Daniel shares his opinion on the happenings at Cricket South Africa over the last few months.

Jacques Faul and Graeme Smith are at the wheel, the “rot” that is Thabang Moroe has been suspended, Cricket South Africa is saved, and a 4-0 drubbing of the mighty English is looking imminent!

I disagree

Let’s pull back the lens ever so slightly. A 3-0 whitewash in India, preceded by arguably the worst Cricket World Cup in South African history, as well as a humiliating 2-0 whitewash against, what I’d describe as a mediocre Sri Lankan side, stripped of a number of their ‘star’ players, at home.

On paper, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that South Africa are at their lowest point in Test cricket, or at least in my lifetime but at the same time, I’d argue that the average cricket goer is too quick to attribute the rapid decline in form to the absence of Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, Ab de Villiers, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

Did losing these world-class players contribute to the quality or lack thereof within the South African camp? Yes, absolutely, and it would be ridiculous to deny that, but I believe that it doesn’t even begin to scrape the surface of the structural, fundamental and inherent underlying issues within Cricket South Africa.

I would go as far as saying that these underlying issues were present over a decade ago but were significantly harder to pick up on as our crop of superstars bulldozed their way to victories in Australia, England, India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

So what went wrong?

To be honest, I’m not too sure where to start but for now, let’s start right at the top, with CEO Thabang Moroe who has been operating in that capacity since 2016.

To be quite frank, it was immediately evident that his intention or mandate was that of ‘transformation’. Now before I move on, I think it’s worth mentioning that the majority of South African cricket fans, in my opinion, are not opposed to the idea of transformation.

I myself am a firm believer that talent can come from absolutely anyone and anywhere and that Cricket South Africa haven’t even begun to tap into the wide net of potential players and talent pool within South Africa.

What is my evidence for this? Not much to be honest but it does seem that year after year, our Proteas are being sourced from the same regions, and the same schools and those unlikely ‘diamond in the rough’ finds are too few and far between.

At what point did people realize that Thabang Moroe and his ‘agenda’ was becoming an issue?

Well personally, I was a bit late to the party and it admittedly took CSA threatening to suspend the Western Province Cricket Association for what can quite honestly be put as ‘picking one too few black African players, while still exceeding their players-of-colour target’.

Yes, you’ve read that correctly. Western Province Cricket Association were placed under an investigation after having picked seven players of colour in their playing eleven but failed to meet their target of three black Africans within those seven players of colour (only fielding two).

To put this into perspective, a franchise side such as the Cobras is required to field six out eleven players of colour, three of whom are required to be black Africans, a requirement that the Cobras and Ashwell Prince were able to meet in their first three rounds of CSA 4-Day fixtures.

I think this was a key turning point for South African cricket fans who were looking to their board for some form of change, guidance or ‘pro-activeness’ after the aforementioned dismal cricket that we’ve been subjected to by our national side, but were instead met with trivial internal squabbles over what many would consider minor issues, particularly in the big scheme of things.

Thabang Moroe and the rest of the Cricket South Africa Board had a decision to make at this point. Would they concede and effectively own up to their recent shortcomings and perhaps look to rebuild the relationship with the relevant Cricket South Africa stakeholders?

Unfortunately not, and the events that transpired thereafter could quite literally be compared to something from the mid-1960s in Communist Russia whereby the dictator – Thabang Moroe – simply removed the accreditation of a number of journalists who had written what I’d describe as perfectly fair and accurate accounts, albeit negative, of the ongoings within Cricket South Africa.

That decision proved to be the straw that ultimately broke the camel’s back and unfortunately for Moroe, there was no turning back. What transpired thereafter was a total collapse in the confidence and support of not only Thabang Moroe but for the board of Cricket South Africa as a whole who needed to act quickly after the withdrawal of CSA’s largest sponsor, Standard Bank, who I believe is responsible for a substantial portion of the Cricket South Africa’s revenue.

