With less than a year to go till the T20 World Cup, the Mzansi Super League becomes even more important than ever, writes Alasdair Fraser.
Given the fact that the Proteas T20 outfit is often used to blood players into the ODI set-up, there has been a trend for the past few years that’s seen a lack of team culture of sorts.
It’s almost like a SA ‘A’ ODI team.
This has meant that the Proteas T20 team has lacked a certain cohesion needed to compete for a world title.
The Windies, India, Australia and England, in recent times, have packed their squads with T20 specialists and created a team culture, where every player knows their role and sticks to it.
This is a structure South Africa has lacked. Perhaps it’s been a narrative of ours since the advent of T20 cricket in our structures. There was always a light-hearted attitude to the format in our domestic scene when it started back in 2004.
South Africa needs to take T20 international cricket seriously.
The Mzansi Super League is the perfect vehicle to drive this change in mindset. It would be advantageous for all six franchise coaches, and the South African contingent of players, to sit down and come up with a blueprint that allows players to define what their actual role is and begin to hone those skills to create our own brand of T20.
Right now, it’s stale.
You may say this is a pipe dream or I am dreamer, but it might allow our young future stars the opportunity to narrow their focus in their own game and benefit them in the long run.
The wonderful thing about cricket is that it’s an individual sport played within a team dynamic. If a player clearly defines what their role is within a team dynamic, the team aspect will take care of itself.
For the past few years, South African T20 cricket has lacked substance. Our pool of players domestically has represented their respective franchises in the T20 local scene, but how many of them are T20 specialists?
We aren’t producing a David Wiese, Alfonso Thomas or Loots Bosman type of T20 specialist anymore. It’s time to identify those specialists and develop them for T20 only.
The CSA Provincial T20 Cup could be the perfect starting point to identify and then fast track them into the T20 domestic scene. What has been encouraging to see is a T20 club culture growing in the Western Cape with the Cape Premier League.
This creates new opportunities for players, who may never have been given a chance to show their potential, to be identified as a T20 specialist given a chance at a franchise level.
But back to the Mzansi Super League. A cheeky glance at the top runs and wickets columns has seen players like Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma and Janneman Malan get off to a flyer, while the likes of Sisanda Magala, Anrich Nortje, George Linde and Gerald Coetzee are already putting their hands up to potentially book their flight to Australia.
It’s early days, though, but the Proteas selectors need to start pencilling in their squad now in order to develop and create an exciting brand of T20 cricket that celebrates our game of cricket for all South Africans.
Photo: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix
