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Tourists make two changes for second Multan Test with spin expected to play bigger role

Matt Roller14-Oct-2024Ben Stokes will return to captain England in Multan this week after two months sidelined with a torn hamstring. Stokes has stepped up his recovery in the past week and will replace Chris Woakes in one of two England changes from the first Test, with Matthew Potts also coming in for the rested Gus Atkinson.”I feel good. I’m looking forward to getting back on the field,” Stokes said ahead of his return. “I’ve worked really hard at the back end of my rehab period at home and throughout the last Test match as well. I’ve put myself through a fitness test, pretty much, over the last couple of days, and come through that pretty well.”England are braced for a lower-scoring second Test, with the match set to be played on the same strip as the one used for their innings win last week. The pitch has been heavily watered but has dried out in the sun during two practice days, and the used surface could bring both teams’ spinners into the game.Stokes has been bowling in training and will be England’s third seam option behind Potts and Brydon Carse, his Durham team-mates. It is a rare example of England picking three seamers from the same county. “It’s going to be a proud moment for the club,” he said. “Durham have a great record of producing England cricketers, and in particular fast bowlers.”On his own fitness to bowl, Stokes said: “I’ve obviously got to be sensible. Playing on a used wicket made the decision a little bit easier… We’ve got two workhorses in the team in Carsey and Potts who just keep going and going and going. But I’m available to bowl, and when I sense the time is right for me to come on and make an impact, there won’t be any doubts in my mind.”Related

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England’s seamers all had a heavy workload in the first Test, despite their innings win: Atkinson bowled 39 overs, Carse 38 and Woakes 35. Atkinson and Woakes both played all six Tests of England’s home summer and have been rested, with a short turnaround between matches, while Carse should be much fresher after spending June, July and August serving a ban.”You’re looking at the last seven Test matches being pretty gruelling – in particular, the last one,” Stokes said. “Looking at the seamers we’ve got out here, this is a good time for them to have a rest and refresh the body. They’ve had a really big summer and put in really good performances, bowled a lot of overs. It’s a good time for them to get their feet up and have a break.”Ben Duckett retains his place at the top of the order after recovering from a dislocated thumb sustained on the second evening of the first Test, while Jamie Smith will shuffle back down to No. 7 to allow Stokes to return in his favoured role at No. 6.England have stuck with the same spinners – Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir – despite Bashir’s quiet first Test, in which he returned match figures of 1 for 156. Rehan Ahmed is the other spin option in their squad, while the Warwickshire and England Under-19s legspinner Tazeem Ali is on holiday in Pakistan and has been bowling in the nets this week.England XI: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Matthew Potts, 10 Jack Leach, 11 Shoaib Bashir

In the absence of Rashid and Farooqi, Afghanistan’s attack lacked some intensity but they did not have much to work with after the batting blunders

Firdose Moonda22-Sep-2024South Africa earned a consolation win to end their three-match series against Afghanistan 2-1 as they completed their ninth successful chase in 22 matches since 2021. After being outplayed in the first two games, South Africa finally arrived in the contest via their bowlers and fielders who dismissed Afghanistan in 34 overs and left their batters a small total to chase.Aiden Markram scored his first ODI fifty in 10 innings and shared a 90-run fourth-wicket stand with Tristan Stubbs. Stubbs’ ODI career is only four matches old and importantly for him, he was able to bat time and finish the match.In the absence of Rashid Khan, who tweaked his hamstring in the second match, and Fazalhaq Faooqi, who was rested, Afghanistan’s attack lacked some intensity but they did not have as much to work with as they would have liked after the batting blunders. Rahmanullah Gurbaz was the only member of Afghanistan’s top eight who scored more than 10, once again holding their innings together. He fell 11 short of a second successive ODI century and extended his lead at the top of the series run-scorers charts. AM Ghazanfar, batting at No.9, contributed 31 off 15 balls to give South Africa a target of 170. They got there in 33 overs.South Africa’s energy came from a good new-ball combination of Lungi Ngidi and Bjorn Fortuin, and in the field. Run-outs accounted for three of the first five Afghanistan wickets and gave South Africa an edge they lacked in the previous two matches.Ngidi was excellent upfront, with his range of cutters and slower balls and got an early breakthrough when debutant opener Abdul Malik played all around a straight delivery and was pinned on the pad. Arguably, Ngidi made a more important breakthrough in his next over, when Gurbaz drove him aerially, he stuck out his right hand and the ball clipped his finger and ricocheted off Rahmat Shah and onto the stumps. Rahmat, at the non-striker’s end, was short of his ground.While Rahmat was sloppy in getting back in time, Hashmatullah Shahidi’s lack of urgency was worse. He hit Markam behind square and called for two but ran the second too slowly and veered off a straight line to give Stubbs enough time at sweeper cover to throw to Kyle Verreynne and run the Afghanistan captain out. Things got worse in the next over when legspinner Nqaba Peter bowled Azmatullah Omarzai.Rahmanullah Gurbaz waged a lone battle at the top•ACB

By then, Gurbaz had already brought up a 47-ball 50, laced with his characteristic clean hitting down the ground and on the leg side. He dealt with the wickets by batting as normally as possible, even as he grew frustrated with his partner’s mistakes. Ikram Alikhil was next to misjudge when Gurbaz bottom-edged a pull off Markram to midwicket, leaving no time for a single. Alikhil was halfway down the wicket when Gurbaz sent him back but Temba Bavuma was onto the ball and ran Alikhil out.Mohammad Nabi was Afghanistan’s last recognised batter and South Africa kept him quiet and should have him out for 5 when he missed a Bjorn Fortuin arm ball. South Africa didn’t review but replayed showed he would have been out lbw. In Fortuin’s next over, he got his own back when Nabi edged him to Verreynne and Bavuma reviewed successfully.Gurbaz’s push for a century ended when he tried to hit Andile Phehlukwayo over extra cover and was well caught by Reeza Hendricks diving forward to leave Afghanistan 133 for 7. Phehlukwayo took a second wicket in three balls before Ngidi and Peter got rid of the tail. Afghanistan left 16 overs out there and will be disappointed with their capitulation after two dominant performances earlier in the week.South Africa’s batting has been their downfall throughout the series and although improved, did not always look convincing. Bavuma and Tony de Zorzi were tentative against left-armer Naveed Zadran at first and Bavuma almost chopped on in the third over. But when they got hold of the 19-year-old, they capitalised. De Zorzi smashed him past mid-off for the innings’ first boundary and Bavuma pulled him through mid-wicket later in the same over. He also took on Ghazanfar to suggest South Africa had done some work on their approach to spin, but de Zorzi underlined the old problems. He hit a sweep off Nabi straight to Hashmatullah at square leg and the captain put it down and then sent the next ball to cover, where Omarzai could not hold on.In the next over, Bavuma played Ghazanfar down the wrong line and was bowled and the over after that, de Zorzi gave Ghazanfar a return chance but the ball bounced just in front of him. Just when it seemed de Zorzi’s charmed life knew no end, he stayed back in his crease against Nabi and was trapped lbw.Reeza Hendricks’ lean run continued when he top-edged Fareed Ahmad to depart for a third score under 20 this series. In his last 15 white-ball internationals, Hendricks has only gone past 20 three times.Markram took it on himself to anchor the rest of the chase and also provided experienced counsel for Stubbs. The pair built slowly at first and minimised risk but also picked their moments to attack. Markam scored the first boundary in 10 overs when he slog-swept Nangeyalia Kharote and then drove him through the covers. Then it was back to singles until Stubbs pulled Fareed behind square. Markram’s aggression against spin came out when he hit Nabi for two sixes in an over. He brought up 50 off 54 balls and ended unbeaten on 69 off 67 balls. Stubbs reviewed successfully when he was given out lbw to Fareed on 18 and saw South Africa through to the end.

Rob Key confirms hopes that fast bowler will be in contention for T20 World Cup

Vithushan Ehantharajah05-Apr-2024Rob Key is hopeful Jofra Archer will be fit enough to play in England’s T20I series against Pakistan next month in a bid to prove his readiness for the T20 World Cup in June. England’s managing director of men’s cricket also stated that Archer will not be considered for Test cricket until 2025.Archer is currently back in Barbados, where he is due to play club cricket as he steps up his return to competitive action after 11 months out following a recurrence of a long-standing right elbow injury. The fast bowler, who turned 29 on Monday, was able to join Sussex’s pre-season build-up, including on a tour to Bangalore, with head coach Paul Farbrace declaring earlier this week that Archer was “bowling with exceptional pace”.Despite making just seven limited-overs appearances for England since March 2021, the ECB awarded Archer a two-year central contract in October. There is a strong belief he can emerge from a nightmarish few years, in which he also suffered a back stress fracture, as sharp as he was when he burst on to the international scene in 2019.Related

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• No IPL 2024 for Archer as ECB looks to manage his workload

• Archer blindsides ECB with surprise return for Barbados school team

• Stokes opts out of England's T20 World Cup defence

Archer’s 2023 was blighted by setbacks, both at the IPL while with Mumbai Indians and on England duty later in November during a week-long stint as a travelling reserve for the ODI World Cup. As a result, England have opted for a slower, more controlled management of his return to action.Key pulled Archer out of this year’s IPL to better supervise his rehabilitation, and there is optimism about his progress so far. The four-match series with Pakistan begins on May 22, giving Archer time to get back up to speed – although an ICC provisional squad deadline of May 1 means he may already have been named in the World Cup squad by then.”Absolutely,” Key told Sky Sports News when asked if Archer is a consideration for the World Cup squad. “Jofra, he’s been out on Sussex’s pre-season out in India. He bowled quickly out there, he bowled really well.”He’s now just gone back in the Caribbean, where he is going to play a little bit of club cricket, stuff like that – all about getting himself ready for that World T20. He’ll play hopefully the Pakistan series. But it’s always fingers crossed at the moment with Jofra.”Key also outlined a return to Test cricket in 2025, with high-profile series against India at home followed by an away Ashes later. Archer, who has 42 Test wickets at 31.04, earned the last of 13 caps in February 2021. Such is the rarity of someone who can deliver the ball consistently above 90mph, England are hopeful that, with a bit of patience, Archer can make a full return with the red ball.”What we’re going to do is take it slower than trying to go too quickly so that we get him back for not just a short period, we get him back for a long period. And the whole plan with Jofra is he’s going to play white-ball cricket for this summer and going into the winter.”Then hopefully next summer, when we play India, then into the Ashes, we get him back for Test cricket. It’s a slow process just to get him back for all forms.”

While his future opportunities after this tour remain uncertain, he hopes to use early success to get better

Andrew McGlashan07-Mar-2023Surreal. Daunting. As good as it gets. Those are just three ways Todd Murphy described his first experience of Test cricket amid the series in India, where he has been lauded for his maturity and ability to slot into the side despite limited experience.Murphy had played seven first-class matches when he was called in to debut at Nagpur where he claimed seven wickets. All told he has taken 11 wickets at 21.81 with a miserly economy of 2.61, the latter particularly coming to the fore in the second innings in Indore when his wicketless 14 overs went for just 18 runs. He was praised by Daniel Vettori for playing a role in ensuring another India collapse.Related

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• Rahul Dravid: Need to be realistic about batting in these challenging conditions

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Among that he has claimed Virat Kohli three times; the first owed a bit to luck when Kohli was caught down the leg side but the other two, especially the dismissal in Indore, came about through terrific skill.”It’s been awesome,” Murphy said of that battle. “When I look back to Nagpur when he walked out to bat, I was at the top of my mark thinking this is as good as it gets getting to bowl to a guy like that. So to be able to have that for the first three Tests has been awesome, a really enjoyable battle and no different to bowling to a lot of their guys. When they stand there it is daunting at times.”Murphy was modest about the set-up to Kohli in Indore. “It’s always nice when it looks like that,” he said. “And I think the plans for [coming from] around the wicket is always to challenge both sides of the edges, for that to work out the way it did was nice and to get him out again was awesome.””At the start of the season we both weren’t in the state sides and to be here now playing Test cricket together is pretty surreal”•Getty Images

