team, a reference to the book by Michael Lewis which charts the remarkable story of the unfancied Oakland Athletics baseball team in the late 1990s which achieved unprecedented success on a limited budget.
Unlike baseball teams, of course, the SA20 franchises all started with the same budget but, in common with the Oakland Athletics team, they made some unusual purchases which turned out to be inspired gambles. In the case of the Sunrisers, Van der Merwe was undoubtedly referring to himself and opening batsman Andy Rossington.
At the age of 38 the former Titans and Proteas all-rounder is enjoying a golden summer to his career with Somerset in England and the Netherlands whenever his county commitments permit. Not only was he man-of-the-match in the final with four vital wickets but captain Aiden Markram insisted Van der Merwe was the catalyst which sparked the team into action after losing their first two group games.
Englishman Rossington, 29, has shown flashes of genius during a professional career already a dozen years old without fully establishing himself in three county teams and various franchises around the world. He carries more weight around the waist than is fashionable for a professional cricketer, but there is nothing wrong, and never has been, with the way he hits a cricket ball.
Too much emphasis is placed on the leading run-scorers and wicket-takers during T20 tournaments. They are useful tools for TV producers and marketers, but the batters and bowlers with the highest strike rates are more likely to contribute to winning games than those with the heaviest weight of runs and wickets.
Jos Buttler (391) and Faf du Plessis (369) scored the most runs and there is no question that neither of their teams would have reached the play-offs without their contributions. But Rossington, who finished in eighth place with 246 runs, had the highest strike rate (166) of any batter who played the whole tournament. Even if he only scored 30, the fact that he did so from just 17 balls afforded Markram the time to settle. Markram (366) was the third-highest scorer in the tournament.
Now that an appropriate period of time has lapsed for celebration (24 hours is about the norm with today’s global calendar), it seems right to hope that all those involved in the extraordinary success of the tournament remember to be as inclusive as possible and share the euphoria. There were many loyal servants of the SA game, and not just players, who felt, and were, excluded from the outset. They need to feel the love and be reminded that they are still appreciated and have a part to play in the future.
There are dozens of provincially contracted cricketers who had nothing to do for a month, junior and even some senior administrators who were metaphorically and even literally required to vacate their offices while the new team owners moved in with entourages of their own staff.
Even as far away as New Zealand, which has just concluded its own domestic T20 competition, the SA20 was noticed.
At least the “difference” was noticed between SA’s tournament and all the others in the world apart from the IPL. The difference, of course, was the crowds. Or the size of them.
New Zealand’s cricketers are accustomed to playing at small venues (or intimate as they prefer to call them) in which the atmosphere created by an attendance of over 2,000 is regarded as “atmospheric”.
But like players and viewers around the world, Kiwi cricket lovers have been suitably impressed at the sight of SA’s venues thumping to the beat of Razma and Taz. They are an excellent duo — but they can’t play all night, or all season. We shouldn’t really ask, or want them to.
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