South Africa needs more than Steve Waugh’s one-day axeing to win
Peter Robinson
Say what you like about Australians, you have to defer to a nation able to enrich the English language with expressions like “cockheads”.
All being well, as Steve Waugh (and someone else) and the Australian cricketers trundle around the country, they might further offer up more choice phrases. God knows, we might need them before this season is over.
“Cockheads” entered common currency a week or two ago when Steve Waugh indulged in one of the muttered asides for which he is rapidly becoming famous. In this instance he was talking about Australian cricket writers, but in the wake of his unceremonious and unexpected dumping as one-day captain this week it would be fascinating to hear his views on Australian selectors.
Still, Australia’s current discomfort should not obscure the fact that the Wanderers Test starts next week and that whatever Waugh’s perceived shortcomings as a one-day player, the tourists hold a considerable advantage over South Africa in the longer form of the game.
As if to emphasise that there is no reason for complacency, Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour came bounding out of the woodwork this week, threatening legislation to “speed up the pace of transformation”.
Balfour’s trumpetings are usually best dismissed as the overenthusiastic burblings of a self-confessed sports fan, but when he starts talking about legislation it is time to take him seriously. It is not entirely clear what the minister has in mind, but it smacks ominously of entrenching a quota system at national level in law.
If this is the case, the Department of Sport might consider the Law of Unintended Consequences: any such legislation would strongly suggest that black sportspeople simply aren’t good enough to make it to the highest level without a kick up the ladder.
It would also reinforce a couple of myths that surround, in this instance, South African cricket. The first is that the United Cricket Board (UCB) is the last refuge of unreformed conservatives determined to keep black cricketers in their place. The UCB has a black president, a black chief executive and a selection panel on which black members outnumber whites four to two. Why they should need to have legislation encouraging them to pick more black players is anyone’s guess.
A second myth is that black players are deliberately kept back. Four of the five black players who have represented South Africa in Tests in the past two years all first played for their country at a younger age than Shaun Pollock.
The third, perhaps most damaging, myth is that transformation can only be achieved with a consequent lowering of playing standards. In other words, we should be prepared to lose a few matches in order to get our teams more “representative”. Let us be clear about this, this type of thinking might be favoured by politicians, talkshow hosts and a few administrators, but you’d be hard pressed to find a single player or coach, black or white, who’d admit to this in public.
Whatever Balfour might think, players have this awkward habit of judging each other on ability.
The simple truth is that transformation is a process that, if handled sympathetically, should enhance rather than damage South African cricket. But this depends to a large extent on those charged with carrying out the process. What, for instance, was Percy Sonn’s response to the uproar created when he changed the team for the Sydney Test? He issued a thinly veiled threat to coach Graham Ford and demanded that action be taken against Graeme Pollock for breach of confidence.
And what of Rushdi Magiet, the selection convener who after more than two years in the job still apparently did not understand selection policy? Magiet’s first actions after the Sydney Test were to sack two of the tour selectors. He had to reinstate them when it was pointed out that he had exceeded his authority.
It is surely no coincidence that the tour turned around after Sonn and Magiet had gone home from Australia and the calmer heads of Gerald Majola and Mike Procter took over.
All of which brings us back to Australia and next week’s first Test. If the middle order batting can be sorted out and the bowling revived, then South Africa could still compete with the world Test champions. This might mean having to make very tough decisions regarding Allan Donald and Daryll Cullinan, not to mention the likes of Lance Klusener, Boeta Dippenaar and Justin Ontong. But these decisions can all be made comfortably within the stated parameters of UCB selection policy. Maybe this time we might get it right.
Peter Robinson is the editor of CricInfo South Africa