Murphy has been part of a rare Australian spin trio in the last two Tests with Matthew Kuhnemann, with only a little more experience under his belt, also hastily drafted into the side for Delhi, then claiming his own maiden five-wicket haul in Indore to bundle out India for 109.”It’s something I’ve never really experienced, playing with two other frontline spinners,” Murphy said. “Steve [Smith] talked about it before the last Test, it’s about putting your ego away and knowing you’re going to bowl short spells at times. It doesn’t mean you’re not bowling well, it’s probably just accepting that and knowing that at certain times you’re going to be playing different roles. It’s been enjoyable and we’ve been able to work off each other very well and we’re quite different.”While Murphy’s relationship with Nathan Lyon was strong before the tour – the latter being a mentor during his young career – a strong bond has been formed with Kuhnemann after their similarly rapid elevation to the Test arena.”It’s been really cool,” he said. “We spoke about it after Kuhny debuted. At the start of the season we both weren’t in the state sides and to be here now playing Test cricket together is pretty surreal. It’s happened a lot faster than we both probably expected. We’ve just tried to enjoy it and the relationship is building nicely. We can talk about spin bowling, what works and what doesn’t.”Quite when Murphy’s next Test opportunity comes after Ahmedabad, providing Lyon remains fit, is uncertain. It is unlikely that conditions in England for the World Test Championship final and the Ashes will call for two spinners and it remains a rare route on home soil, although Ashton Agar did partner Lyon against South Africa at the SCG this season. Australia’s next subcontinent tour is not until early 2025 when they visit Sri Lanka for two Tests.Murphy is set for a spell in county cricket ahead of the Ashes and should be well-placed to be the second spinner in that squad.”I haven’t thought too far ahead but when you look, Gaz [Lyon] is still bowling as good as he ever has so when this series does come to an end it is going to slow down a little, it’s quite rare other places in the world to play two spinners,” he said. “To have this taste so early, it will drive me to get better and what it even more when hopefully it next does come.”

In an international career spanning 18 years, he officiated in 331 matches, the second-most for an umpire

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Aug-2022Rudi Koertzen, the former South African umpire who was part of the ICC’s elite panel, has died aged 73. He died in a car accident while driving from Cape Town to Despatch in Eastern Cape in South Africa, where he lived with his family.Koertzen’s son, Rudi Koertzen jr, confirmed the news. “He went on a golf tournament with some of his friends, and they were expected to come back on Monday, but it seems they decided to play another round of golf,” Koertzen Jr told Algoa FM News, a South African website.Koertzen was part of the ICC’s elite panel of umpires for eight years from 2002 and officiated in 331 international matches, a record at the time of his retirement in 2010, which has since been broken by Pakistan’s Aleem Dar. Along with Dar and West Indies’ Steve Bucknor, Koertzen was one of three umpires to stand in over 100 Tests.Related

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“It is a very big loss foremost for his family and then for South Africa and cricket,” Dar said of Koertzen’s death. “I stood in so many games with him. He was not only very good as an umpire but also an excellent colleague, always very cooperative on field and also always willing to help off the field. Because of the way he was, he was also well-respected by players.”Fellow South African umpire Marais Erasmus said: “Rudi was such a strong character, physically and mentally. He paved the way for South African umpires to get to the world stage. Made us all believe it’s possible. A true legend. As a young umpire, I learnt a lot from him.”At the age of 43, Koertzen’s first international series was India’s tour of South Africa in 1992-93; his first game was the second ODI in Gqeberha (then Port Elizabeth). He went on to become one of the best and most well-respected umpires in the world, and won praise in September 1999 for refusing a bribe to manipulate a match between West Indies and India in Singapore. The 2007 World Cup final, however, was a blip in his career: Koertzen was the third umpire in that match in Barbados, where the officials came in for criticism – and were penalised by the ICC – following a chaotic finish to the game.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