At the end of the day, Cricket South Africa is a business, a financially unsound business I might add, and the possibility of diving deeper into financial turmoil meant that loyalty was tossed aside.

Thabang Moroe was suspended as the CEO of Cricket South Africa later that day.

At this point, Cricket South Africa had their backs to the wall, and I believe Graeme Smith, who had initially withdrawn his name from consideration for the Director of Cricket role, suddenly held a pair of aces in his hand.

I’d go as far as to argue that Cricket South Africa needed Graeme Smith a lot more than Graeme Smith needed Cricket South Africa and they became a lot more ‘compromising’ in their negotiations and later went on to bring the highly recommended, qualified and experienced Jacques Faul into the ‘interim CEO’ position.

Graeme has all but signed the dotted line but looks set to become the first Director of Cricket within CSA and will be responsible for all things ‘player and coaching’ related.

With Thabang Moroe out, and the pair of Faul and Smith in key decision-making positions, all is well I assume?

You assume wrong, and I personally have a number of issues that I believe need clarification.

Will Thebang Moroe make a come back?

If his partner in crime – CSA President Chris Nenzani –is anything to go by, then it is believed that he will be back within the next six months.

To me that seems like a step forward, followed by two steps back but I take great confidence from the fact that Graeme Smith himself cited his distrust of Moroe as the main reason for his initial reluctance to take on the position.

Would Graeme Smith have accepted the role if he believed Moroe would be back a few months later? Personally, I don’t think so, but only time will tell.

Will the rest of the board be replaced?

There seems to be this idea within the remaining members of the board of Cricket South Africa that after having detached themselves from and ultimately let go of Thabang Moroe, all would be fit as a fiddle with CSA’s key stakeholders.

It is clear that Moroe’s removal was just the first step of what many fans, journalists, sponsors and other stakeholders are looking for and believe that a full clean up is required to rid Cricket South Africa of the rot that has transpired there for so long.

Is Graeme Smith actually the right guy for the job?

This might be a controversial topic for some, but I believe it’s a fair question.

Was Smith a great opening batsman? Yes, undoubtedly.

Was Smith the greatest test captain we’ve ever had? Yes, absolutely.

Does that make him qualified as the Director of Cricket? Hmmm, I have my doubts.

There’s no skirting around the fact that Smith has been criticized in the past for his tendency to show favour to ‘the boys’. Whether that is true or simply journalists trying to find fault in an almost faultless career, I’ll let you decide, but what I urge you to follow closely, is whether or not Smith gives Enoch Nkwe his full backing as the ‘coach’ of the side going forward.

Many have already doubted Smiths confidence in Nkwe given the possibility of Gary Kirsten coming on as what has been described as a ‘mentor’ to Nkwe for the England series.

Now before we jump to conclusions, please ask yourself, if Kirsten has been asked to come on to act as a mentor to Nkwe, was that Graeme Smith’s decision?

Was it the board’s decision? Could it have been Nkwe himself who opted to have the guidance of a highly qualified and experienced coach an earshot away?

Has the media itself manifested the idea of Kirsten ‘mentoring’ Nkwe when in fact he may have been brought on in a consultancy capacity?

We really do not know and I’ll reserve my comment on that until I do.

Having said that, I think it cannot hurt to have Kirsten as a ‘consultant’ in the camp for a four-match Test series against the English.

Nkwe, in my opinion, needs an extended run before we can pass judgement and should be free to express himself as a coach with Smith, Kirsten and co, providing useful guidance and input along the way.

My final thoughts on the matter

The gaping holes in South African cricket have become more apparent in recent times but have been exacerbated or made out to be far worse than reality may suggest.

I take confidence from the fact that all of Cricket South Africa’s dirty laundry has been aired for the world to see; it is a necessary step before progress can be made and although minor in nature, I believe progress has and will continue to be made in the distant future.

For now, I’ll be sure to follow the ongoings with Cricket South Africa and its board with the utmost intent and I look forward to a period of much-needed transparency and communication between CSA and its stakeholders as we look to move our cricket in the right direction.

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