The scenario looked brighter for South Africa when they registered a come-from-behind Test series win against India at home a year ago and drew 1-1 in New Zealand soon after.
Remaining unbeaten in the T20I series in India last June as well as in the whiteball leg of the England tour in July-August, they recorded an innings win over England in the first of the three Tests thereafter, only to be blown away in the next couple of games to concede the series.
Strikingly, South Africa’s team total couldn’t reach 200 in any of those four innings even though their bowlers had done their best to keep them in the game. Adding to their embarrassment, they shockingly failed to chase down The Netherlands’ 158/4 to exit early from the T20 World Cup.
These instances underpin the poor state of affairs of the current South African batting, which worsened in the ongoing Australia tour where Dean Elgar and Co. have got hammered in the two Tests so far.
“There’s no quick fix to this. You can’t have people cropping up overnight and saying, ‘Eh, we’re going to score runs for you.’ In fact, even in the Tests we won, it’s our bowlers who played leading roles,” Paul Adams, former South Africa left-arm chinaman bowler, told The Telegraph from East London on Tuesday.
“The team had to go through a transition after the departure of people like (Jacques) Kallis, (AB) De Villiers, (Hashim) Amla and (Faf) Du Plessis. There’s still enough talent in our country. But the South African board (Cricket South Africa) has been going through financial constraints and that does have a huge effect on the cricketing structure.
“The guys get to play only around seven first-class matches in a season, which is just not enough.
The number of ‘A’ tours and matches have also got significantly reduced owing to the structure, which has badly affected our development pipeline,” Adams, who represented South Africa in 45 Tests and 24 ODIs and now coaches Eastern Cape Iinyathi, explained.
Will the SA20 — the T20 league with teams owned by IPL franchises — come up with a solution? “From the monetary perspective, it will... The cash flow should be of some help to CSA,” Adams said.
‘Much-needed’ review
Recently, players have asked for a review of the domestic structure in order to play more first-class cricket. “Players have passed a resolution for a review of the domestic structure.“They want better infrastructure and the scheduling to be looked after as well. They’re in favour of playing more first-class matches,” Andrew Breetzke, CEO of the South African Cricketers’ Association, said.
“We’ll be in direct communication with the players and also expect our Test cricketers to be a part of this effort. The entire process is expected to begin by the end of this month or February.”
‘No quota as such’
It’s often argued that in order to give more chances to the coloured players and bring them to the forefront, South African cricket is compromising quality. “It’s not cast in stone that a certain number of (coloured) players has to be there in the XI,” Breetzke stated. “But yes, transformation is a part of our game and players accept that.
“Besides, the majority of the South African population is black, so we do require more black Africans coming through the pipeline because that helps the Proteas. We also need more Kagiso Rabada-like role models,” he emphasised.
According to a former CSA official who didn’t wish to be named, “The government should also provide more support to cricket, especially at the grassroots. We still come across children playing cricket with bats and tin cans in our townships.”