After retiring as an international umpire in 2010, Koertzen published a book, (with Chris Schoeman), in which he addressed the 2007 World Cup final. Koertzen went by the nickname “Slow Death” because of the amount of time he took to raise his finger while giving a batter out.The last representative game Koertzen stood in was in 2011, an IPL match between Royal Challenger Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings in Bengaluru.At the time of his death, he was still umpiring a few games in his hometown of Despatch and helping his local club, Despatch Cricket Club, with preparing pitches.”A legend in his own right passed away this morning and will definitely leave a great void in the cricket world,” Despatch Cricket Club said in tribute today. “We want to express our heartfelt sympathy and empathy to Uncle Rudi Koertzen’s family and loved ones.”Cricket South Africa chairperson Lawson Naidoo said: “Rudi departs at the time when cricket is beginning to enjoy the fruit of his toil. His passing has robbed us of a giant upon [whose] foundation we now stand.”While this is a sad day for cricket in South Africa, we are however comforted by the many lessons of servitude and servant leadership he has left behind for us to embody and emulate.”In his youth, Koertzen played top-division club cricket in Kimberley and was a medium pacer. Before becoming a professional umpire, as he told ESPNcricinfo in an interview in August 2010, he “worked for the railways as a carpenter in Port Elizabeth. Then I worked as a superintendent in the building trade, in the civil engineering section, supervising new buildings and renovations. I worked for them for 28 years and was a semi-professional umpire until … 1993.”

Knight Riders have Russell’s fitness to worry about, while Kings get a boost with Rabada’s availability

Deivarayan Muthu31-Mar-2022

Big picture

A new-look Punjab Kings side, dripping with power and depth, hunted down 206 against Royal Challengers Bangalore to kick off their season in grand style. They now run into Kolkata Knight Riders, who play with similar attacking intent and freedom.The result didn’t go in Knight Riders’ way on Wednesday, but they stayed true to their playbook, hitting more boundaries than Royal Challengers.

Live in the USA

If you’re in the USA, you can watch the match live in English and in Hindi on ESPN+

An intriguing subplot to look forward to on Friday is Andre Russell, if he’s fit enough, vs Odean Smith. Russell is still the gold standard of T20 cricket while Smith is the latest big-hitting allrounder from the Caribbean. Smith has modelled his game on Russell and he recently won the T10 league with his idol at Deccan Gladiators in Abu Dhabi. In the last IPL, Smith even worked with Russell as a net bowler at Knight Riders. IPL 2022, however, has pitted them against each other.

In the news

After Wednesday’s game, where Russell bowled only three overs, Knight Riders head coach Brendon McCullum said that the allrounder’s shoulder was sore after he dived near the boundary. If Russell doesn’t recover in time, Knight Riders could instead call up Mohammad Nabi or Chamika Karunaratne.South Africa quick Kagiso Rabada is out of quarantine and trained with the Kings after having participated in the ODI series at home against Bangladesh. Jonny Bairstow, however, is unavailable for Kings’ second game as he is yet to complete quarantine upon arrival from the Caribbean.

Likely XIs

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Venkatesh Iyer, 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Sam Billings, 6 Sheldon Jackson (wk), 7 Andre Russell/Chamika Karunaratne/Mohammad Nabi, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Varun ChakravarthyPunjab Kings: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Mayank Agarwal (capt), 3 Bhanuka Rajapaksa (wk), 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Raj Bawa, 6 M Shahrukh Khan, 7 Odean Smith, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Rahul Chahar

Strategy punt

Smith missed his lengths at the death on IPL debut, but there is a case for Kings to give him another go during this phase and hold him back for Russell. Smith has bowled 13 balls to Russell in T20 cricket, keeping him to a mere eight runs while getting him out twice in three innings.

Stats that matter

• Russell has the wood over Rabada in T20s, taking him for 79 runs off 39 balls at a strike rate of over 200 while being dismissed just once.
• Umesh Yadav has 49 wickets in the powerplay in the IPL at an economy rate of 7.60. Only Bhuvneshwar Kumar (51), Sandeep Sharma (52) and Zaheer Khan (52) have picked up more wickets than Umesh in the first six overs.
• Sunil Narine has a particularly strong record against Kings, having picked up 31 wickets in 21 games at an average of 18.22 and economy rate of seven.
• Harpreet Brar was expensive in Kings’ opening game, but he could still be a decent option against Knight Riders’ right-hander heavy batting line-up. The left-arm fingerspinner’s economy rate of 6.04 in IPL 2021 was the best among bowlers who had bowled more than ten overs last season.

