In time Graeme Smith may come to wonder about the favours thrust his way by the United Cricket Board (UCB). Hurried into the captaincy before his cap has had time to bleach in the sun, Smith is now to be sent on his first assignment to Bangladesh without the benefit of a vice-captain.
You don’t, of course, want to place too much store on the state of a captain’s headwear, but it is fair to say that Smith’s cap has a long way to go before it takes on the authority of Steve Waugh’s battered, faded, ripped and torn Baggy Green. It is quite probably the case that Australia have chosen Waugh’s cap to lead them through their West Indies tour. If the wearer manages the occasional career-saving century, well, that would just be a bonus.
Waugh and his cap, though, do have a clearly nominated deputy in Ricky Ponting whose success as the one-day captain has confirmed him as Australia’s next Test captain. Having dispensed with Shaun Pollock as quickly as was humanly possible to install Smith as captain, the UCB’s general council and the national selectors have come up against the uncomfortable fact that, apart from the new incumbent and his immediate predecessor, there’s not a great deal of obvious leadership material around. Of the senior players, Mark Boucher has been widely cited as one of those who failed to rally to Pollock’s call to the colours during the World Cup along with Jacques Kallis. Makhaya Ntini has taken on some of the functions once performed by Jonty Rhodes as an on-field cheerleader, but while he has now come to terms with his own game, he has still to demonstrate a wider tactical acumen.
And although Herschelle Gibbs is now the one batsman guaranteed an automatic place, the only organisational qualities he has shown to date have been as the bloke who had the Rizlas. Neil McKenzie is the other option, but, as ever, he has been asked to prove that he is worth a regular place in the team. All of which leaves Smith with only coach Eric Simons to turn to for advice and support. It could be argued that this will be to the benefit of Smith and Simons in that there is no obvious rival in a position to undermine their authority.
This point of view, though, presupposes plotting, backstabbing and hidden agendas and, while this appears to be very much the case at the highest levels of administration in South African cricket, players are usually not quite so devious.
Without a vice-captain, Smith is going to find himself very much alone at times on the field. It is up to him to ensure that this loneliness does not become isolation. He is going to have to find trusted lieutenants, people or a person to turn to for suggestions and alternatives.
Crucially, he will need someone to tell him when he’s getting it wrong. Just at the moment there are no obvious candidates for this role. Then again, it seems probable that the uncertainty around the leadership of the national team is no more than a mirror of the administration. Who will lead South African cricket out of its current morass is a matter of some conjecture.
Border’s Ray Mali has declared his availability for election when the new UCB president is chosen later this year. Under the UCB’s old constitution, Percy Sonn’s term of office would have been up this year, but the reorganisation of cricket allows him to stand for re-election. But will he stand? Sonn has his eyes on the International Cricket Council (ICC) presidency in 2005 and hopes for the UCB’s backing next year when South Africa have their turn to nominate a candidate for the position.
But if Sonn stands against Mali and loses, could the UCB realistically propose a man for the presidency of world cricket who has been rejected for the presidency of his own country’s board? Whatever the UCB’s general council may have said publicly at the time, it was deeply embarrassed when Sonn fell out of his trousers during the World Cup.
Couple this with a growing feeling at the UCB that the time has come for it to be led by an African president, and Sonn might not have a chance of re-election. He may well come to believe that his best bet for the ICC post would be to step aside from the UCB.