The long-term effect of the Momentum Proteas reaching the final of the T20 World Cup will take a couple of years to be fully appreciated — but only if sponsors and broadcasters continue to support the women’s game and recognise the value in treating it as equal to the men’s version.
More girls and women are playing cricket than ever around the world and it stands to reason that, given sufficient airtime and exposure, it will attract a similar audience. Cricket Australia has been the pioneer in equality between the sexes, which is why the women’s team are so far ahead of every other nation.
Several World Cup moments in recent years have captured the imagination of the SA cricket-loving public, who hitherto had not watched the women’s game. But their clinical defeat of England in the semifinal may have represented a tipping point after which new and fleeting watchers of women’s cricket became permanent fans. There are, of course, hundreds of thousands of devotees already.
Less than a decade ago Momentum funded the first six, full-time professional contracts, which transformed the women’s game from its amateur status. The improvement in standards and results since is all the evidence anyone could need to be convinced about the playing (and commercial) potential of women’s cricket in SA.
A new dawn beckons in the men’s game, too, with fresh faces and ideas being introduced to the Test team, which begins a two-Test series against the West Indies at Centurion on Tuesday. The last statistical chance of the Proteas reaching the final of the Test World Championship was extinguished a fortnight ago, which leaves the new captain and coach free to “express” themselves.
Shukri Conrad has already done that off the field with his bold but sensible selection choices and the assertion that batsmen wishing to challenge for places in the national squad need to be mindful not just about the number of runs they score in provincial cricket, but the rate at which they score.
Conrad talks of being “old-school” when it comes to wanting all-rounders in the team, and he may have been around the game for the best part of 30 years, but his instincts are anything but old-school. The rest of the Test-playing world may be reluctant to join the “new England” in revolutionising Test cricket, or even in acknowledging “Bazball”, but Conrad, quietly for the moment, is all aboard.
Temba Bavuma, too, will happily embrace being prepared to lose to win. The days of guarding against defeat as a priority must be banished. SA’s diminished Test schedule does not mean they must do everything possible not to be beaten. It means they should make every attempt to win. Only then will they, one day, be able to make that final.
It has been a remarkable summer for international cricket and the Cricket SA representatives who have assisted the ICC in staging both the inaugural Under-19 Women’s World Cup and the main event should be congratulated. Many thousands of unpaid and underappreciated hands have been at the tiller.
But for those hankering after more, immediate World Cup action, there is good news. At least for those living in the Western Cape and/or inclined towards watching on internet streaming.
The Evergreen Over-50s World Cup starts in the Western Cape on March 6 and, as usual with these events, SA will start among the hot favourites. It is unfair to the majority of the men in the 18-man squad to focus on the familiar names but profile comes before performance in this world. Initially.
Captain Louis Koen (five ODIs) and all-rounder Allan Dawson (two Tests, 19 ODIs) headline the Over-50 squad but the new era of Cricket SA may be best illustrated by the inclusion of left-arm spinner Clive Eksteen. A fine playing career for Gauteng and SA was followed by an administrative position with the national body.
It ended awkwardly with Cricket SA on the wrong end of a CCMSA judgment, which exonerated Eksteen of malpractice. He was badly bruised but now has a chance to play for a World Cup, almost exactly 20 years after what he thought would be his last appearance in senior cricket.
There is a convenient notion among less active, former cricketers that the game should be left to the youngsters. If you happen to be in Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek or Paarl and have the time and inclination to watch between March 6-20, you may be happily surprised.
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