He smashed 83 off 58 to guide Stars past Strikers’ modest 9 for 139 with five balls to spare in a see-saw battle

Tristan Lavalette10-Jan-2022Joe Clarke returned in style as a strengthened Melbourne Stars revived their grim BBL campaign with a tense five-wicket victory over Adelaide Strikers at the MCG.In a clash between the bottom-placed teams, the English import smashed 83 off 58 balls to guide Stars past Strikers’ modest 9 for 139 with five balls to spare in a see-saw battle.Stars have been decimated due to Covid-19 triggering their slide but received timely additions with the returns of Clarke, stand-in captain Adam Zampa and Beau Webster. In their first match since January 3, Stars were still without captain Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stonis and Nathan Coulter-Nile.Strikers had been mostly unaffected by the Covid-19 chaos engulfing the BBL but top-order batter Matt Renshaw missed the clash after returning a positive PCR test.Clarke leads Stars in tough chase Chasing a modest 140, the same score Sydney Thunder ran down with ease in the earlier match at the ground, Stars were pushed to the distance by a strong Strikers attack. They welcomed the return of Clarke, who was the only Stars batter comfortable on the sluggish pitch.He had been in imperious form with three straight belligerent half-centuries before being struck down with Covid-19 and didn’t miss a beat on return. Stars had been in big trouble at 3 for 43 in the eighth over but Clarke steadied the ship with in-form Hilton Cartwright, one of the few Stars players who hasn’t contracted Covid-19 and he earlier briefly wore a mask in the field.But Cartwright’s dismissal in the 12th over brought Stars to a halt and they needed 31 runs off the final three overs. But Clarke powered them towards victory and survived a contentious no-ball decision for height when he miscued Peter Siddle to mid-off in the penultimate over. He then hit a six to add salt in Strikers’ wounds before departing the next ball with Stars still needing seven runs off as many balls.But Qais Ahmad coolly hit a six off the first ball of the final over before a wide by spinner Matt Short ended a tense match in an anti-climax.Qais Ahmad and Adam Zampa celebrate after the fall of a wicket•Getty Images

Rashid stars but it’s not enough On a slow wicket conducive to grip and turn, Strikers fancied their chances armed with star spinners Rashid Khan and Fawad Ahmed expected to do the bulk of the heavy lifting. Quick Harry Conway though had an impact with the wicket of Clint Hinchliffe in the second over before the spinners worked in tandem after the four-over powerplay.Fawad claimed Nick Larkin first ball and then Rashid picked up Joe Burns to a loose shot as Strikers sensed a stranglehold. But Strikers have been selective with Rashid and he was out of the attack after a couple of overs.Siddle grabbed the crucial wicket of Cartwright and the skipper brought on Rashid to keep on the attack but the star spinner was thwarted. In his first game at the MCG, the Afghan star finished with 1 for 16 off 4 overs as Strikers had to look elsewhere with the game on the line.Short had the tough task of delivering the final over and was unable to be Strikers’ hero as the visitors ultimately rued a dropped catch by Henry Hunt when Clarke was on 42.Zampa shines in comebackZampa had a strong captaincy debut with two wickets as Stars’ trio of spinners relished the favourable conditions with five wickets. Pakistan import Qais was particularly menacing with his flight and sharp turn baffling the batters, including a gem to dismiss Ryan Gibson who was stumped.Left-arm spinner Hinchliffe complemented him with accurate bowling as Stars turned the screw on Strikers. Zampa returned in the penultimate over and snared the key wicket of Jonathan Wells to cap his stellar comeback.Wells holds Strikers together Strikers’ batting has been their bane all season and they were shorthanded without Renshaw at No.3. They lost three wickets cheaply before Wells and youngster Thomas Kelly stabilised the innings by playing cautiously.Kelly has looked the goods in his BBL season debut but once again failed to convert a start falling for 13. It was left to Wells to single-handedly drag Strikers to respectability with a 56-ball 68 where he worked the ball around before accelerating towards the end.The 33-year-old cemented his status as his team’s most reliable batter but needs more support if Strikers – who are now in the bottom place – are going to shake up the playoff race.

The grievance comes from the South African Institute for Race Relations, which seeks to remove quotas entirely

Firdose Moonda03-Sep-2020The ICC has been sent a complaint over alleged government interference in South African cricket, after Cricket South Africa confirmed it will adopt an affirmative-action policy in appointing consultants. The grievance was sent by the South African Institute for Race Relations (IRR), a 91-year old research and policy organisation, and includes six proposals for cricket in the country, among them removing racial quotas from the national team and CSA management entirely.The ICC has not yet received the letter from the IRR.While the IRR recognises that “that the legacy of apartheid casts a long shadow” over sport in South Africa, it has accused CSA of “years of mismanagement and political and governmental interference,” which it claims has caused South Africa to stray from the values of the ICC. The IRR’s letter lists those values as fairness and integrity, excellence, accountability, teamwork, respect for diversity and commitment to the global game and its great spirit.”Fairness has given way to ideological agendas, integrity to political opportunism and manipulation,” the letter reads. “Excellence has been compromised by placing sporting achievement second to political decision-making. A lack of accountability has meant allegations of malfeasance have remained unaddressed, while allowing these problems to escalate to a point where blatant racism is now CSA policy, putting paid to any ambition to respect diversity. Cumulatively, these failures have diminished the spirit of the game of cricket and tarnished the image of the sport.”The letter further asserts that CSA has transgressed against the ICC’s Anti-Discrimination Policy for International Cricket, and made reference to the ban slapped on South Africa during the Apartheid era for its racially discriminatory selection criteria. Under white minority rule, which ended in 1994, South Africa’s national teams only included white-classified players and only played against other white players. The most high-profile example of this was prime minister John Vorster’s opposition to Basil d’Oliveria (a coloured South African player who qualified for England) traveling to play in South Africa. The incident played a major part in South Africa’s isolation from international sport, which ran from 1970 to 1991. The IRR warned that a similar fate could meet South Africa now. “The increasingly worrying actions of CSA once again risk turning South Africa into a racial pariah,” the letter said.While the ICC’s constitution forbids government interference, how the interference is interpreted and members are sanctioned is not so straightforward. Zimbabwe were suspended most recently for government interference, for instance. But the presence of the head of state as the board patron has never been a problem in Pakistan, where currently Imran Khan, the former captain and now Prime Minister, has effectively had the domestic cricket structure overhauled. The BCCI, meanwhile, has admitted India will only play Pakistan if the Indian government grants them permission.Mark Boucher was appointed head coach of the men’s team in December 2019, and Enoch Nkwe, who was team director, and had a stellar coaching record, was moved to the position of assistant coach•AFP

In South Africa’s case, the racial composition of teams has always been dictated to, in part, by government policy. In the Apartheid era, the national team was all-white and William Milton, who was South Africa’s second Test captain and head of the prime minister’s office, blocked Krom Hendricks from playing. Post-readmission, a quota system was introduced in 1999, which required the national team to field four players of colour in an XI. Over the years, that system has been modified and now domestic teams must include a minimum of six players of colour including three black Africans every time they take the field while the national teams must field six players of colour with a minimum of two black African players on average over the course of a season.Despite CSA meeting those targets, it has come under fire in recent months from the sports minister Nathi Mthethwa who was unhappy with the number of white men in positions of power. In December, CSA suspended former CEO Thabang Moreo, who is black African, and appointed Jacques Faul, who is white, in acting capacity (Faul has since resigned and has been replaced by Kugandrie Govender, a woman of Indian heritage) and hired Graeme Smith as director of cricket. Smith appointed Mark Boucher as head coach of the men’s national team and Enoch Nkwe, a black African who had been the interim team director, as Boucher’s assistant. He also roped in Jacques Kallis and Paul Harris (both white) as temporary consultants for the season, while giving Charl Langeveldt and Justin Ontong (both coloured) permanent positions as bowling and fielding coach respectively.The presence of Boucher and Kallis was perceived as the reunification of the clique that the former opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs once said ran the national team and has prompted widespread criticism from former players of colour in light of the Black Lives Movement that has swept through South African cricket. Earlier this week, CSA resolved to apply a policy of preferring candidates of colour for consulting roles and while Govender said the new approach is not set in stone, the IRR has labelled CSA’s actions as “damaging to the core pursuit of the ICC.”The IRR has called for an end to racial quotas and called on the government to fund and secure sporting infrastructure in public schools, on the private sector and communities to assist in grassroots development, and asked that “the powers of politicians and government officials at national and provincial levels to interfere at sport at all levels must be drastically reduced, and have government focus on providing funding on bases of merit and sporting achievement.”CSA will continue to consult with the sports ministry as it seeks to reschedule its AGM, which was postponed from this Saturday.

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